New Startup LOCK8 Wants To Make Bike Theft A Thing Of The Past

General Motors GM and other automobile manufacturers have made it possible for police to easily track stolen vehicles.

LOCK8, a new keyless, alarm-secured GPS tracking device, hopes to bring that and other features to bicycle owners everywhere.

"What does it mean when we say 'alarm-secured?' We thought a lot about, 'What if the thief cuts the cable? What if he takes a saw? What if he tries to hit off the device?'" said Franz Salzmann, CEO of LOCK8. "We included a vibration detector. We included a motion detector. We included a light sensor if he drills it open and tries to take out the electronics.

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"It's always wired," Salzmann assured Benzinga. "So the minute somebody cuts it, it triggers a 120 decibel alarm -- a painfully loud alarm -- and your bicycle [sends] a push notification. Plus, you can share the alarm push notifications with anyone around you -- your friends, people close to your bicycle. That makes it very, very dangerous for the thief to attack the lock and move your bike."

"A car alarm is very loud," Salzmann added. "It probably ranges between 80 and 100 decibels, but it's not a linear scale. Fifty decibels is not half as loud as 100 [decibels]. This is so loud that if a person gets very near to this, they will have ringing in their ears for a while after it."

Users will be able to adjust the alarm volume, as well as the motion sensitivity level. For example, the user can allow the bike to be moved a half meter without triggering the alarm, if he or she chooses.

"No alarm is completely secured," said Salzmann. "No lock is completely secured. So what we're doing is increasing the risk to the criminal. The difference between a car and a bike is that a car is worth much more -- you can re-sell it for much more. A criminal is willing to take a higher risk. A bike, the resale value is not as high. So you won't do everything possible to steal a bike. But with a car you might."

In addition to LOCK8's protective capabilities, the device is also designed to allow bike rentals, hotels and individual users to rent their bikes for a fee. Users can also share their bike with Facebook FB friends by providing them with an e-key.

"Daniel and Franz are the first team with a truly scalable solution for bike sharing schemes," Maire, who was voted Best Angel Investor of the Year by TechCrunch readers, told Benzinga. "They are taking the sharing economy one step further. With its thoughtful design, LOCK8 could be a game-changer."

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.