Smart bicycle lock

 

A smart lock is basically one that can communicate with your smart phone. Through an app. So a normal bike lock with an alarm is not a smart lock. To be "smart" it must connect to your phone.Those locks are still available. But there are loads of smart locks that disappeared as fast as they appeared. Like the Noke and the Grasp Lock. And the Bitlock and the Dog and Bone Locksmart.Locks like the Ulac can be unlocked with your fingerprint. Pretty cool. And you can load multiple fingerprints onto each lock,Also pretty cool. But how well does it work in the rain? It won't work with gloves. How easily will the fingerprint reader be damaged beyond use?And of course this sort of feature needs power, which brings massive complications.

The clever phone app and the multiple fingerprint feature enable you to share access to your bike with other people who also have the app or loaded fingerprints.This is admittedly a nice feature. But if you had a combination lock you could just as easily share the code with a friend.

Some smart locks will alert you via the app if a thief is trying to steal your bike. This is obviously a great idea. But in practice it's beset with problems.For starters on nearly all Smart bicycle lock the connection between the lock and the phone will be over Bluetooth. Which has a very limited range.Usually this is up to 33 feet (10 m). Although a few of the locks feature Bluetooth 4.0 which has a longer range of up to 150 feet (50 m).

So with regular Bluetooth your connection will be very limited. In fact you will usually need to be within sight of your bike.Essentially you'll only receive theft alerts if you're already very close to your bike. So not in the cinema, the spots center, the shopping center or mall. Probably not even when you're asleep at home with your bike outside.The other issue is the same problem as regular alarmed bike locks suffer from: how to get the sensitivity right.