
Ultra-Light Titanium Ribbon Bike Lock - thangalin
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1051734209/tigr-titanium-lock-as-cool-as-your-bike
======
enko
Sigh. The arms race with bike locks can never really be won.

If we really want to end bike theft, we need a legal approach. A serial number
engraved into frames and all major bike parts. An easy to use web site to
check provenance of parts by serial number. Hefty (10yrs+) jail time for
anyone possessing, selling, modifying or trying to cross a border with stolen
parts. Hell, cryptographically signed RFID tags required for all new bike
frames. Hefty penalties for even riding a non conforming frame. That would get
the message across real quick.

Basically, get serious about bike theft the way we are about car theft and the
crime will be practically eradicated.

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kovar
The way car theft has been eradicated?

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jcampbell1
Car theft has been largely eradicated. There are some European organized crime
groups that switch out the PCM on cars where this is possible, but the days of
teenagers hot-wiring cars has long since been over. If you were to call the
police and say your car has been stolen, they will tell you to call your bank
and find out why your car was repo'd.

~~~
e40
<http://www.rmiia.org/auto/auto_theft/statistics.asp>

Also, I remember seeing a 60 minutes (or some show) on south american cities
where a high percentage of the cars on the road were stolen from the US.

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buro9
But in London the thieves are using cordless angle grinders.

I'm an avid cyclist, but I wouldn't touch this lock.

Here's what I would use: <http://www.lfgss.com/thread17938.html>

And sure, this one is lighter, but stopping my bike being stolen is far more
important to me than how much it weighs.

~~~
Lewisham
End of the day, locking your bike outside is a losing battle. Whether it
matches up to an angle grinder or not is not really the point, it just
prevents opportunist theft.

The goal of locking your bike is to ensure bits don't go missing. However,
what you're really trying to do is _protect your investment_. Locks stop bits
going missing, but they don't protect the investment. My bicycle was locked
overnight at Bristol Temple Meads train station (which I wrongly assumed was a
secure-ish location). The thieves didn't manage to break the lock, so instead
they just vandalized the bike so that I couldn't use it either. I sort of wish
the lock had just given way, at least that way the bike might have provided
some value to someone, somewhere.

~~~
barkingcat
True - In Toronto downtown, locks don't do anything. Thieves come fully
outfitted in hex key sets and pedal wrenches - and they steal everything -
from rims to forks to pedals to front shocks, and chains (who steals chains???
- apparently the thief had a chain tool handy to break the chain).

Anything less than encasing the whole bike + lock + secure post in a steel
case (like a bike locker) won't ensure that your bike will stay in tact.

~~~
tlear
The answer is to have a shitty bike with a good lock, been using a $200 beater
for 4 years and it still got everything except the saddle got stolen once

~~~
there
why not get an ugly girlfriend, too? then you don't have to worry about her
cheating on you, right?

~~~
jcampbell1
Some people have no sense of humor. Thanks for the laugh.

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SeanLuke
It seems to me that this lock might be easily defeated with a forged steel C
clamp and a wide-angle wedge. Hammer in the wedge between the titanium bows
near the lock. Clamp the C clamp so it clamps together the wedge and the far
end of the lock. Then start turning the clamp until the bows snap. About $10
in parts from a hardware store.

I have a different strategy for locking my bike: it has no lock. Rather, it is
foldable and has a built-in "shower cap" cover. I fold it, cover it, and take
it inside. This strategy has worked for me even in Washington DC (where I
live) -- I once had to figure out how to get it into the NSF -- and in Rome,
where I lived for six months and commuted each day.

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rflrob
Anyone else bothered by the fact that there are no pictures of a bike actually
locked to something?

~~~
iramiller
It appears to be locked to the vertical black pole next to the middle of the
bike frame.

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dsl
An important aspect of lock design is not having anything you can easily grab
onto.

Get a 4 foot piece of 1" pipe and slip it over the lock end of that bow. One
hand close the the lock and the other pushing on the opposite end.

35 pounds (an accepted average human push/pull force) x 6 (mechanical
advantage of a 4 foot pipe) = 210 lbs of force. The website lists the
thickness of the titanium (which is what would matter here) as 40mm.

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morganpyne
I wonder if something like Graphene would have any applications for bicycle
locks? I would love a lock made from this Graphene paper, which is allegedly
10 times stronger than steel:

[http://inhabitat.com/new-graphene-super-paper-
is-10x-stronge...](http://inhabitat.com/new-graphene-super-paper-
is-10x-stronger-than-steel/)

New materials are giving us great opportunities to re-think old problems,
which is why I regularly enjoy browsing <http://www.inventables.com/>

~~~
zbanks
With bike locks, you're not looking for tensile strength, you need to resist
shearing & shock loads.

Carbon fiber, for example, may be considered to be almost as strong as steel,
but it breaks pretty easily when subjected to shear and shock forces, i.e. a
bolt cutter.

Quickly skimming the article, graphene is only twice as strong as steel in
this regard. Although this is still great, you have to be careful.

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mork
Interesting product, but the fellow really needs to work on his elevator
pitch. What can it do? Why is it better? What will make me want it and
remember it?

~~~
BoppreH

      The TiGr is our titanium lock system, it’s secure,
      versatile, elegant, light, easy to use and easy to
      store. A really secure bike lock that’s actually sexy.
    

I think that's a good enough elevator pitch.

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Raphael
Cut the bike and steal the lock!

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Brashman
I feel like it's pretty rare that I'll find something as convenient as a pole
to lock my bike to and other than that, I don't see how this can be used.

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Kilimanjaro
Too big for my taste. Something like titanium white mini-handcuffs would pick
my attention. And cheaper to produce.

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ck2
There are portable cutters available now that can go through all of these in
seconds. They are meant for rescue/construction workers to cut the bars in
reinforced concrete beams (rebar).

So none of these locks stand a chance if it's a pro-thief, you are only
stopping the amateurs.

~~~
tomjen3
Well yeah, that's a problem but really there is nothing to stop professional
thieves - at the tail end they can just point a gun to your head and have you
hand over the key.

I am not really concerned with professionals though because it is a simple
matter of sending them to prison for a long enough time - say 30 years - so
that the cost outweighs the benefit. That is something the politicians should
look into, as they all want to be hard on crime.

The danger is those who steal a bike because they need to get home because
they are drunk or those who just deface them. Tougher sentences will not
prevent them, because they don't consider all the ramifications in the first
place.

Maybe rigging the bike to give an electric jolt if they take it? Not enough to
be damaging, but enough to make them stay away?

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Tichy
You have to chain your bike to something immobile, though.

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rkon
He doesn't even mention the most important part in the video:

"Testing in our workshop demonstrates that the 1.25” titanium bow survives a
48” bolt cutter attack and that sawing is extremely difficult and time
consuming due to the ‘springy’ nature of the titanium bow at a third the
weight of a common U-lock."

~~~
jcampbell1
I bet I can cut through that thing with a sawzall in about 5 seconds or less.
Titanium, unlike steel, can't be case hardened, and it cuts like butter. Case
hardened steel is hard to cut because the outside is as hard as the saw blade.

They know that lock doesn't stand up to a sawzall, so they aren't marketing it
based on the security, because it will quicky be proven insecure.

