If you’ve ever had your bike—or even a tire or a light—stolen, then you’ll empathize with the goal of Fortified Bicycle‘s new Kickstarter mission.
Fortified is a local company that builds bike accessories that cannot be stolen – whether it’s a lock, light and hopefully soon, a seat.
On Thursday, April 2, Fortified launched a new crowdfunding campaign to help generate capital so that they can build the most secure bike seat on the market. It’s aptly called Payback.
Perhaps most interesting about the design concept, though, is how inspiration struck co-founders Tivan Amour and Slava Menn.
Take a look at the Kickstarter pitch video above. Cyclist Max parked and locked his bike on the street in Cambridge one night only to find that it was gone the next morning. Upon turning to Craigslist in hopes of gathering clues to his transportation’s whereabouts, he found his seat for sale – at $60.
Yes, they caught the perpetrator and yes, he was a serial bike thief who was subsequently apprehended.
But bike seats, it turns out, can bring in a pretty penny and Fortified is trying to keep the change in your pockets.
“The current solutions to seat-post and saddle theft are severely lacking,” said Menn. “The bottom line is that city cyclists are left choosing the ‘least-worst’ solution among a number of underwhelming options.”
Menn and his constituents went through a number of design iterations before settling on an anti-theft clamp and bolt that locks to a bike’s seat post. The security bolts are unique, “like keys to your car,” notes Menn in the pitch video—making it so the owner is the only one who can adjust, remove or reinstate the clamp.
“Some city cyclists protect their saddle by threading a thin cable or chain between the saddle and the bicycle frame, but that’s cumbersome, ugly and easy to cut,” added Menn. “Other cyclists splurge for expensive security seat post clamps and while those are great for protecting the seat post from being removed, they don’t secure the seat itself.”
Made of lightweight aluminum, Payback is accompanied by a lifetime anti-theft guarantee and will replace your lock for free if it’s somehow stolen.
Fortified is hoping to reel in $8,000 to pilot, manufacture and ship the locks by July. The Kickstarter campaign went live at noon on Thursday, and at the time this article was published, just hours later, had already garnered $3,018 from 62 backers.
Such quick funding comes as no surprise, though. Since 2012, Fortified has launched two crowdfunding bids both of which smashed their goals in a span of two days – one in less than a day which is what Payback is on track for.
Back in January Fortified landed a $150,000 grant, which they hope to use to open up their own bike shop.
