How connectivity helped to retrieve a stolen e-bike in Paris
As any other evening, Pierre, owner of a connected Voltaire Legendre e-bike, parked his bike next to his home. Locked with a ring lock, the bike fitted perfectly to the environment of the typical narrow street in the center of Paris, camouflaged along the pedal bikes around it.
The next morning, when he was going to pick it up for his daily commute, the bike was gone. During the night, somebody had cut through the sturdy ring lock, removed the chain from the rack, turned the e-bike on and left. How did the thief manage to steal the bike?
The ‘perfect’ accident
Unfortunately, Pierre forgot to activate the digital lock* the night before. Therefore, he did not receive movement alerts to his phone when the thief was sawing the ring lock for 10 minutes (proven theft time validated from the data received from the IoT module). If the digital lock would have been activated, Pierre would have received an alert on his phone that someone is tampering with his bike and could have gone out to check it. The ‘perfect’ accident was painted for Pierre and Comodule to validate if an e-bike equipped with GPS tracking can be retrieved easily.
*Digital lock is a feature allowing users to lock their bike via phone app and Bluetooth connection. When in a locked state, the IoT module detects the movement and sends out an alert to the user's phone.
Voltaire Legendre is a classic and stylish bicycle, with an atemporal design that manages to elegantly hide the fact that is actually an e-bike. Designed for the city and the daily commute, it features a Mivice e-system and a Comodule Guardian IoT module inside of its minimal yet attractive frame, inspired by the style of the 1960s.
Guardian IoT in the Voltaire e-bike provides the vehicle with cellular connectivity, enabling digital security features like GPS tracking, Digital lock, and Movement Alerts for added peace of mind.
With the Companion App that connects with the module, it’s possible to control the digital security features, use navigation, and other essential riding features.
"Find vehicle” feature shows the location of the bike in Companion App.
The retrieval
While Pierre was holding a broken piece of the ring lock in his hands which he found at the parking rack, he knew that the situation was bad. The bike was obviously stolen, and he started to think of his next steps.
The bike had Guardian IoT module in it, meaning it was sending out its real-time location to Pierre’s phone. After checking the bike’s location, he knew that he still had a chance to retrieve it.
Pierre could determine that the bike had traveled six kilometers around Montmartre hill to end up in an apartment complex next to a local Hospital at 2:45 AM and seemed to be still there. He decided to scout the location, but the complex was gated and the GPS information pointed out that the vehicle was most probably indoors. The only thing he could do at that point was head back home.
Pierre went to retrieve the bike and found out it was located in a building that was surrounded by fences.
Pierre’s plan was to wait until the bike was moved again. He got the movement notification from the app at 12:20 PM. The thief took the bike outdoors and cycled to a nearby market, quite close to the place where the bike spent the night. The bike seemed to be approachable this time.
Pierre went out to look for it, and there it was, placed in a bike rack. Surprisingly not locked, as if the thief knew there was an IoT device on it and wanted to get rid of the vehicle to clear his fingerprints.
“Maybe they heard I’ve been looking for it in the building this morning and decided to leave it on the street. There was a market with plenty of people. Maybe the thief was somewhere around.”
The conclusion
At 1:30 PM, Pierre was already riding back home. He got reminded that bike theft can happen to anybody at any time and adding extra safety measures to avoid that can give added peace of mind for him.
Connectivity adds essential digital safety features for your e-bike such as digital lock, movement alert, and locating the vehicle. Digital lock will become automatic via Bluetooth® proximity to make the safety of the bike more seamless and independent of the user.
Depending on the integration, connectivity could also control the smart ring lock from the phone application, and automatically disable the drivetrain or start a buzzer in case of theft. If you’d like to know how to make your bikes safer with connectivity, contact us.
