Last September we first heard about the one-off Yerka Project bike, which was designed by three engineering students in Chile. Its clever feature was a frame that partially came apart to act as a lock. That way, any thief tempted to break its lock would be ruining the very bike they wanted, too. Now, its creators are attempting to bring it to market via an Indiegogo campaign.
To lock the Yerka, you first slide back a retaining sleeve on its two-piece down tube, and then swivel the two pieces out to the side. You then pull out its extra-long seatpost, and run it through the ends of those pieces. It locks into the piece at the bottom.
Oh yes, and you make sure to lock the whole affair around an immovable object, such as a signpost.
The chances of wheel theft are minimized by the use of special wheel nuts, that can only be removed with a tool specific to those nuts. The designers are also looking into adding Bluetooth functionality to the lock itself, allowing users to lock and unlock simply using their smartphone.
If you’re interested, you can currently get a Yerka for a pledge of US$399 – assuming it makes it to production. You can see a demo of its locking system in the video below.
For another example of a bike that’s its own lock, check out the Frameblock.
