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by shric 61 days ago
I have owned a AU$7,000 (US$5,000) ebike in Sydney, Australia for a few years and have parked it everywhere without worrying about it getting stolen.

It has a built in lock that blocks the front spokes, an alarm and I use a $200 chain lock around the frame to fix it to something.
2 comments
Gigachad 61 days ago
For me, just having a $7,000 bike parked on the street would be too stressful even if it didn't get stolen. I've had bikes stolen in Australia and there is basically nothing you can do about it. The thieves have hoodies, masks, and battery powered grinders that will cut any lock.

The only defense is storing your bike inside. And then you get karens on the owners corp whinging that you aren't allowed to take bikes inside. Who also don't give two shits when your bike gets stolen from the basement bike storage.

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jdietrich 60 days ago
>battery powered grinders that will cut any lock

Not any more. A new generation of locks have an abrasive-filled plastic layer that aggressively wears down angle grinder discs. They aren't completely immune to angle grinders, but the better locks will take 20 minutes and multiple cutting discs to defeat.

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/group-tests/wrecked-and-rated-...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5tuFesVtAA

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enizor2 60 days ago
Only if you use regular metal discs. Using diamond discs, you break through in less than a minute in those locks: [1]

Comparing with your CyclyngWeekly link:

- the Litelock X3 goes from 5min to cut only 50% of the shackle to 23s fully cut.

- the Abus Granit Super Extreme 2500 also could only be cut to 50% in 5min, while the diamond disc finished in 29s.

- the Hiplok D1000 couldn't be fully cut in 5min with 2 metal discs, it took 52s with a diamond one.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbdj3RRbLPQ.

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Turskarama 59 days ago
Which is fine, the average bike thief is not going to expect to need them.
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hahahacorn 61 days ago
I felt this way until I bought full coverage bike insurance.

For my $250 deductible I basically just get a nice upgrade to the latest version / a brand new ebike for ~$200 / year.

The peace of mind alone with insurance (and a really nice lock) have fully mitigated this for me. I've been leaving my ~$2k ebike locked up all over San Francisco for ~3 years without it being stolen. (My first beater bike was a POS locked up in my apartments secure bike storage and it was stolen after I owned it for ~9 days so I figured I couldn't double down on the bad luck).

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MattSayar 60 days ago
I taped an Airtag-equivalent to one of my bikes as well
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