Old bike rings in Toronto an easy target for thieves

WATCH: How do Toronto’s new bike lockups stack up against the old ones?

TORONTO – More than three quarters of the city’s 16,000 ring-and-post bike lockups are an older design that are easier to steal from.

“This ties back to how much money the city’s putting back into cycling,” Mark Romerial from Cycle Toronto said. “The new design came out years ago but they’re still struggling to make sure that it’s reflected on the streets.”

Cyclists hunt for them downtown, where many often bristle with two or three cycles attached.

The iconic design can be defeated by even a two-by-four though, enabling bike thieves to get away with a score.

“People going in, catching a movie, then the whole ring is busted apart, the bike is gone,” Romerial said.

Cyclist Charlotte Bondy didn’t realize the problem was as bad as it is and plans to look at more options before locking her bike up.

“I thought they were the real deal,” she said. “So I guess I’ll be scoping out the new ones from here on in.”

Reports of the posts being defeated reached City Hall about six years ago.

At first, the posts were strengthened by adding a double ring – making it harder to crack. After numerous prototypes, a new type of ring was designed, promising added security.

The collar of the ring, where it fits over the post, is fashioned from a doubled-up sheath of metal, rendering it virtually unbreakable.

Made at a foundry in Mississauga, the new bike rings are made of 17 pounds of aluminum as opposed the original versions – in service since the mid-1980s – which clocked in at seven pounds.

“The new design is a lot better,” Romerial said. “The main reason is it’s not one-sided. A simple pry attack won’t be able to remove the ring from the post and that’ll keep the bike exactly where you left it.”

Five hundred repairs are done on the older ring-and-posts every year but just one hundred are directly replaced by the new ones.