How To Lock Your Electric Bike Properly
If you were a potential thief, how would you choose your next one among bicycles, e-bikes, cars and trucks? You will definitely choose the easiest. Most bicycles and e-bikes are light and not equipped with anti-theft devices and GPS. So they can take it away without breaking the lock. It happens more often than you might think. Learning how to properly lock an e-bike is an essential defense against bike thieves.
So, here are some principles of locking your e-bike that you should keep in mind first.
Keep Your Bike Locked in a CCTV-Monitored Area
Once you decide to put your e-bike somewhere, you should remember the old adage that danger is everywhere. This means you can't protect your e-bike 100%, but you can reduce the chances and confuse thieves very much. Not everyone has CCTV-monitored bike storage, and if you're one of the lucky few, it's worth locking your bike somewhere you can.
High-traffic areas such as uptown New York City are filled with pedestrians, vehicles, and fancy shops. To protect them, CCTV is needed and your e-bike will also be monitored every second and every corner. Even if it's stolen, it's more likely to get it back.
On the other hand, your e-bike here will never be an obvious target compared to the countless people, cars, and other e-bikes. If the thief ever tried to be suspicious, he would be the brightest star.
Buy a Quality Electric Bike Lock
How much does a good bike lock cost? Not all high-quality locks are very expensive. The best bike locks don't usually come cheap, but they'll give your bike a higher level of security.
While there is no lock to ensure your bike stays where you left it, it still takes a thief's time to break the lock. Usually, D-lock and U-lock are used on regular bicycles and electric bicycles. However, as mentioned earlier, more technology was introduced into the lock industry, and more defensive locks designed for expensive e-bikes appeared.
As a rule of thumb, U locks, chain locks, link locks and folding locks are recommended.
Lock Your E-bike to an Immovable Object
With the best bike locks in the world, if you lock your bike to something unreliable, you risk making it vulnerable to theft. In other words, your bike's safety depends on what it's locked on. Locking your e-bike to an immovable object, such as a tree, a fire hydrant, or a railing in a public place, works. Nothing is completely safe, but the more you let thieves get in the way, the less you have to lose.
Lock the Rear Wheel and Frame
The next most expensive component, usually the wheels, you can fix once the frame is fixed. No matter where you lock your bike, you must always lock the parts of the bike in order of value.
When locking, remember the rule of triangles. Make sure your lock actually goes through the triangle of the frame and not the seat post so it can slide off easily. You might laugh, but it happens.
You should also consider other parts of the bike that are not secured by the lock. Getting home on an e-bike without wheels and motors is impossible and awkward. For those e-bikes with hub motors, the rear wheel is the key to running the bike. If your wheels are not difficult to remove, try putting the lock through the rear wheel as well.
Remember, your e-bike is potential money for thieves and you should never despise them. These principles and advice are useful, but they won't always help you protect your e-bike. If your bike is expensive, or you want more peace of mind, get a bike insurance policy to further protect your investment.