How do you deal with theft of ebike parts?

[nukezero]

I was wondering how do you guys deal with theft with your ebike?

Just this weekend, my girlfriend and I had our Cree XML T6 headlights stolen while parked/locked at the San Diego Westfield Horton Plaza. The light was secured by those rubber band type things and yeah, it was pretty simple to remove. It was only a $25 light on eBay but honestly, I am concerned if they stole my eBike parts.

For example, I will be having a CycleAnalyst V3 controller mounted on the handle bar. I assume that this cycle analyst is not going to be removable at all. Therefore, how do you guys deal with theft of this?

What about the controller? Has anyone had their controller stolen or attempted to be stolen? (cut wires etc.?)

One thing is for sure, I will definitely remove my expensive-as-heck battery pack when I leave or park the bike even for 2 minutes un-attended.

 

[footloose]

I pretty much park bike in just a couple of reasonable suburban locations, in open sight (so any mischief is visible to many), then run a cable through a fixed point (like bench or around lamp post) / bike frame / rear wheel / saddle / battery pack (through the handle of a Pelican case, which contains battery).

So far, so good.

If I'm going away from bike for extended period (like into a class), or parking it in a more urban location, I do pull the battery and take it with me.
My sense is that most people who would steal it would have zero idea that it was a valuable battery pack... they would just see the Pelican case and think "hey, I want that".
Thieves in general I think are characterized by: 1) low impulse control, 2) not much imagination, and 3) zero empathy.

I've been lucky over the years. Once had my favorite Raleigh 3-speed stolen (it was cabled up in a dark alley beside a store while I was at work). I was heartbroken when I found it gone. Then I walked around into the lighted area in front of store, and found it leaning under a light! Best guess... when bike thief saw it in the street light, he decided it wasn't a fence-able bike and just ditched it. Come to think of it, it did look pretty ratty... but what a great ride

 

[teklektik]

Justin is now selling a security bolt to mount the V3.

Someplace on the forum, someone suggested replacing things like quick release seat post adjusts, etc with standard SS cap head socket bolts and popping a greased ball bearing into the hex head. When you need to adjust, suck it out with a magnet. Variations on the theme should work for other goodies. I never tried it, but it sounds like a pretty clever alternative to metric security bolts.

In the end, a spiffy headlight is a nice 'wide appeal' gizmo, but controllers and a CA are a little more arcane and probably only slightly interesting to the much smaller ebike audience. I think if you have your battery in hand, you have 95% of the problem solved....

 

[23skidoo]

The cycle analyst was necessary to learn, but when my first bike was stolen then I didn't replace it. I get feedback each time I charge about power consumed.

The headlight is Velcro and bungee attached to the handlebars. The taillight is a self contained flasher on my backpack.

The battery is in a backpack and doesn't stay with the bike.

The kryptonite New York series lock is on the bike, at times two.

The bike is a cheap folder so it doesn't get left on the street as much and won't break my heart as badly if it is lost.

This is a major challenge to ebiking. Once burned...

The bike folds with the controller on the inside. One u lock gets both wheels and a post.

 

[USAEBIKECO]

There is an EASY way to prevent theft. Take off the labels!

The best way to prevent theft is to make it blend in with other regular bikes. Bikes get dirty on their own, and if they don't have any labels thieves don't know what they are and are confused. I park in downtown Chicago all the time and lock up my bike with a kryptonite U lock and have never had any theft or vandalism problems. Downtown Chicago has tons of bike thefts normally, and I have seen plenty of people stop and take a look at my bike but they don't know what it is and have a puzzled look and move on.

If someone were to steal my bike they would have to have some serious engineering skills to try figure out our wiring schematics. Your casual thug bike thief does not have this.

 

[nukezero]

Both my wheels and seat post are quick release levers. Simplicity of Electra Townie's.

I'm now considering getting security torx for the rear rack mount as that is where the controller will sit underneath.

Since having my Cree T6 LED headlight stolen this week, i"m worried the flashy Cycle Analyst V3 will get stolen too in the same manner. A security torx bolt sounds like a great idea.

I don't usually park my bike for too long (go to class) , but 15 minutes is enough time for the thief to pry most little stuff off. head lights, flashing reflectors, bells, and what not.

I'll have to look into the security torx.

My main worry besides the battery is both the controller and the CAV3. Since the controller is underneath the rack, if I spray paint it black, it should be less inconspicuous. I'll have black wire loom that runs across the frame but my bike is all black color anyway. The 90s style looking CAV3 does make it look cheap and what not, compared to Bionx and E-bikekit's LCD's... so hopefully that will deter a little. Maybe they'll think it's some crappy bike distance timer/calculator.

I hate bike thieves!

Thanks

 

[davec]

i dont understand petty theft like that- must be some desperate thief
last year i had my cargo bike - 75dollar worth norco with a freeradical kit attached stolen out of a parking garage.... funny thing was it was chained i removed wheels and other components yet the whole thing was stolen with no wheels....this theft was out of a business parking lot....theft was so bad that they actually setup a modern storage facility that looks like a data center... 6 cameras- and you have to swipe in/out there's also power i can plug into so im happy.... i was going to embedd a tracking device into my frame but with this new facility theres no need

 

[biohazardman]

Things that come off easy front and rear lights, speedometer, go with me if I can't see the bike from where I am. Controller, seatpost rack and seatpost have Allen screws and the bag, with my battery, that usually slides off the rack is secured so it won't. Heavy hardened chain and lock for the bike which is parked near the front door of the business I visit. A bit of werq for 5-10 minute shopping but at least things are likely to be there when I get back. If I go somewhere that I do not think is safe for my bike, I seldom do, I drive. It's all a guessing game you can only make things somewhat secure to keep honest people honest and petty thieves at bay. Professional thieves will take what they want when they want it the best you can do is make it harder for them so they will go elsewhere for the easy pickings.
As far as security screws go I have in the past used more than one type on each item as most have more than one screw to secure them. Nylocks/aircraft nuts on the backs of things you can put them on means even more tools and time. Then again they tore my whole console up in my car but did not get the stereo. Cost near as much to replace the broken interior parts and much more labor as the stereo I saved

 

[bionicdan]

I have an alarm from my old smashed up motorbike installed into my frame bag. Its a data tool sytem 3 alarm and immobiliser that beeps if you touch it and sounds if you touch it again. If your controller has a wheel lock up mode for a dd hub it can also activate that so no one can ride away or even push it. They sell motion bicycle alarms too but some are overly sensitive and get set off by the wind so they need researching. I have yet to have had any theft attempts that I know of but I never park up for longer than 30 mins.

I often see people eyeing up my monster dh frame (cos it looks cool or that they have twigged its electric and have fleeting thoughts of messing with the throttle) but then hear me set the alarm and walk away. My batteries would take me an hour to remove them as they are strapped to the frame so they should be fine too lol. I also made my own 150w 40v 10.000 lumen led headlight to be in keeping with my bike and not easily sold on like cree t6 products and those awful rubber banded mounts. Quirky Diy items that have people scratching their heads seems to have kept me safe so far.

I like the greased bearing idea to block allen keys but it might make the bolt prone to slipping/chewing. Perhaps a touch of silicone would be good with or without the bearing to pick out when needed.

 

[electr0n]

I take possible theft into consideration when I'm putting my ebikes together. I use my bike for everything so I park it outside stores often. I try to conceal the controller in a nylon or plastic bag most of the time so it's not obvious what it is. The battery is also concealed in a nylon bag and easily removable. My bike is on the ugly side and I think that helps. Nobody has messed with my bike yet after 3 years of daily use, shopping going to work etc.

I seldom leave the bike locked up for more than a half hour, unless I'm visiting someone. If I'm at the mall I'll check up on it every now and then and I don't do that too often. Security largely depends on the area and the time of day too.

 

[cal3thousand]

Here's how I look at it: Thiefs are opportunists just like fish. Except the game here is to NOT get your bait taken.

There are several ways to approach this, but thinking like a fish (thief) will help you determine what steps you need to protect your item.

• Make the bait less appealing. Shiny bait catches a fish's eye easier than a dull and ugly lure.
• Make it too large to take in it's mouth. Motorcycles do this since they are heavy and most bike thiefs are on foot, so make sure your small and easily lifted items are taken with you if are going to leave your bait in heavily trafficked waters for extended periods.
• Keep your bait away from "holes". Some fishing holes are better than others, keep that in mind when parking.
• Make it tougher or seem tougher to get. Thiefs will take a quick glance at a bike and assess the value versus the effort required. If they either don't know the value (Cycle Analyst) or it is hard to remove (hardwired and tool fastened lights), they will move on to the next opportunity.

I use a MasterLock that looks like some handcuffs made for Shaquille O'Neal. I feel it has the effect of being tougher to defeat as well as looking the part.

 

[d8veh]

You can make custom brackets that are difficult to remove. I mount my Cree t^ XML light under the stem. You just need to make a flat plate with a hole for the steerer, and screw the light to it. I did similar for my CA:

 

[Matthew]

How would you protect a battery pack like http://em3ev.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=123 ?
I've been looking at this and I really like it, it's just that its quite expensive and not very sucure. Ideally I would take it off, but it seems too big to carry around with me.

On an unrelated note, what do you guys think of this battery, any good?

 

[cal3thousand]

How would you protect a battery pack like http://em3ev.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=123 ?
I've been looking at this and I really like it, it's just that its quite expensive and not very sucure. Ideally I would take it off, but it seems too bug to carry around with me.

On an unrelated note, what do you guys think of this battery, any good?

That's a sweet pack.

For that, I would build my own box and secure it to the frame. You could also order a box from EVworkslab.com and get cell_man (EM3ev) to configure the pack to fit.

If I were to buy the soft pouch, I would not leave that battery out of my sight. If I had to leave it, battery is coming with, in a backpack or something.

 

[bowlofsalad]

I've considered doing things like putting a note on a bike saying, "I see you." or something, just to mess with their head.

Psycologically or emotionally, I don't know how I'd deal with things being stolen. I'd say he was smarter than I and accept my shameful defeat.

If you want to know how to avoid things being stolen, it seems that most of this has been pretty well covered. But I could say it mildly different than others. A lot of people want to do things easy and cheap. When you own something that countless others do, the likelyhood of it being stolen is wildly higher than something more exotic, this isn't universally true, but a very unique bicycle is going to be harder to sell to someone than the wal-mart cheapie that 5000 other people in your area have rotting in their garage. So avoid things that are cheap and easy if you don't want them to be stolen. This means effort and being unique, it's all pros and cons. Find more secure ways to mounting things to your bike, take stuff with you that can get easily removed from the bike, anything you don't want to carry should be immensely hard to remove, that has been my approach and I've not hard much trouble. Most ebikes weigh a lot (more than a non ebike at least), I'd be pretty impressed if someone could even ride my ebike. I dropped my ebike yesterday for the first time, thankfully (so far) it seems like nothing is broken, but it was hard just to get it back up. I imagine if someone did manage to get through your locks, it'd be hard for them to just walk or ride off with it, but I suppose that would vary from bike to bike.

 

[Popstar]

How would you protect a battery pack like http://em3ev.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=123 ?
I've been looking at this and I really like it, it's just that its quite expensive and not very sucure. Ideally I would take it off, but it seems too big to carry around with me.

On an unrelated note, what do you guys think of this battery, any good?

I have that battery, and I had to make it as secure as I could as it is used for grocery shopping. I wanted to build a secure in-frame box for it, but since that would've delayed me being able to use the bike I opted instead to make a Sheath that provides a locking loop for the triangle pack. It is detailed in the build thread:
Popstar's MAC Fisher

I have padlocks locking the battery, the brooks saddle, and the Ortlieb panniers. To lock the bike I use the huge New York chain link than weighs as much as the triangle battery. All of that makes the bike look secure, but I know most of the components could easily be stolen by a skilled thief in the time I am in the grocery store. The really depressing side effect of it looking secure, is that it would cause the casual jerk who would steal an unsecured bike light instead opt to just vandalize it. I recently found after coming out of a Winco I was in for 20min, that someone had put used chewing gum on my Cycle Analyst screen and on the brooks saddle . Such pointless harm makes you wanna go Dr. Strangelove on humanity.

On an unrelated note, what do you guys think of this battery, any good?

It is a great battery that is a total game changer for E-bike enjoyment and usability due to weight distribution and long range. I keep scheming how to build a similar 18650 triangle pack myself, but as of yet I haven't found a way to get 126 cells, get them connected, and with BMS without costing the same or more than em3ev's battery, which I know has more quality or skill than my first attempt would have.

 

[nukezero]

Is the Kryptonite New York chain stronger than their New York U-locks? I read Amazon reviews and people were impressed with their chains. The chain is atleast 15-20lbs they said. But I'm wondering if standard or elongated bolt cutters can still defeat them?