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Comment by LargeWu | Hacker News Reader

My biggest reservation about e-bikes is that if you ride it regularly for your transportation, it WILL get stolen, it's only a matter of time. I have a hard time putting thousands of dollars into a bike knowing I'm likely to lose that investment.

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Buy a lock. You should usually be spending 10-20% of the value of the vehicle on locks. I bought two locks (a chain lock and a D lock) totaling $150 for my $750 electric scooter that I just got. They came with a $4000 warranty for vehicles stolen while locked.

Around here, having a lock doesn't guarantee anything. Bike thieves think nothing of cutting the lock with a cordless angle grinder in broad daylight. Or they'll super glue the locks and come back at night. Nice bike, junk bike, it doesn't really matter. Even being in a locked building.

It guarantees you won't "lose that investment". Whether or not it is stolen is a different matter. Also there are angle grinder resistant locks. Check out videos of people testing them out and buy ones that they fail to cut, if your primary concern is not having it stolen (rather than losing your investment). Good ones seem to be around $300.

> Also there are angle grinder resistant locks.

Angle grinder wins against any lock. Maybe you're not the easiest bike to steal by having your very expensive lock, but in certain areas (NYC being a big one) that basically doesn't matter. And insurance claims from the bike locks still suck, since you have to deal a lost bike and an insurance claim every time that happens...

Are you speaking from experience? "NYC" is a very large and heterogenous area.

Yes. My time spent in Manhattan made it clear you basically never leave a bike locked up there. There’s a reason why Kryptonite will only warranty its most expensive lock (and none of the cheaper ones) in Manhattan. The other boroughs they warranty cheaper locks, but not in Manhattan.

An e-bike is one of the few places where DRM is actually attractive. I don't know the state of DRM on batteries, but I would feel significantly more confident parking an e-bike if I could remove the battery, and know that a replacement battery had to be paired with the frame/motor from a reputable dealer. Listing a bike as stolen would prevent this. I know that DRM can be cracked, but this would help a lot. note: I don't currently own an e-bike.

Note how infrequently iPhones are stolen since apple got serious about preventing it.

I have a theory that removing the battery and locking it well is enough. I'm testing that theory by storing my electric scooter with a quick release battery (Hiboy x300) with a D lock and a chain in the same bike room my roommate has their bike stolen out of (they only had a cable lock).

I have an old rusty e-bike that I use for transportation and cost £200. It doesn't seem to get stolen although I leave it on the street. I do remove the battery which would cost £200 new on it's own so the batteryless bike is not of much value to thieves. Especially as it has a wacky diy paint job too.

It works pretty well although there is some maintenance cost when bits pack up. It's quite easy to find similar on facebook market.

Buy a mid-drive, you're not immune, but thieves are drawn to hub-drive fat-tire ebikes because they are obviously ebikes. Mid-drives look much more like regular old bikes.

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