Booby trap bike alarm
‘World’s loudest bike alarm’ uses shotgun shells. What could go wrong?
A NEW Kickstarter project has been revealed that uses blank shotgun shells to create what claims to be the world’s loudest bike alarm.
Dubbed the Bike Mine – and we’re already, ahem, alarmed by its name – it’s effectively a bracket that holds a shotgun cartridge (a blank, of course) and has a spring-loaded firing pin. A grenade-style pin keeps it in the ‘armed’ position, and when it’s pulled out the firing pin punches into the cartridge’s percussion cap, detonating the explosive within.
The idea is that you strap the thing to your bike and attach the pin via some wire to a fixed object so it gets pulled out if the bike is moved and the wire isn’t disconnected first. The result is a loud bang, a bright flash and a bike thief in need of new underwear.
Its creator, Yannick Read, claims it’s safe and louder than any conventional bike alarm. He’s probably right on at least one count.
In fact the device appears to be basically similar to commercially-available ‘alarm mines’ intended to be used by gamekeepers. Web searches bring up the same sort of things at around the £15 mark from gun supply companies. That’s somewhat less than the £49 needed to back the Kickstarter and bag a Bike Mine. They are legal but with the proviso that you’re likely to be liable if they injure anyone.
Scarily, there doesn’t seem to be anything to stop real, live shotgun shells being used instead of the blanks. But of course nobody would do that.
