Three engineering students from Chile bring forth 'Yerka'-a bicycle that can never be stolen.
Sticking to the philosophy that a stolen bicycle is no longer a bicycle, 'Yerka' offers a twist to the growing trend of bicycles using its own parts as locks. The innovation found in this prototype lies in the fact that the lower frame of the bicycle is opened up into two arms attached to the seat post and locked to a stand or post. With this design, thieves would have to break the bicycle to unlock it from the post, rendering it worthless afterwards.
"That's why our motto is 'a bike that gets stolen is no longer a bike.' What we have here is truly an unstealable bike," Cristobal Cabello shared. The young Chilean created this design while attending an engineering class in college. Cabello made the idea turn into reality with the help of childhood buddies, namely, Andres Roi Eggers and Juan Jose Monsalve.
The increasing number of people opting to use their bicycles has even prompted Chile and some Latin American countries to designate specific cycling lanes to ensure road safety. Moreover, storage racks have been provided and the people are urged to substitute their cars to bicycles. This transportation alternative is not only deemed cheaper, but also more environmentally friendly.
In fact, "the use of bikes has doubled among Chileans" in the past five years, as revealed by the study conducted in 2013 by Cristobal Galban, the Andres Bello University Research Center Director. However, the increase in the number of bicycle users also posed certain problems to its owners.
"The main problem in Chile and elsewhere are the robberies, so the Yerka could help solve this," shared Galban.
The innovative design of the three Chilean engineering students was also described as "very clever" by Tony Hadland, the co-author of the book 'Bicycle Design: An Illustrated History'.
According to the young engineers who created this new design, they were inspired to design an 'unstealable' bicycle after Roi's was stolen. They initially made a PVC model, which was followed by the construction of a working prototype. At present, the three Chileans are awaiting the approval of their patent while seeking methods to raise funds. The innovators are also searching for a partner willing to finance the first batch of their bikes to be introduced in the market by mid-2015. They reportedly need $300,000 to produce their first 1,000 bikes.
