Hiplok Z Lok Combo bike lock review

It’s a bike rider’s conundrum: what do you do to keep your bike safe while you’re stopped and away from it? A good quality D lock or chain lock is secure, but also really heavy to ride around with, whereas anything lighter is likely to be flimsy and not keep a thief at bay for long. The Hiplok Z Lok looks to address this.

However, it's worth saying before we get started that some specific bike insurance (opens in new tab) is worth considering as no lock is unbreakable.

The Z Lok weighs only 70g, so you’re not going to feel burdened by it if you stuff it into your pocket or clip it round your frame. The design is like an oversize zip tie and inside the plastic covering is a steel ribbon. If you use the Z Lok to secure your frame to a post or railing, it’s enough to stop a thief from walking away with your bike, although it’s unlikely to stand up long to a bolt cutter. Its steel band design is significantly more robust than other lightweight locking options, which tend to use thin cables, though.

At 40cm long, there’s enough length to secure your frame to something immoveable and possibly your rear wheel too. Because of its zip tie-like design, you can also shorten the loop to make it harder to get leverage with a cutter.

The standard Z Lok costs £9.99 and comes with a small key with a couple of pins to release the lock. The Z Lok Combo is more sophisticated, with a three dial combination lock. You can set your own three digit combination, with each dial having ten positions. Once locked, you can tighten the loop, but you’d need a lot of leverage to force it open. There’s a release lever to undo the ratchet when unlocked.

Hiplok suggests using the lock when you’re leaving your bike on a car carrier and it would work well for skis and other kit too. The Z Lok Combo comes in three colours: teal, black or yellow, so you can go for something more stealthy or more visible. It’s a clever, useful bit of kit to carry around for the coffee stop or quick errands on the bike and cheaper than a full-strength lock too.