What is the best way to protect your eBike from theft...

Bill Best

10 W
Joined
Mar 8, 2008
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71
I'm starting to build an eTrike for myself and an eBike for a friend.

Just wondering.. are their any special methods for protecting your bike from theft? Something like preventing the motor from running or creating excessive resistance unless you enter a code. How about a lock for the motor?

Has anyone ever had their batteries stolen off the bike? I am unable to bring my trike upstairs to my apartment so I'll have to lug the batteries off the trike every time I want to ride or charge them. I guess a thief wouldn't enjoy carrying (in my case) 46lbs of batteries around, but I'm curious if it happens.

I'm planning on installing a GPS tracking unit hidden on the trike, but I'd rather stop the thief before going to that extreme.

How are you guys protecting your eBikes?
 
There's some discussion here http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2673

A trike will give you some better options. A lockable trunk?
I think hiding / stealthing is a good option because nothing will stop a determined theif once they have spotted something they want. Then deterrents like chains or alarms or very securely mounted parts as a second line.
 
I built a movement alarm for mine.

There are simple movement alarms available off the shelf, but I wanted something that would connect to the battery/controller. Its set up so that the alarm is automatically set a few seconds after the master key is turned off, and is unset as soon as its turned on. If the bike is moved or touched it gives a short beep and then goes off permanently if its moved again.

Its still in the experimental stage, though. I could do with a louder sounder, and I need to try different sensitivities. The idea is that its automatically providing some protection every time you park, so you could just ride up and go into a shop for two minutes. You just have to remember to take the key out AFTER you unclip the pannier or fit the cable lock.

Nick
 
I am thinking about that problem also since I want to use ebike for grocery shopping etc. I think a combination of (i) car alarm with touch or proximity sensor driving buzzer and link to remote keychain receiver, (ii) motor lock (shorting windings with relays), and (iii) strong mechanical lock should work as long as you are in a generally safe area. It may seem excessive but considering amount of $$$ and time put in the high-end ebike I think it is not unreasonable. Certainly it is nearly impossible to fully protect ebike against theft and vandalism (unless you want to add some high voltage active protection :mrgreen:) but I hope it should work OK in most places I visit.
 
You could tie a pit bull to your bike when you park it. :twisted:

It's just a little tricky to carry around when riding:

brianmac34.JPG
 
hehehehe,

how about a switch that put all power to the bike frame - kerrrzap!!!!
that should deter????


cheers


D
 
deecanio said:
how about a switch that put all power to the bike frame - kerrrzap!!!!
Well, unless you want to face a furious thief in person the circuit should be designed for a guaranteed instant kill :mrgreen: . But I see some minor legal issues with that :mrgreen:
 
not to mention accidental shortage. You're straddling the bike and letting it zap your precious part will definitely net you a Darwin Award.
 
IMHO if someone wants your bike they are going to get it, especially if they start out to steal it and have the appropriate tools and knowledge. If however the bike is simply an opportunity that has presented itself you stand a chance.

Pretty is as pretty does and the prettier it is the more temptation it presents, the lighter it is the easier to carry and toss in a pickup truck and if it's not secured to something immovable then all the chains and cables in the world won't hardly stop someone who wants it. I do not pretend to have the answer but I have had a expensive bike stolen in a few years ago and have learned from my mistakes.

First there is no such thing as a secure area unless it's under your lock and key, i.e., your locked garage. Anything on the bike that's not nailed down is subject to theft. Quick release wheels, seats, lights, etc. No one part of town is safer than the other to leave it unattended. A bike thief is a thief of opportunity and is likely to be looking in high end areas where the high end bikes are.

We've got guys on the forum who take their bikes inside the stores where they're shopping and I've done that at Home Depot and securing it to something in the entry foyer. The security team at a shopping center on Hilton Head Island (SC) encouraged my wife and I to park our electric scooters by their entrance and secured behind a big electrical component out of sight of anyone. A quick trip to the grocery store where I live means I use two cables, remove the key and make it inconvenient for a thief by parking it near the entrance in plain view of everyone going into and out of the store. Plus my bike weighs at least one hundred pounds and is remarkably hard to lift. It's not pretty, I don't wash it much and do my best to keep an eye on it. Add to this that I bike in areas that are not economically deprived and still I've had one stolen!

It seems to me that the harder you make it to steal the less likely it will be stolen but you have to make it difficult for a thief and not easy. This often means it takes as much time to lock it and unlock it as it does to run the actual errand inside the store.
Good luck
 
How about something that belches huge amounts of smoke? I don't picture someone stealing something that looks like it might go from smoke to flame at any second. Hmmmmmm <brain melting>

I had a bike stolen that was secured with a 3/8" hardened chain. They cut that chain like an old shoe lace & it was gone. Recovered a day later.... totaled. If they want it, they're going to get it.
 
fechter said:
You could tie a pit bull to your bike when you park it. :twisted:

It's just a little tricky to carry around when riding:

If you had a big enough dog, you wouldn't need a motor 8).

Mush!! :p

My finished bike will weigh approx 70-80lbs, be shorted through both motors, have a one-of-a-kind magnetic lock, and have a small rack for two of the biggest U-locks I can find. Batteries/controllers/whatnot will be protected in the middle of the frame with steel sheeting. I'm working on a way to lock the pedals internally, but I might not even use them :wink:.

I guess you could still steal it, assuming you have an angle grinder, knowledge of how to disable the plug brake (which is inside the bike) and wanted to risk cutting into the batteries to get at everything.

USATracy over on the V has Mologogo phones in his scooters, and can use their GPS functions to track them. Very slick.

Linky: http://visforvoltage.org/forum/2363-xm2000-gps-tracking-has-been-enabled
 
Link said:
have a one-of-a-kind magnetic lock
I thought about that before. You guys ever thought about using reed switch to replace the on off switch to the controller? The switch will be tape to the inside of the controller though. You turn it on by slapping a chunk of magnet on the face of the controller. It will then trigger the reed switch. You'd have to build some recess holder to hold the magnet to keep it from falling off while riding. Another problem i see is the switch on the controller might be handling too large a voltage or current. So maybe a small solid state relay to control the amperage and control the relay with the reed switch. Pretty sure thieves don't walk around with chunk of magnet, nor will people easily notice how you turn on your bike. now i'm thinking an off shoot of this is somehow when you switch off the bike the motor is wired to a huge resistor inside controller and make it hard to pedal the bike at all.


On another note, last semester as part of my senior project i was attempting to interface an\ RFID controller with a small pic development board so i can use RFID as a card key. then use the output of the MCU to control a relay to turn on the controller. Unfortunately the semester end and i couldn't work out some of the bug as well as glitches. Grrrr. I didn't have luck but maybe this will trigger interest in someone. It's more bragging rights or hobby and probably have little use, but hey we're all here to tinker right? Keep those braincell going.
 
Frxdy said:
How about something that belches huge amounts of smoke? I don't picture someone stealing something that looks like it might go from smoke to flame at any second. Hmmmmmm <brain melting>
http://www.unitednuclear.com/smoke.htm

Another earlier thread "A bike stolen every 71 seconds - How do you keep yours safe?":
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=835

tks
LoCK
 
ngocthach1130 said:
Link said:
have a one-of-a-kind magnetic lock
I thought about that before. You guys ever thought about using reed switch to replace the on off switch to the controller? The switch will be tape to the inside of the controller though. You turn it on by slapping a chunk of magnet on the face of the controller. It will then trigger the reed switch. You'd have to build some recess holder to hold the magnet to keep it from falling off while riding. Another problem i see is the switch on the controller might be handling too large a voltage or current. So maybe a small solid state relay to control the amperage and control the relay with the reed switch. Pretty sure thieves don't walk around with chunk of magnet, nor will people easily notice how you turn on your bike. now i'm thinking an off shoot of this is somehow when you switch off the bike the motor is wired to a huge resistor inside controller and make it hard to pedal the bike at all.

That was actually what set off the idea. I thought about doing that and hiding the switch in an odd place. Eventually, I thought up a much more complex idea.

Basically, it's a bunch of hall sensors (I was thinking of using something like 16 sensors in a 4x4 grid). Using hall sensors that react to opposite poles (or perhaps identical sensors and simple logic gates) means that you can't just use one big magnet. Each sensor drives the gate of the one next in line. This means that only the correct sequence (and even physical pattern) of magnets will disengage the lock.

I drew up a simple example schematic showing just four levels (16 combinations), but I can't seem to find it. I'll make another if I'm not too lazy.

Using 16 sensors, there exists 65,536 possible combinations.

And of course, it can be scaled to arbitrarily high levels. I really don't think you'd need past like 32 sensors, since that's a possible 4,294,967,296 combinations. 64 results in a staggering 18,446,744,073,709,551,616. My calculator won't even do 128 without resorting to scientific notation, and even THAT'S assuming you know how they are laid out :shock:.

Lock said:
Frxdy said:
How about something that belches huge amounts of smoke? I don't picture someone stealing something that looks like it might go from smoke to flame at any second. Hmmmmmm <brain melting>
http://www.unitednuclear.com/smoke.htm

Another earlier thread "A bike stolen every 71 seconds - How do you keep yours safe?":
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=835

tks
LoCK

I've always wanted to make a really big one of those (filling a toilet paper tube). Couldn't get my hands on any potassium nitrate, though. Might have to continue my search now 8).
 
Next question.... where do we get fuse? Although following this line if smoke as theft deterrant, I'd think the electric igniters from model rockets would work quite well. Might be a fun thing to play around with!
 
I've had quite a bit of my motorcycles stolen over the years. Like mentioned above, if they really want it, they will get it. Even if you have it locked in your own garage, it can get stolen. I believe that the only way to really secure your bike is to be physically next to it. But, that being said, you just need to make it so inconvenient to steal that they will move on to the next easier target. Keep in mind that most thieves don't ride bikes away, they pick them up and throw them in another vehicle. So try as hard as possible to lock it down to something immovable. I know a reformed motorcycle thief, and it is amazing how quick he can pick almost any lock. Beyond that, some guys are using liquid nitrogen to freeze the lock and then just smash it with a hammer.

Link, what do you mean you couldn't get your hands on potassium nitrate? You can find that stuff everywhere. You can find it in a bunch of fertelizers, you can buy pure stuff off the web for about $5. Hell, you can even make some from your own piss.
 
I use several of the strategies mentioned here- multiple on/off switches w/wo keys and labels, take batteries, (hey i am shopping with a cart anyway, put the pack in the bottom of the cart), using stores that the employees know and recognize me and the ebike (i let them have test rides), keep bike less than attractive, etc. From bicyle touring, we used little hidden "brake blocks", which are tucked into the brake handles and lock the brakes by jamming the brakes on, and, leave the bike in its highest gear. nothing left visibly stealable on the bike that isnt chained down, take the seat with me. Announce myself and ebike when arriving, "Hey Mike good to see you- Yep I AM STILL RIDING THIS BIKE, Can I build you one, want another ride? Watch it while I am shopping here?"

I try to have a well known person in many areas I frequent, a place i can stash the ebike for extended visits or for charging.

Thieves have recently started frequenting upper end places more and more. I have caught two personally. One tried to steal M&M candy from my wifes bike, caught him (14 year old) red handed and emberassed him to no end infront of his friends and a bunch of store employees and customers. (Store manger said he was so happy that I did that, cause he couldnt, and the kid deserved it) . did not catch the guy who stole the charger out of my basket. (since then Everything is tied down and out of sight)

Hope this thread helps folks avoid the theft problem to some degree; More people are becoming aware that these ebikes are real valuable and useful, so got to foil the bad guys.

so if you travel with several anti theft tactics, then you can choose between them for the situation. But, I have skipped stops because it looked too risky. (six bored teenage boys, my stop a long way from the bike stand - and up an elevator, they were already talking about the bike and wanting a ride, and me thinking "is it worth this risk vs the cost of a stamp, to drop off this utility payment? ).

Note to self: support the city's efforts to install more low cost "bike lockers" at key areas.

Additional note: suggest video cameras be installed to monitor bike racks.
 
Whilst perusing another idea I found this: http://www.electriccyclery.com/catalog/heavy-duty-lock-alarm-cable-p-144.html and I think I'll order one.
Mike
 
You need KNO3 link? Check online aquarist page. We use KNO3 as dosing nutrients for planted tank. You can get a 2 pounds bag for about 6 dollars. Bigger bag and they might start looking into why you need that much potential explosive ingredients though.

I used another page before to buy my chem but i think the guy stop selling it. This site is link by a site i know. Get cracking on that Anarchist Cookbook.

http://www.cheap-chemicals.com/chemicals.asp
 
Jay64 said:
Link, what do you mean you couldn't get your hands on potassium nitrate? You can find that stuff everywhere. You can find it in a bunch of fertelizers, you can buy pure stuff off the web for about $5. Hell, you can even make some from your own piss.

It's because of WHEN I was looking for that stuff. Like, when I was 12. The parents were too paranoid to get anything off the 'net, and I didn't know about getting it from fertilizer.

I don't think I would have tried to make it out of piss even if I had known.

Plus, fireworks are illegal here except on Fourth of July, and even then, we're limited to crappy fireworks. Not that that would stop me 8).
 
I was thinking of using a battery bag with a key so they can't easily ride away under power.

http://ca.itselectric.ca/URLrewrite.asp?404;http://66.216.110.131:80/Crystalyte_Key_Switch_Bag_p/bag-crystal-key-switch-bag.htm&Redirected=Y

pa270011.png

pa180090.png
 
Frxdy said:
Next question.... where do we get fuse? Although following this line if smoke as theft deterrant, I'd think the electric igniters from model rockets would work quite well. Might be a fun thing to play around with!
I assumed that an under-rated fuse would suffice, but should check ignition temp for the mix :)
L
 
First of all, I think a "stealth" bike is the way to go as mentioned before. Hide everything in bags. Try to blend in. Personally, I'm very leary of my surroundings. I can "sense" trouble. I never park near "7 eleven" type mini mart stores. These are where the bmx/skateboarder thieves hangout. If I see these punk kids, I go somewhere else. I use a cable plus a cable u-lock. If they get through the first cable, they'll still have to cut the u-lock because thats wrapped around the frame and rear tire. Or they could just carry if off, but at 80 lbs of bike and sla's, I don't think they would get too far or hopefully pull a back muscle. Also I don't park in "crappy" areas where the dope dealers and gang bangers live. Sometimes when I park, before leaving the bike, I'll just stand there drinking some water for a bit; scanning the area for potential trouble like suspiscious people sitting in suspicious cars not doing anything. Definately never park at a mall. Big hangout for punk thieves.
 
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