Any lock that's halfway convenient to carry can be compromised by a thief with the proper tools and sufficient time to wield them. Two current Indiegogo campaigns—Stingray and SkunkLock—offer cyclists extra security measures in the form of ear- and nose-assaulting deterrents, respectively.
Designed by electrical engineer (and three-time victim of bike theft) Obadiah Sheikh, Stingray combines a powerful front bike light with a motion sensor that triggers a 140-decibel alarm, an ear-splitting screech on par with a gunshot or a jet engine upon takeoff. While typical locks, if broken, "sit quietly and watch as a thief rides away with your bicycle and all onlookers assume nothing wrong," Stingray both deafens the would-be criminal and alerts bystanders to a crime-in-progress.
"The main problem with a stolen bike," says Sheikh, "is once the thief is around the first corner, nobody knows it’s a stolen bike." Watch the full pitch below:
SkunkLock, which bills itself as "the only lock that fights back," holds a surprise for thieves with power tools: pressurized within a hollow chamber running the length of the U-lock is an undisclosed cocktail of chemicals that "induce vomit in the majority of cases, and elicit an instinctive response to run away immediately."
While it will not deliver the "Death to Bike Thieves" my sticker advocates (or fulfill creator Daniel Idzkowski's desire for bikes to blow thieves' balls off), SkunkLock does promise to leave the would-be bike thief with eyes stinging, stomach churning, and clothes ruined. Not bad. Check it out:
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