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Three Chilean students have created what's believed to be the world's first "unstealable" bike, SBS reported.
Juan Jose Monsalve, Andres Roi Eggers and Cristobal Cabello are engineering students in the Chilean capital, Santiago. Friends since childhood, they joined forces with fellow student Juan Jose Monsalve at Adolfo Ibanez University. They created that couldn't be stolen as part of an engineering class assignment.
They call it the Yerka Project, which “has a similarity with a Nordic word that means strength,” Monsalve said. Eggers added, “We wanted to use as many components of the bike as possible, so as a rider you don’t have to carry any lock whatsoever to secure your bike."
The trio said they've all been the victims of bicycle theft and wanted to come up with a solution to the common problem.
The bike functions on a simple principle - you steal it, you break it. A thief would not be able to get away very fast, because stealing the bike renders it unrideable.
At first glance it looks like any other bicycle, but the Yerka's frame can be extended, bent and then re-adjusted so that it forms a strong lock when connected with the removable seat. In other words, breaking the lock breaks the bike itself.
The group say securing the bike takes less than 20 seconds and the final product can be locked with a key.
Eggers expects their first batch of bikes to be available within six to eight months.
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