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Writer's picturePaul

Lock it, or lose it...

Hiplok will keep the scum away from your pride and joy

Securing the wheel without using the disc

Some deeply unpleasant young men, they’re always men, have been making themselves profoundly unpopular by stealing our motorcycles at an alarming rate here in Dublin’s fair city. Thanks to smart phones and social media these people have been recorded ‘at work’ while wearing masks. Thanks to inactivity on the part of local police, they’re assured that they will face very little, if any, consequences for their actions. So they simply continue to take our machines with impunity.

As a result it falls to us to address the problem ourselves.

The company also make a very neat ground anchor

One of the more impressive pieces of kit that we’ve seen is the BikeTrac unit which is now widely available from dealerships with good workshops across the country. The basic kit, though, is still a dirty big lock and chain. Enter Hiplock and their new ‘hard security’ products.

A new electric bike can cost tens of thousands

One of the problems with bike security is that we, collectively, tend to rely on basic and convenient security such as disc locks and steering locks. They’re portable and in the case of the disc lock they’re cheap and in the case of the steering lock they’re part of the bike. They’re also very easy for the determined thief to get past.

 

One of the pieces that the team from Hiplock offer is the DX1000. This looks, at first glance, like a ‘D’ lock of old. While it’s as easy to use and fit that’s where the similarities end. It’s a ‘Sold Secure’ piece of equipment which means that it’s built to excel at meeting and exceeding industry standards. To this end it also has a four star ART rating as well as the blessings of ERTA. All of these accreditations meet insurance industry standards. 

While it weighs in at a healthy 2.6 kilos it’s also compact enough to fit in a small top box or pannier as well as under the seat on most super scooters.

Add a ground anchor, dispense with needing a lampost

When we see, from these smartphone videos, the way these people attack locking systems brute force seems to be their only talent. Products like the ones in the Hiplok range are tested to the nth degree. This one will even resist an angle grinder!

One of the nice features of the range is how they can be added to and used in a different way. Supplementing their DX1000 with what the company rather wonderfully call a ‘Mega Chain’ adds so much to a bikes security and by association to the owners comfort when it’s parked up and out of sight.

The Mega. A chain that is exactly that...  

This piece takes the traditional chain and adds so more to something so basic. It’s 1,300mm long. This will go around even the biggest of lampposts in the city. Perhaps the most impressive number, though, is that the chain links are 22mm thick. The girls and boys at Hiplok would appear to have made the perfect balance between strength and weight as overall it tips the scales at 12.3kg.

Not going anywhere!

This kind of quality costs €400 for the D Lock and the chain. As it has a combined weight of just under 15kilos it’ll need some method of carrying it on the bike. But it’s guaranteed for a decade and there’s no reason to believe that it won’t last a lot longer than that.

There are a lot more pieces in the range, they can be bought from good dealers anywhere and we’re pretty sure that your pride and joy is worth their asking price! We are, unfortunatly, back in a new era of ‘lock it or lose it’

Always, always, remember not to carry hard products such as locks and chains on your person when riding a bike. Keep in mind that a disc lock can be broken off a bike in less time than it takes most of us to unlock one. They're no longer up to standard.

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