After having both a bicycle and motorcycle stolen from him in London, inventor Yannick Read decided he needed something more than just a lock. He needed something to alert him to the thieve’s activity before they could get away with it.
Something loud enough to wake him up in the middle of the night, and something loud enough to scare the thieves away and get everyone’s attention. The solution was Bike Mine, a miniature bomb that you strap to your bike that’ll go off the second someone tries to wheel it away…
The kit includes three “cartridges”, which are basically small shotgun shells with the pyrotechnics fully encased (without any projectiles), the mounting bracket and the trip wire.
As the video shows, you simply load the cartridge, set the pin and string the wire from it to your spokes. The rubber backing protects your frame from physical damage, though we suspect it might leave a burn. The real question, then, isn’t whether it’ll scare thieves away, but how many times you’ll set it off before you automatically remember to check it before you leave…
Back the project on Kickstarter for £49 and you’ll get the kit shown above. Support it with £99 and you’ll get two kits plus an extra three shells to set up a “perimeter defense” for your entire garage.