TiGr bicycle lock review

Last summer I had the opportunity to participate in a Kickstarter for the TiGr bicycle lock. I received my lock last week and couldn’t be happier.

The TiGr is a long titanium bow and a pocked-sized latch. It’s stronger than a Kryptonite D-Lock and weighs less than a bottle of water.

It looks a bit unwieldy out of the box — as long as a bicycle top tube — but in practice, I’ve found that it’s less visually obtrusive than a D-Lock and even easier to haul around. Shedding the pounds of a Kryptonite (or one of those gawdforsaken chains that so many New Yorkers carry) makes your bike feel like a totally new ride.

I expected that the lock wouldn’t be as versatile as a D-lock, but the opposite is true. The bow is incredibly flexible, so you can lock to a post of nearly any diameter, and the long reach of the bow even opens up new possibilities on already-crowded bike racks.

I was also skeptical of the velcro retention straps, but they work just fine. And manipulating the latch is faster than dealing with a D-Lock once you get the hang of it.

(Technically you are supposed to run it through a wheel but I never bother.)

Unless there’s some undiscovered weakness (a la the Bic pen trick), an entire industry has just been made obsolete. Every urban bicyclist is going to want one of these. I hope Mr. John Loughlin patented the hell out of it.

TiGr locks are shipping to Kickstarter backers today. Following that, I believe there will be a second run for public buyers via the website. I imagine that the final stage is a formal, permanent manufacturing company; interested investors should line up ASAP.