You may have seen the video that’s doing the rounds of a ne’er-do-well following a car with a £2,500 road bike attached to a rear-mounted rack and his attempts to undo the fastenings while the car’s stopped at traffic lights.
If you haven’t, here it is. Prepare to be outraged.
If you are the proud owner of a similarly costly bike you’re probably feeling two emotions very keenly at the moment. One will be rage. In fact, there’s so much rage out there on the internet that the guy who’s attempting to steal the bike is not a big enough target for it, and people are also directing their ire at the person in the car behind, apparently for not getting out and summarily executing the toerag (check the comments).
The other thing that we’ll wager you’re feeling is a knot in the pit of your stomach at the thought of it ever happening to you. Someone else with their grubby mitts on your “precious”.
And while it remains pretty unlikely someone will attempt the same thing on you, it turns out there is an affordable lock available that’s well suited to thwarting the sort of person who watched the video and didn’t feel rage and despair, but instead saw a good idea poorly executed.
It’s called the Z-Lok, and it’s a zip tie with a universal key so it can be re-used.
It has a steel-reinforced core and, while it can obviously be cut through with the right tools, it’ll be plenty strong enough to keep a bike on a rack when you’re on the move – and much more besides.
And it’s only £15 for two, which works for us.
It’s made by Hiplok, who we covered when it launched the Kickstarter for its Airlok bike hanger. That product is funded, shipping soon and available for anyone to pre-order on the Hiplok website now – well worth a look.
