just caught this link via a local blog (Daily Hive | Torontoist) that mentions the core77 theft proof design 1HDC. Nice to see core’s 1HDC has reached the Great White North (though maybe more appropriately the Great Wet North, this summer).
snippet, here:
There have been inventive attempts. In March, the online industrial design magazine Core77.com held a one-hour competition asking for ideas for a theft-proof bicycle. The winning design, out of 50 submissions, featured a retractable cable that emerged from the seat post and could be threaded through the wheels and attached to an anchor, securing the seat and the wheels. Another designer suggested wrapping the bike in a metal mesh bag. Others offered piercing alarms; removing various parts of the bike (including the frame), that would make it difficult for a thief to ride away; or a removable seat post that connects to the handlebars to create a U-lock.
But an ingenious idea, and one that caused a lot of merriment among the bike designers at True North Cycles in Guelph, Ont., was the inky explosion submission, where an unsuspecting thief clips a locking cable filled with ink and is splattered with permanent colour.
The Star asked Hugh Black, a graduate in mechanical engineering from Queen’s University and owner of True North (which specializes in custom frames), to assess the merits of online theft-proof designs. It was lunchtime and Black and his colleague, also an engineer were choking on their samosas and curry as they looked at the sketches and computer renderings.
The magnet lock – a magnet was permanently attached to the rim of the rear wheel – brought the most derision. “Who wants to carry around a magnet?” he asked. The winning entry he called “bogus.”
"You just cut the cable, right? They are so easy, you don’t need special equipment.
``Most of the designs added weight to the bike, which is the last thing you’d want to do."
cheers,
R