Make your bike harder to pinch by locking the motor and display
More than 75,000 bikes were stolen in England and Wales last year, according to police figures, up 25% on the previous year and over 40% higher than pre-pandemic levels. That’s pretty scary considering your bike is probably worth a few thousand pounds at least, and more if it’s an e-bike, meaning it makes sense to do everything you can to protect it.
Use your phone or the Kiox display to lock your Bosch motor
Bosch’s latest update is going to help with this, called eBike Lock it lets you turn your display into a digital lock. It’ll work on bikes with the latest Bosch Performance SX e-bike motor, and the standard Kiox 300 and 500 displays on most Bosch-powered bikes, and it means after you’ve turned off the bike the motor will remain locked until you tap in your code.
Obviously a thief could still physically walk away with your bike, but they’re not pedalling it away in a hurry. It does mean you still need to lock your bike up, keep it hidden and not advertise its existence. Check out our advice on the best bike locks, and top tips for avoiding bike theft.
New Bosch Performance Line SX eMTB motor
Bosch has your back
Bosch has worked hard over the past few years to deliver some impressive updates to its motors and new power units too. Earlier in the summer we saw the Performance SX motor for the first time, putting it head to head with TQ, Fazua and Mahle and delivering 600W, 55Nm and a 400Wh battery.
Back in January it let riders customise the performance of eMTB mode, easily the most versatile and useful power mode. It meant riders could tweak elements like dynamics, strength, speed and torque and make the motor and battery work more efficiently, Bosch said. In a nutshell, the motor worked smarter, wasted less power and delivered longer range.
And of course in 2020 the German brand offered an update taking power from 75Nm to 85Nm, all free of charge and available across all gen 4 Bosch Performance Line CX motors. If you haven’t done this then get on it quick! This consistent level of service and Bosch’s ability to look after its customers certainly puts other motor manufacturers in the shade.
Bosch’s new eBike Lock is also an option via its eBike Flow app, meaning you can do the same thing virtually on your phone. The latest update also means you only have to come close enough to your bike to establish a Bluetooth connection and it’ll unlock, ready to ride. Called Autolock, it’s possible we could all be needing faraday pouches for our bikes as well as our car keys!
There’s more going on too, you can now customise the content coming through the display – there are 13 individual screens on offer and 30 different items, so for mountain biking you could do away with cadence and inseam pick distance, speed, battery range, and the navigation app. Have a play.