This article was taken from the April 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Franz Salzmann describes the trauma of having a bike stolen: "It's horrible. The police don't do anything about it," he says.
It's a misfortune he's suffered five times in the last eight years -- and one that inspired the development of a smart bike-lock, Lock8.
Lock8 sits between the rear wheel forks, with armoured cables that loop around the frame. You unlock the device through an app on your smartphone, which acts as an "e-key". It's packed with motion, vibration and temperature sensors to detect a broad spectrum of bike-thieving techniques: bolt cutters, saws, drills, angle grinders, hammers, blowtorches and compressed-air canisters (for freezing a lock) will all trigger a "painfully loud" 120dB alarm as well as a notification to the owner's phone.
If the alarm fails to deter the thief, a GPS chip in the device allows the owner to track their stolen bike. Beyond security, bike owners can share e-keys, allowing others to locate, unlock and borrow the bike. You can even allocate a hire fee. "It's like Airbnb for bikes," says Salzmann (pictured, sitting), who developed the lock in 2012 with his friend Daniel Zajarias-Fainsod (standing), a biomedical engineer he met at Oxford University. "Every bike is connected to the internet and bookable. You can set your price and the times when it's free, and you can earn back the money you invested in security."
Salzmann and Zajarias-Fainsod, who are based in London, turned to Kickstarter for pre-order sales and overshot their £50,000 target by £10,000. Salzmann says they are in talks with a couple of "huge, well-known US companies" interested in distributing Lock8.
For manufacturing, they've eschewed China in favour of Mexico. "We both speak Spanish and they have a free-trade agreement with the EU and the US. Plus shipping times are shorter than from China." The first units arrive in May and cost $179 (£108). Olivia Solon lock8.me
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
