Whatever. Everyone I know locks both wheels as a matter of course, so i don't need these products. Further, anyone who rides regularly, particularly in an urban setting, probably has to change a tube now and then, and with this system I would need to carry a pedal wrench.
Also, the system depends completely upon the thief not being able to flip the bike. If the thief can destroy the rear wheel (cut the spokes with the same really big set of cutters he would use to cut the cable on my front wheel) he can flip the bike, remove the rear wheel, and steal the whole bike less the ruined rear wheel.
Or he can cut or break the U-lock and steal the bike and change the skewers at his leisure.
I can see the appeal---carry just a U-lock, and never heed to remove the front wheel, line it up with the back wheel, and lock both to the frame and rack. For people now using that system, great. For people using a separate cable, no need to carry the separate cable. For people who always lock their bikes to a rack where a U-lock is all that is needed, this could be a convenience.
Originally Posted by
Hypno Toad
My daughter lives car-free in the Minneapolis and has had wheels stolen (sucks). This looks like a clean easy way to secure her wheels.
If I am to understand correctly that Both her wheels were stolen, then she didn't lock her bike properly. If she had used a U-lock through rear wheel and frame, only the front wheel would have been available. if she used a cable to lock the bike to something and didn't run it through the wheels ... Hey, it Always sucks to get robbed. I sympathize.
I have to think that a thief would steal wheels only if that was the easiest thing to steal ... if the bike was locked and the wheels weren't. Maybe this would have helped ... but ...
U-Locks work in a very limited range of locations. cables or chains workl in a lot m,ore situations but are bulky and heavy and except for the biggest/most cumbersome, are still defeatable easily. For serious thieves, Any security system can be beaten, and most pretty quickly.
I don't see this as being a big step forward ... but possibly there are enough people who commute in areas with a high degree of impulse/casual theft like a college campus, where those people also don't want to mess with anything mechanical (like taking of a QR front wheel), who would find this useful.
Very limited application ... but hey, if it sells, it sells.
"Call before midnight tonight .... "