What 10 Years In An Ebike Shop Taught Me About Bike Theft

Most of the stolen ebikes I see were locked up properly.

I have run a small ebike shop for over 10 years. The customers who walk back in after a theft are not careless people. They locked their bikes. They used the locks the shop sold them.

Most of those bikes were worth $3,000 to $7,000. Some were daily commute bikes. Some were the only car free transportation a family had.

Half of them tell me the bike was their main way to get to work. Some had paid for the bike on a payment plan and were still making payments after it was stolen.

The pattern is almost always the same. The bike is gone. The lock is on the ground in pieces. The owner is in shock.

What I had wrong for years

For years I thought the answer was a thicker lock. I was wrong about that. One lock is never enough to stop a real thief.

The real issue is not lock thickness. It is that a real bike thief only needs to beat one thing. One lock. One layer. One point of attack.

A cheap cable cuts in 1 second with hand pliers. A basic U lock falls to an angle grinder in under 30 seconds. Even strong locks fall when there is only one of them in the way.

The shift in what I tell customers

A few years ago, I started telling customers something different. Stop trying to find the one perfect lock. Layer the bike instead.

Two strong locks of different types. A second lock makes the thief restart with a new tool and burn more time. Most thieves walk away long before they finish the second one.

Then add a small alarm. The sound is what scares thieves the most. A loud siren on a quiet street ends most theft attempts in 5 seconds.

The problem was getting a customer to actually carry all three. Most people will not. Two heavy locks plus an alarm is too much to bring every day.

The first kit I had seen that did all three

That is when I saw a Facebook ad on a lock KIT called the TitanGuard Pro. It is the first time I have seen all three layers built into one set.

The kit ships with 2 locks and a smart theft alarm. Together they give what the company calls triple protection. Two locks (one is given for free during their sale). Then an alarm sound layer that goes off the second the bike is touched.

The locks are built from industrial alloy steel and titanium. Same materials used in heavy machinery. Both fold down small enough to mount on the bike frame.

The alarm is the part that surprised me most. It mounts under the seat. It senses any movement. If the bike is touched, it lets out a siren loud enough to clear a block.

What happened on my own bench

I tested the full kit on my own bench. Bolt cutters. Angle grinder. Pry bar. Literally the most surprising lock I have tested with how durable it was. The thief would need to beat all 3 layers, one after the other, without anyone hearing the alarm.

What I see now

I started suggesting the kit to customers buying ebikes over $3,000. The repeat theft calls slowed down. Not to zero. No setup is perfect. But way down.

One customer locks his ebike at the same downtown rack every day. Same spot. Same time of day. It has been there 8 months. He came in last week for a tune up. The bike is still his.