They're obviously great for commuting.

For general use, they are in theory thief-proof because you can take them everywhere with you. The downside is they're expensive so you HAVE to take them everywhere with you. Leave them out and they'll get stolen. For that reason I think the happiest I've been is with a dirt cheap bike in Japan. Didn't even lock it properly (just a key built into the frame) and could park it outside any old shop or restaurant for hours. Super convenient.

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shric 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I have owned a AU$7,000 (US$5,000) ebike in Sydney, Australia for a few years and have parked it everywhere without worrying about it getting stolen.

It has a built in lock that blocks the front spokes, an alarm and I use a $200 chain lock around the frame to fix it to something.

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MattSayar 8 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I taped an Airtag-equivalent to one of my bikes as well

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Gigachad 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

For me, just having a $7,000 bike parked on the street would be too stressful even if it didn't get stolen. I've had bikes stolen in Australia and there is basically nothing you can do about it. The thieves have hoodies, masks, and battery powered grinders that will cut any lock.

The only defense is storing your bike inside. And then you get karens on the owners corp whinging that you aren't allowed to take bikes inside. Who also don't give two shits when your bike gets stolen from the basement bike storage.

	▲	hahahacorn 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I felt this way until I bought full coverage bike insurance. For my $250 deductible I basically just get a nice upgrade to the latest version / a brand new ebike for ~$200 / year. The peace of mind alone with insurance (and a really nice lock) have fully mitigated this for me. I've been leaving my ~$2k ebike locked up all over San Francisco for ~3 years without it being stolen. (My first beater bike was a POS locked up in my apartments secure bike storage and it was stolen after I owned it for ~9 days so I figured I couldn't double down on the bad luck).