“An integrated bike lock that is safe, comfortable, and beautifully designed.”

This is how Andrés Roi, Juan J. Monsalve and Cristóbal Cabello, founders of the Yerka Project, describes the new Yerka bicycle.

What exactly does this mean?

It means that the Yerka bicycle is, essentially, the world’s first ‘unstealable’ bike.

In a world where more than 15 million bikes are stolen every year, many of us have been, or know people who have been, victims of bike-theft. Attempting to change this reality, the three engineering students from Chile have come up with a new type of bicycle packed with technology that will prevent it from ever being stolen.

The design of the bike is simple, but the technology is much more complex.

Because the frame works as the actual lock, a thief would have to break the frame of the Yerka in order to steal it, rendering it completely useless. Trying to take the entire structure on which the bike was secured to won’t work either, since when the frame is in its locking position, it simultaneously locks the crank and pedals. So any thief that tries to steal the Yerka will leave frustrated and empty-handed.

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Source: yerkabikes.com

But how about the protection of individual parts, especially the wheels that are so often stolen? Don’t worry — the Yerka has special anti-theft nuts on the wheels too, for which only you have the keys to. So they’ll be irremovable by everybody except you, so you won’t have to worry about being greeted from the store by only your bike frame.


By - grape Japan editorial staff.