Hiplok Switch Folding Bike Lock

The Hiplok Switch Folding Bike Lock is compact and easy to carry on the bike, especially as it’s at the lighter end of the scale for locks, but it isn’t the most secure option out there. It’s Sold Secure Bronze rated, meaning most insurance companies wouldn’t cover you if you used only this to lock your bike.

> Buy now: Hiplok Switch for £74.99 from Hiplok

The Hiplok Switch Folding Bike Lock has five pivoting joints that enable the solid struts to rotate and form a loop.

The design means it folds down a lot smaller than many locks and can easily be stored in a bag, though the included mount, which screws into your bottle cage bosses, means it can also be carried on your bike. This holds the lock securely while also enabling you to slide the lock in or out easily; you flick a small lever to secure the lock in place.

At 1,001g for the lock and mount, 946g without the mount, it’s pretty light compared with the other locks reviewed recently on road.cc; quite a lot less than the Abus Bordo 6200K folding lock (1,313g) and the Kryptonite Evolution 790 Folding Lock (1,437g), so it is easier to carry around with you than most rival products. 

The lock comes with three keys, and Hiplok also offers replacement keys if you lose or break any. Hiplok also offers a lifetime warranty, so long as you register within 30 days of purchase.

In use

Opening the lock is easy, using the key slot at one end. The lock has a slotted groove to allow the locking mechanism to slide in or out from only one direction. Locking it is the same in reverse.

Locking up a bike with this is pretty straightforward, though I’ve been hesitant to use it on posh paint as the body of the lock isn’t a particularly soft-touch plastic, and I’ve worried it’ll end up scratching the paint – more so with this than the Halfords D-lock I’ve also been testing (full review to come). There’s been no obvious paint damage, but I would recommend exercising caution when locking up your pride and joy with this.

Under attack

So… on to more important matters: how does this lock perform against our thief, Dodgy Dave? We ran the same attack routine on each lock in our round-up, giving our (pretend) thief a minute with a pair of bolt cutters, then, if it survived those, a further two minutes with an angle grinder, to see if he could get through the lock.

The Hiplok survived the attack with the bolt cutters – as did all but one of the batch of locks in the road.cc round-up – which is a good sign for stopping a thief hoping to get away with a bike without making a load of noise. It didn’t survive the angle grinder, though, holding out for just 22 seconds until Dave got through one of the struts, compromising the lock and being able to make off with the bike.

> Which type of lock is best for your bike?

Only one other lock we tested lasted less time against the angle grinder – the Abus Bordo 6200K (£125), though the Kryptonite Evolution 790 only lasted one second more, despite being a lot pricier at £129.99 (and despite being Sold Secure Gold rated). Both of those are also folding designs.

Even though the Hiplok isn’t the most secure, there are aspects to this lock that still make it an attractive proposition – it’s fairly light and easy to carry on your bike, so it’s something you can have with you at all times, and if you like to frequent a cafe or pub on your ride then you can quickly and easily lock your bike up (in sight!) to give a bit of a deterrent to any opportunist thief.

> How to lock your bike when you’re out and about so it’s there when you come back

If you leave your bike locked up at the train station all day, or similar, then you’d be better off looking at something more thief resistant, but this one’s weight, size and portability mean it certainly has some appeal.

Value

At £74.99 it’s not the cheapest in our round-up – more than twice the price of the £30 Halfords D Lock – but it’s also more than £200 less than the most expensive, the Squire Stronghold D16 Max. And as I pointed out above, it lasted longer against the angle grinder than the £125 Abus folding lock, and just one second less than the £130 Kryptonite folder (which also weighs about 50 per cent more than the Hiplok). If you are after a folding lock, according to our test results the Hiplok offers around the same level of security as the Abus and Kryptonite folding locks, but is considerably cheaper in price. 

Moving away from folding locks, there are more secure and cheaper options, though – for £50 you can get the Halfords Advanced D Lock which, though it doesn’t mount to your bike as neatly as the Hiplok, does provide a lot more security, and has a Sold Secure Diamond rating.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for something easy to carry to deter opportunists when you stop mid-ride, or you lock your bike up in sight for short periods of time, this lock is worth a look, but there are cheaper options that are also more secure.

> Buy now: Hiplok Switch for £74.99 from Hiplok

Verdict

Easy to use, with a good mount, but not the most secure option

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