Ebike security

U-Lock plus Folding Plate

How much did you pay for the folding "plated" lock? Was it from Abus, or Onguard?
 
That's an Abus Bordo. I bought it a a locksmith shop. $96 CND
It's about what I paid for the Master Pro Series padlock and meter of through hardened 10 mm chain.
The NYC U lock is a flat-key replacement from the retailer after five years of having used their house branded Bic lock.
 
Lets not forget what they often use to cut metals in a hurry. It's the tool you see them cutting some of the Britt's guns up with some years back. Just a simple cutoff wheel and these fine workhorse tools are available for the cordless Dremel tools these days. Only takes a couple of minutes to cut most any lock or chain hardened or not. I have cut several locks with them thus far. Cable cuts in a few seconds with a good cable cutter or sharp bolt cutters. Although the good cable stuff in earlier pics is as good as it gets it's still not much good. I use them anyway and keep my bike where I can see it near a busy door.
Locks are to keep honest people honest and stupid thieves at bay. They mean little to the professional.
 
biohazardman said:
Lets not forget what they often use to cut metals in a hurry. It's the tool you see them cutting some of the Britt's guns up with some years back. Just a simple cutoff wheel and these fine workhorse tools are available for the cordless Dremel tools these days. Only takes a couple of minutes to cut most any lock or chain hardened or not. I have cut several locks with them thus far. Cable cuts in a few seconds with a good cable cutter or sharp bolt cutters. Although the good cable stuff in earlier pics is as good as it gets it's still not much good. I use them anyway and keep my bike where I can see it near a busy door.
Locks are to keep honest people honest and stupid thieves at bay. They mean little to the professional.
A friend of mine has a cable lock with an alarm built into it so if they cut the cable it goes off! Not sure if it is motion sensored as well.
 
im interested in the bike guard alarm but it says there is no US distributors? does anyone know where to get one of these units?
 
I'm sure that there are other companies that manufacture something similar.

I remember there was a cable edition that would lock up your bike, and also had a large alarm on it, with warning signs.

Basically, if you kicked the alarm, it did nothing, but as soon as you tried to put a tool on it, or tried cutting it, or really trying to force open the lock, the alarm would go off.

That way, with regular pedestrian traffic near your bike, it won't accidentally trip the alarm.
 
Just get a cheap bike for going to the store and an expensive one for joy riding. Get a $400 kit from hightekbikes for your grocery errands then get a thick onguard chain or a cable since it's a cheap bike. That's what I would do. That's basically what I've done, I just haven't installed my other motor on my 2nd one yet. Find some cheap SLA's or use lithium polymer that you can take in the store with you. I'm using cheap SLA's so I just leave them on the bike. One time I forgot to loop the chain through the bike frame and someone could have just taken off with my bike.


Think about this. Most of those alarms $200. That's half the price of a cheap electric bike. Why pay for an alarm when you can get an entire electric bike for $400 (minus the battery). I considered an alarm for a while then I realized that my bike total only cost $600. It doesn't make sense risk/reward wise to pay $200 to protect a $600 bike.
 
I realize this, but for those who want to dish out the extra cash, it might be better.

$200 hurts less than having a bike stolen, even if it was cheap.

My bike is worth around $1200 (without batteries)

I will have around $400 of locks on it.

The batteries usually come with me, unless I am using the cheap NiMH batteries (cheap not because of cost, but because they suck)
 
I read a while back about a male stalker who wouldn't let go of his ex-girlfriend. Everywhere she would go, half the time he would just "happen" to be there. (what a coincidence).

She couldn't figure out how he was doing it, until one day, she saw a wire dangling from the rear of her car. Apparently he had bought a pay-as-you-go GPS-cellphone and attached it under her car. The charger was hard-wired into the tail-light wires, so every time she drove at night the phone would re-charge, and also he had disabled the ringer.

With an E-bike and its motor/battery being commonly worth over $1,000+ (and meth addicts willing to pawn it for $80) it might be nice for some electronics guru to post an easy-lojack tutorial for us all....
 
Yeah, that is true. There are some other devices out there for motorcycles.

I think one was called the "GPS Snitch" or something. If you are on a reconnaissance mission, I would advise to bring some friends.
 
I am just going to use multiple locks, and hope that there isn't a professional thief around. Usually, there aren't, as the professionals are rare.

Now, my attention goes towards keeping the controller more secure than attached on by zip ties, and more weatherproof, and rainproof than just being left out in the open.
 
An additional cellphone might cost $10.mo... it could be secured in a lockbox on the bike and powered by the pack. Locator feature is common on most carriers.

GPS pet/person/property locators are in the stores: http://www.zoombak.com/products/universal/
(They might not work indoors.)
 
I don't know about anyone else here. But when i built my bike i wasn't thinking about me locking it up somewhere or thinking about it being stolen. I was thinking about how awesome and fast and fun the thing is gonna be....then 2000 dollars later im at the mall and don't even have a lock for it. So telling people to buy a cheap bike so it doesn't get stolen doesn't really help. Also since this is a security post they probably already have a bike they're trying to Secure. Never mind the fact that i started my Ebike build on a $500 dollar mountain bike that ive owned for 5 years now and didn't convert to electric until recent. I also doubt all thieves know the value of every bike they see locked up on the side of a store, The bike could cost $23.00 and have a pretty red bell on it, and the jerk steals it just so he can give the bell to his kid. Bottom line imo is that you cannot predict ebike security let alone a thieves intentions/thoughts based on the value of the bike.
 
ya i def lock my bikes and they are inside charging. but a cheap ebike usually isnt cheap. But yes i get the idea of having a less expensive beater as im building my third ebike for my brother, about half done with it Atm. :)
 
i commuted every day for a year on my e-bike. it often stayed up locked up for 30 hours outside of the county trauma hospital. someone stole one of my $10 headlights when i forgot to remove it one day but other than that it was unmolested. how did i accomplish this?

1) controller wrapped up in duct tape. both uglified and waterproofed it!

2) pannier bags containing the (expensive) battery that came inside with me every day.

3) nothing flashy on the bike.

4) solid 1/2" kryptonite cable and a kryptonite evolution u-lock locking through both wheels to a permanently mounted bike rack. the cable locks with alarms and other such nonsense are still cable locks, which is to say that they're garbage.
 
"...The bike could cost $23.00 and have a pretty red bell on it, and the jerk steals it just so he can give the bell to his kid..." Never underestimate what someone will steal. I once passed a guy who was lamenting the broken window on his car at the beach. I asked what was missing, and all he could find missing was a $5 pair of sunglasses from the dash.

In Manhattan there are lots of biking enthusiasts who have a great bike for riding with their friends on the weekends. But most of them have a beater to get back and forth to work and to go barhopping (very flat in Manhattan). Buy it cheap and used, leave it ugly, and don't put anything on it that will make you sad if its stolen. Lots of bikes stolen there, then its broken down into parts to be sold on Craigslist.
 
Not much to offer for ebike security here, but I must say that on my trip to Japan a few years back I saw something that blew my mind. It wasn't some high tech gadget or beefy mechanical lock device. No GPS 'lo-jack' electronic wizardry.
People would ride their bikes to the train station, get off, park it in a spot, secure the lick stand, hang their helmet on the handlebar, THEN.....
walk away to catch their train. :shock:

At the train station there would 100's of 1000's of bikes in the designated parking area. No one loses a bike to theft as it sits there, unlocked all day long. Like from early morning till late at night when they get back from work.

That's just their society. No one goes around stealing bikes. I was stupefied.

Norman
 
According to a few acquaintances of mine that have gone there for sightseeing trips, student exchanges, and teaching positions, bikes may even be found in the trash piles, with little or no faults, yet no one hardly even takes those.

Sometimes a bike may be borrowed, but it will generally be returned quickly. Same thing with umbrellas, shoes, and other things left in public entryways to buildings.

There *are* bike thieves there, mind you, it's just that there are SO MANY bikes there's little reason to do so.
 
Just finish this few days ago...
I put RFID tag inside simple car remote door opening transmitter. Now I have remote On/off and when transmitter is more than 1,5m from bike; the power is off and all three motor fazes connects together so the wheel is virtually blocked. But the best feature is range of some 50m so you can lend someone the bike and shut it off when he leaves. :twisted:

[youtube]WhtQ7G-qPe4[/youtube]
 
HAL9000v2.0 said:
Just finish this few days ago...
I put RFID tag inside simple car remote door opening transmitter. Now I have remote On/off and when transmitter is more than 1,5m from bike; the power is off and all three motor fazes connects together so the wheel is virtually blocked. But the best feature is range of some 50m so you can lend someone the bike and shut it off when he leaves. :twisted:

:shock: Very nice. :D I want one. Got more details on the build.
 
I had this idea of buying (2) 10-to- 20 mile walk-ie talk-ies, one small memo recorder, hook up the memo recorder with a movement switch to start a message stating "step back from the bike" (or something), where the one on the bike ( w-t) is keyed (all the time while gone) on so it can be heard by the w-t that I would have with me.

You would also hear what is going on around the bike, all the time away.
 
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