A modern electric bike is worth more than the first car a lot of people owned, weighs about as much as a large dog, and is parked outdoors. Thieves have noticed. The good news is that bike theft is an unusually predictable crime: it is done quickly, with a small number of tools, by people who choose the easiest bike on the rack.
You do not have to make your bike impossible to steal. You have to make it slower and louder to steal than the one next to it.
How electric bikes are actually taken
Almost every theft falls into one of four patterns, and they are not equally common.
1. It was not locked to anything
By far the most common. A lock through the wheel and frame stops the bike being ridden away; it does not stop two people picking up a 70 lb bike and putting it in a van. The bike must be locked to something fixed and immovable.
2. The cable lock
A braided cable lock is a deterrent against somebody wheeling your bike off on impulse. Against hand cutters it is worth almost nothing. Treat a cable as a way of securing a wheel or a saddle to the frame, never as the main lock.
3. Leverage on a cheap D lock
A D lock with a big gap around it can be attacked with a jack or a length of scaffolding. Which is why the gap matters: fill the shackle so there is no room to insert anything.
4. The angle grinder
Nothing you can carry defeats a grinder indefinitely. What a good hardened lock buys you is time, noise and sparks in a public place — which is exactly what a thief is trying to avoid.
What to actually buy
- A hardened D lock (U lock) as the main lock. Look for an independent security rating rather than the manufacturer’s own star system. A serious lock costs real money; on a $2,000 bike that is not the place to save $40.
- A second, different lock. Two locks of different types means two different tools. Most opportunists carry one.
- A short chain or cable for the front wheel and saddle, looped back to the main lock.
- Locking wheel skewers if you leave the bike regularly. Quick-release wheels are called that for a reason.
Take the battery with you
This is the single most effective habit on this page, and it costs nothing. The battery is the most expensive removable component, it is what makes the bike worth stealing to resell, and every bike we sell has a removable pack in a locking compartment. A bike without its battery is a very heavy bicycle. See looking after an e-bike battery — it wants to come indoors anyway.
How to lock it, in order
- Find something immovable. A proper bike stand bolted into the ground. Not a wooden fence, not a signpost the bike can be lifted over, not a bin.
- Lock the frame to it — the rear triangle is the strongest point. A lock through the wheel alone leaves you a wheel and no bike.
- Fill the shackle. Frame, stand and if possible a wheel inside the D, so there is no space for a lever.
- Turn the keyhole downwards and keep the lock off the ground, so it cannot be smashed against the pavement or attacked comfortably.
- Second lock through the front wheel and the frame.
- Remove the battery and take the display if it detaches.
Where you park matters more than people think
Thieves prefer quiet, dark and unobserved. Somewhere busy and overlooked, in daylight, with a camera pointed at it, is worth more than an extra lock. Two more habits that cost nothing:
- Do not leave it in the same spot every day. Predictability is what lets somebody come back prepared.
- Indoors beats outdoors, always. If your bike folds, this stops being theoretical: a Rebel 2 that folds under a desk or into a car boot is never locked up in the street at all. That is a security feature as much as a storage one.
Before it happens: the boring paperwork
Do this now, in ten minutes, while the bike is still yours.
- Photograph the bike from both sides, plus any distinguishing marks.
- Record the serial number. It is stamped on the frame, usually under the bottom bracket. Photograph it and keep the photo somewhere that is not your phone.
- Keep your invoice. Recovered bikes are returned to whoever can prove ownership.
- Register it with a national bike register if one operates where you live.
- Check your insurance. Home contents policies often exclude bicycles away from the home, or cap them well below what an electric bike costs. Some insurers also now ask whether the battery is UL certified — UL 2849 for the bike and UL 2271 for the battery, which the certified models we sell carry.
A note on trackers
A hidden tracker will not stop a theft, and chasing a stolen bike yourself is a bad idea. What it does is give the police an address. If you fit one, hide it properly — inside the frame, under the saddle, in a bag that stays on the bike — and remember it depends on a battery that needs charging.
Frequently asked questions
Is one very good lock better than two cheap ones?
One good lock plus one different type is the best combination. Two cheap cables are worse than either, because they fall to the same tool in the same few seconds.
Can somebody ride away with the battery removed?
They can pedal it, slowly, and it weighs 55 to 77 lb. It is not an attractive proposition, which is the point.
Does the frame lock built into some bikes count?
A wheel or frame lock stops the bike being ridden away. It does nothing about it being carried away. Use it in addition to a lock securing the bike to something fixed, never instead.
My building says I cannot store it inside. What now?
Ask whether the objection is the bike or the battery — it is very often the battery, and UL 2849 and UL 2271 certification is exactly what such policies ask for. It is worth putting in writing.
See which of the eight bikes fold small enough to come indoors →
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