Lobster Lock: The First Attached Folding Bike Lock

Locks are shipping to you!
almost 5 years ago – Wed, Sep 25, 2019 at 11:15:09 PM

Hi again Backers,

Writing to let you know that for all of you that responded to the backerkit surveys, your orders are on their way! Thanks again for your patience and we look forward to your feedback!

Without further ado, we hope you enjoy finally having and using this product! Check out thelobsterlock.com for installation instructions and other information on the lock now in your possession. Using it does a take a few tries to get the hang of- but once you’ve got it, locking your bike will be faster and easier than ever.

Feel free to send us photos of you with your Lobster Lock, locking up your bike, riding your bike, or whatever else you can think of! Any comments or feedback are also more than welcome. You can reach us on instagram @thelobsterlock, via email at [email protected], or on facebook.com/thelobsterlock/.

Thanks again,

Benjie at Lobster Lock

Lobster Lock Finally Leaving Factory This Week!
about 5 years ago – Tue, Jul 30, 2019 at 11:03:12 PM

Hello again my wonderful backers,

I'm writing the let you know that we are sooooo close to your locks finally being on the way to you- the production is finishing up this week, and as of right now they are scheduled to be picked up this Saturday August 3rd to begin their journey across the pacific. This means you would likely receive your lock in late August.

I have sent out one last note via BackerKit to lock in everyone's addresses- I know some of you may have moved in the months since this project was funded, so please correct your address if you haven't had a chance.

We received the final texture samples of the fully assembled unit in a few weeks ago- you can see the clean glossy-logo-on-matte-texture in the photo below.  If you want to see more photos of the lock in action, check out @thelobsterlock on instagram- We've been dialing up our social presence and would love if you would take a look!

Thanks again for all your patience and I will send out another update when we officially have parts on the water!

Benjie at Lobster Lock

Production Update From China
over 5 years ago – Fri, May 17, 2019 at 11:54:12 PM

Hello Backers!

Thank you again for your continued support and patience with this project. We are really excited to share a behind the scenes peak at what manufacturing a physical product looks like.

Before I do that, I should update you on the schedule. With the tooling all finally confirmed, and the ocean shipping time included, I will now have the full batch of Lobster Locks in hand and ready to ship to all of you at the end of July. Obviously, this is several months later that we planned, and I want to apologize if this delay caused anyone any unfortunate bike security problems in the interim. We ended up moving forward with a one piece stainless steel lock cylinder enclosure, and this component has a long lead time for production quantities. (After the metal casting process is complete, it takes another 10 days for the parts to cool down to room temperature!) This slowed things down considerably, but I think you will all be really happy with the quality and security of the final product due to this change. Check it out below!

Today is my last day here in Shanghai, a trip in which my goal was to officially approve the Lobster Lock tooling and assembly process for production. This means all the tooling, whether for metal of plastic parts, is done and ready to go. We were able to approve the tooling, note any small issues and create a plan to correct them, and formally begin the batch production. Below you can see some of the more interesting injection mold tooling involved in this project. 

We still have a lot of work to do between now and July, including finalizing the packaging design and getting a bunch of business stuff in place so that we are ready for prime time. That said, this was a significant step; we are proud to have finally gotten here, and extremely thankful to all of you for helping Lobster Lock come this far.

Thanks again,

Benjie at Lobster Lock

Much delayed schedule update
over 5 years ago – Mon, Feb 04, 2019 at 08:45:13 AM

Hi Backers,

Thank you all for your support and patience with this project. We have been working hard to get everything thing dialed in, from manufacturing to the less exciting business and taxes side of this beast.

Right now, we are looking to be around 1 month delayed for a couple reasons. This pushes delivery from March 2019 to April 2019. Please lookout for a survey coming from BackerKit that will firm up your desired shipping destination for your order.

The reasons for the mentioned schedule delay are as follows:

• Some confusion as to whether or not Lobster Lock would be subject to the current administration's import tariffs. Fortunately, bike locks are a different customs category than padlocks, so we snuck through. Once we were able to nail this down, the tariff ended up at only 5%, so we are looking good here. This is the type of issue that could have derailed the project, as we mentioned in the risks on the kickstarter. 
• The internal lock cylinder mechanism we initially chose turned out to be still under an active patent. We switched to another type that fits in the lock housing and will not affect the designed function at all. To be sure, we made one more machined prototype and tested it rigorously.

• While we were making this internal change, we decided to incorporate some of the feedback we got during the campaign into the final shipped product. The Lobster Lock you will receive can now be mounted to the seat tube to lock the rear wheel much like the front wheel, and your waterbottle holder can be mounted on top of Lobster Lock in either position. See the above photo for a rain soaked display of both new functions! 
• Lastly, our website thelobsterlock.com will be live shortly! Check out thelobsterlock.com to see our new internet digs!

Thanks again,

Benjie at Lobster Lock

50K!!!!!
almost 6 years ago – Thu, Nov 15, 2018 at 10:53:48 PM

We did it!

Thanks to everyone for all the support- we can't wait to get to work on tooling and production.

You should see a survey in the next few weeks where we will confirm shipping addresses- 

Thanks again, and we couldn't have done it without you!

Benjie and The Lobster Lock Team.