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Comment by scrollaway | Hacker News Reader

The biggest issue with electric bicycles for me is the fear of getting it stolen. My current, mid-expensive bike is stressing me like hell whenever I leave it out in the city for more than an hour, despite a big padlock. An electric bike would be a more visible target and I don't think I could ever actually leave it alone in good conscience.

Am I just paranoid or is this a real issue?

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The real issue is that for the vast majority of people who could use them is their window of use is dramatically limited by weather.

Why I always tell friends to end the lie of "I will ride my motorcycle to work and save money".. until its too cold too wet too windy too hot I had a bad day and suddenly you have a garage queen

If you have to lock it up outside make sure it's in a very public place with at least a decent u lock. You can cut a u lock in 30 sec with a grinder but most thieves won't do that with other people around.

If you're still worried buy a cheap Android phone off craigslist and attach it somewhere it'd be hard to remove. If someone steals it you can use GPS tracking to find it.

It's likely not an issue at the moment because electric bikes are still a novelty: highly recognizable and harder to resell. Should they get popular, then sure, it would be an issue, exactly like it is for any bike.

Btw, it's ridiculous that in 2015 we still haven't solved the problem of stolen bikes.

They're becoming less recognizable: http://www.faradaybikes.com/

$3,500 for that is so crazy.

When your bike is your car you can rationalize spending an almost unlimited amount cycling gear and gadgets under the guise of saving money. (I speak here from experience).

its not that much I am looking at a folding bike(only type allowed on train) and the light weight Brompton's are over $2k

That's still easy to look for, the front hub is huge.

This is why I love my Boosted Board do much (well, among other reasons). I can just pick it up and carry it inside once I reach my destination.

http://boostedboards.com

It's definitely an issue in Austin.

https://twitter.com/atxstolenbikes

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/crime-law/police-350-4000...

There are specific techniques for locking a bike up properly, but it does need a d-lock and possibly also a cable. The idea being that your bike is the least attractive to steal. http://lifehacker.com/5942301/the-proper-way-to-lock-your-bi...

The late, great Sheldon Brown on locking your bike: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/lock-strategy.html

Well that's my point. An e-bike would be a lot more attractive to steal.

Yep; the nicer ones I've looked at are in the $2000-$4000 range, or roughly double what normal "nice" road bikes cost. I'd probably feel safer with it in a bike locker or in a coffee shop / work / train station by my side.

You definitely shouldn't be using a padlock to lock your bike... you want either a proper heavy duty chain lock from a company like Abus, or a U-lock from a company like Kryptonite.

Sorry, a U-Lock is what I use (English and all that).

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