

Park your bike. Stop worrying - viach
http://vengecycle.com/

======
smt88
This is not insane enough to be a funny joke, but it is too insane to be real.

So which is it? Joke or real?

~~~
dalke
Booby traps like that are also, unlike what the FAQ suggests, completely
illegal. Theft of a bicycle is insufficient grounds for injuring someone's
hands.

There are legitimate reasons for people to move a bicycle without
authorization from the owner, such as if it's blocking a fire hydrant during a
fire.

The dependency on GPS and active power is its Achilles heel. How often do you
need to charge the batteries? Can you store it in a covered bike parking area
with bad signal? What if someone covers the handle with a can and it loses
signal? Or glues the USB connector so it can't be recharged?

And of course, simply ride hands-free for the first 100 meters.

~~~
smt88
I'm really leaning toward it being a bitter joke.

It sucks getting your bike stolen, and some of my car-less friends have had it
happen multiple times. What's worse is that there isn't a great, cost-
effective way to prevent it.

I can definitely see this being someone's outlet for _wanting_ to blow the
hands off a bike thief.

~~~
dalke
Searching now, I see this was covered in detail a few weeks ago at
[http://www.reddit.com/r/bicycling/comments/2mtava/new_bike_l...](http://www.reddit.com/r/bicycling/comments/2mtava/new_bike_lock_is_designed_to_blow_the_hands_off/)
:

> VengeCycle is not a joke, it is a very real product designed to make our
> user's lives better and safer. We've been working hard on development of our
> consumer version for the past 2 years and are very proud of what we have
> accomplished. We believe our customers will be very satisfied with the
> product.

It's signed 'Peter Moore Director of Sales & Customer Service, VengeCycle',
who is also the contact for the domain's whois.

~~~
smt88
Yup, found a LinkedIn profile for him.

You're absolutely right that this is illegal in the US, and I'd imagine most
modern countries would have similar laws against it.

Since it has a battery-operated device, including a beeping alarm, you'd think
a better solution would be to just make a loud/obnoxious noise when the bike
leaves the 50m radius.

But now I really feel like I'm wasting my time pointing out flaws in an idea
from a Wiley Coyote/Roadrunner cartoon.

------
xkcd-sucks
I hope this is real, if only for the entertainment value of the shitshow it
would cause.

While it's obviously illegal in the US and most other civilized nations, maybe
there's a legal market for it in places like South Africa. The testimonials on
the website, while probably fake, are from people in Nicaragua and Poland.

No word about security, but I'm sure there's no possible way for it to
detonate against the owner's wishes.

I wonder how it manages to use GPS from within a metal tube... or how it
behaves when there's no signal.

------
diego001
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w39o6eSI06Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w39o6eSI06Y)

