Before I heard about Zovii Alarmed Grip Lock, I seemed so naive when it came to motorcycle theft. At home, I always lock both the ignition and the fork. What I didn’t know was that the fork locks were relatively easy to break, although quite noisy. The noisy part helps if your bike is parked at home, but what if you’re not at home or you’re driving? Thieves can also lift a bike onto a vehicle in just a few seconds and take it elsewhere to disable security measures.
To solve these problems, Balloon offers the Zovii Alarmed Grip Lock, a lock made of waterproof nylon with a 10mm thick carbide-reinforced hardened steel locking pin and an integrated 120dB anti-theft security alarm. For comparison, most emergency sirens are between 110-129db.
Light and compact lock. It weighs 8.7 ounces, about half an ounce heavier than my iPhone and case, and at 6 x 2.25 inches, it fits easily in the inside pockets of my leather jacket.
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To activate the alarm, clip the lock around the handlebars and front lever on your bike and press the lock button to activate it. No key required for activation.
Unfortunately, the width of the grip and fixing lever on my Harley Heritage Softail didn’t allow the unit to close completely, so I tried it on a friend’s BMW R 1200 RT. Zovii clicks on its handles and levers with ease. However, when we lifted the bike off the stand and rolled, to my surprise the alarm didn’t go off.
This is where a small design flaw exists. The manual says the device beeps twice when you unlock it; however, after tinkering with it, we’ve discovered that two beeps mean the alarm has gone off, even if it’s locked. It seems to me that when you clamp the device together and push the lock in, you also want to trigger the alarm. However, you must make sure you hear a beep (about five seconds followed by a longer tone). If you clamp it together, push the lock in and get two quick beeps, you have to unlock it with the key and push it again to get a beep indicating the alarm has been activated. It’s a bit annoying, but I can see under certain circumstances this can be a nice feature, mainly if you’re carrying the Zovii around and have to clip it to do so.
After we detected the beep, just a slight shake of the steering wheel was enough to sound a warning. If we continue to mess around with it we will get a huge 120 decibels, this sound will be disabled by unlocking the device. The warning sounds are great in case you accidentally hit your bike or worry about how carefully you have to unlock it when the bike is armed.
So aside from the small inconvenience of a single beep versus a double beep — and the much larger inconvenience of not fitting my bike — the Zovii is a cheap (just $60) product that suffices. large enough to make a potential thief slip into the shadows.
Zovii Alarmed Grip Lock is now available at aviation website.
