Asking for Feedback on my Bike Lock Invention

[bickeylikey]

Hey guys, my name's Liang I'm a college student and cyclist at USC. I've had three bikes stolen while at USC and it really pissed me off so now I'm doing something about it.

I've created a lock that specifically secures the wheels of a bike. It works by replacing the hex nuts or quick release skewers holding a bike in place. It's designed so none of the common theft tools (i.e. wrenches, vice grips, bolt cutters, flamethrowers, that laser gun from Goldeneye, etc.) can get through it or get any leverage on it.

The nut can only be tightened / loosened with the specific wrench that comes in each package. There are multiple variations of these nut:wrench combinations.

I'd love to get some feedback from you guys on the product, whether or not you'd use it, and any advice you have (from business/marketing ideas to product improvements).

Cheers,
-Liang

[John Nelson]

There are already locking bike skewers on the market, in a dozen different brands, and are available from common retailers like Amazon. Are you talking about something different? What's your angle?

[bickeylikey]

Mine are different because it has a lot of variations, that creates difficulty for the bike stealers.

[John Nelson]

I guess I don't understand without a picture.

[bickeylikey]

There are already locking bike skewers on the market, in a dozen different brands, and are available from common retailers like Amazon. Are you talking about something different? What's your angle?

I guess the main differences with what I’m going for vs. existing skewer locks / wheel locks are:

1) More security –we went to home depot and bought pretty much every theft tool, nothing was able to get any leverage in opening the nut. Compared to competitors (i.e. Pinhead) which have vulnerabilities to certain tools:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90J9_BIEInI
There’s also a bunch of variations so a thief would need to carry around a lot of keys to steal just a wheel

2) Lower price point than some other skewer locks (i.e. Pitlock is $70+ for just one skewer). This would be $45 for front and back skewers. For a set of skewers that have variations, I haven’t really found anything lower than this.

3) We designed the engineering of the cutouts to deter theft while still looking pretty awesome in my opinion… Cus who doesn’t like a sexy bike

4) Just to be clear, you put these on once and never touch them again. They essentially replace the need for a second lock used to secure your front tire. You absolutely still need a U-Lock to prevent the frame from being stolen.

[bickeylikey]

Hey guys, here's some more pics if you have any feedback:

http://imgur.com/BYruRbO
http://imgur.com/IDYoaqY
http://imgur.com/Xy2oUk0

The biggest value proposition is that Nutlock replaces the need for carrying multiple locks in order to secure the entire bike. With Nutlock installed one time, you just need to carry around a U-Lock and your bike is secured.

We're still pretty early on so we have room to incorporate feedback from you guys - our ears are always open. Thanks guys

Note: this is by far the most important functionality of the system: http://imgur.com/mMZuxTE

[John Nelson]

If I was going to buy a locking bike skewer, which I definitely would if I often left my bike in Times Square, I'd buy yours. It's very nice looking.

If I were to leave my bike some place where I worried that somebody would steal my wheels, I'd also worry that somebody would steal my derailleurs, my saddle and my brakes. So I don't leave my bike in such places.

[BikeFreak]

Personally I am interested in bike locks myself and have tried developing something new on my own. The task is extremely difficult because:

1 Most people have no clue how physically aggressive a bike thief might be when steeling a bike. A professional bike thief will have the proper tools at hand and they know how to apply them. Most locks are good to let the occasional drunk take the next bike and not yours. Try to see this shocking video to get inspired: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC3hFr8p2ck
2 The bike is thrown into a van and in a stress free environment such as a workshop far a way, with the proper tools, the lock is opened.

From your pictures, with the correct adjustment (very tight fit) a Vise Grip locking jaw plier will physically deform the surface of your nut (unless it is solid tungsten carbide or hardened steel) in such a way that the jaw pliers theeth plastically deform their teeth into your nut making a rock solid interlocking with your nut (this works because the teeth are very sharp and made out of hardened steel). In the 10" version you will have enough leverage to open the nut. These pliers work on 12.7 steel nuts and stainless steel 304 and 316. Such a locking plier is one of your last options when loosening a completly rounded bolt or nut before cutting everything off with an angle grinder.

http://www.mytoolstore.com/american/w10wr.jpg

The 10 inch tool is an American made heavy duty piece of quality and not a small cheepish, Chinese copy.

Looking at your pictures I guess I could unwind such a nut within 10 seconds - unless there is something magic to your nuts which I cannot see from the pictures. If you have such a really big locking plier with unworn teeths, try to get at your nut and DON'T be easy on it. You need to be crazy brutal and aggressive - beacuse the bike thief will be.

PS: Did you know that thiefs carry lithium ion operated disc grinders in their backpacks? Such a disc grinder is a very very powerful powertool - it makes noise, but it will go through ANYTHING - even hardened steel. If a thief wants your front wheel he will simply cut off your fork ends with a disc grinder - it will be 5 seconds for each cut (2 cuts in total): He will walk away with your front wheel with the cut fork ends attached to your axle. At home in his workshop he will remove the rest.

You also assume that bike thiefs cannot carry all kinds of tools. Don't assume that. I assume they carry ALL tools.

I don't want to discourage you and be an ass, but this is my honest opinion.

To further inspire you: http://lock8.me/ which I believe has plenty of flaws.

[bickeylikey]

@BikeFreak - thanks for the long response. We tested Vise Grips on our first iteration of Nutlock - and after a minute of use, it DID have enough grip to open it! However, this was because our curvature angle was pretty low. We got an updated prototype where the base of the nut was much more curved. We then re-tested the Vise Grip and it was practically impossible to get any grip. We got incredibly aggressive with it like you said.

Believe me, our team's best interest is to compromise the nut - so we can fix issues with it early on as opposed to facing someone opening it in the future, which would suck. We'll be posting a testing video in the machine shop of a bike store in the next 2 weeks and will absolutely post an update with it in the mean time.

It seems like you have a lot of good feedback for us, and working with people like you can really shape us creating the highest security wheel theft deterrent (and I say deterrent because a thief will always be able to steal anything... Let's just deter as much as possible). We're much more active on FB / Twitter and would really like to speak personally with you on this moving forward, if you're interested that is.

Shoot us a message on FB / twitter porfavor:

https://www.facebook.com/lockyournuts
https://www.twitter.com/lockyournuts