Is this ‘world's first unstealable bike?'

The theft of two bikes from one of the inventors pushed the former engineering students from Chile to tackle the exasperating crime. Their solution? To create a frame that is dismantled and reconnected to make a lock -- all in just 10 seconds, according to its creators. Fitted on a stylish steel frame, the bike's aluminum downtube splits in two to allow the seat tube to form a steadfast lock around any tree, pole or bike rack. The only way to take it would be to saw through it -- making the bike useless, CNN reports. And last week was an important one for the three young men as they put in their first order to produce 300 of the bikes. Crowdfunded

After designing a successful prototype, Cristóbal Cabello, 22, Andrés Roi Eggers, 23 and Juan José Monsalve, 24 left their university course to throw themselves full time into the project. An investment of $100,000 from a state enterprise fund fueled the product's research and development, but they turned to crowdfunding website Indiegogo to sell their first batch of the bikes -- known as Yerkas. "We chose crowdfunding because it's the easiest way to make the product go worldwide," explains Cabello, the start-up's CEO. "It's an international web page that is well known, and customers can pay securely with a credit card. It was the safest way to handle the money." The young entrepreneurs sold 197 bikes in the campaign, roughly half of which were ordered by customers in the United States. A third went to Europe, with a small handful snapped up by Australia, Hong Kong and New Zealand. Only 15% of the bikes were sold in Chile. "I think it's the culture," says Cabello. "In Chile we haven't got the culture of riding a bike as a commuter and the infrastructure and bike lanes aren't good. But that is changing." Cabello adds that European and North American customers are prepared to spend more on a good bike, because the culture of cycling has been around for longer. The start-up sold the first 100 bikes for $400 then increased the price increased to $500. In future it will rise to $600 or more, depending on where you're buying from. Read more