This is a large suction cup that can attach to flat, non-porous surfaces like sheets of glass. Either it has a U-lock, cable lock, chain lock, or similar built in, or it has a stout loop for one to be locked around. In this way you can lock your bicycle up to the window of a business that doesn't have a bike rack.

Most businesses have tempered glass windows, which are unlikely to break if a thief tugs on it. However, fear of having their windows broken will incentivize the business to install a bike rack. (There may need to be legislation banning businesses from banning the use of these on their windows.)

53/364 [between 2017-01-09 and 2017-10-02]
-- notexactly, Nov 07 2018

Someone needs to do something. I'm not always able to find something to lock up my bike to. I ride around looking for some post or structure or whatever. It's crazy.
-- blissmiss, Nov 08 2018


Is the suction cup provided by the cyclist or the store?

Also, what stops someone sliding a blade under the edge of the suction cup to break the seal?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 08 2018


By the cyclist, I was envisioning.

I don't know. Is that a realistic vulnerability of a large camlock suction cup? Perhaps the rigid outer cup could extend all the way past the edge of the flexible cup and press against the glass to exclude blades.

It occurs to me now that if the suction cup is a separate device from the lock, it's going to need a built-in lock mechanism still, to prevent unauthorized suction release. (I doubt any discrete bike lock would be tight enough to hold the cam lever in the 'suck' position.)
-- notexactly, Nov 08 2018


I dunno, [not]. I'm pretty sure that I could slip a long, thin flexible blade between a very flat pane of glass and anything you want to glom onto it.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 08 2018


What about ice ?

Have a tough metal mesh backed by water-saturated foam, covered in a hard metal outer shell. Apply to window, power on peltier-effect cooler.

Water rapidly freezes to glass, entraining the metal mesh. Ever tried scraping frozen rain off a windscreen ?

To release, reverse the current and the ice melts.

Runs off only four car batteries...
-- 8th of 7, Nov 08 2018


Then you just break the frozen glass, or walk 5 feet to the nearest Starbucks and get a cup of hot water to splash on it.
-- 21 Quest, Nov 14 2018


// Starbucks ... cup of hot water //

More expensive than buying your own bike, shirley ?
-- 8th of 7, Nov 14 2018



random, halfbakery