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If you’re commuting to work and leaving your bike unattended in a city, it’s not just your frame that you need to protect. It’s also a sensible idea to lock your wheels, as these are often targeted by thieves too. The classic solution is to loop a cable through your wheels and use one of the best bike locks to secure it, and the frame, to an immovable object. However, this is quite a bulky system.

Self-proclaimed to be the “world’s smallest lock for bike parts”, I was intrigued to test Hexlox’s anti-theft system to see how it works – and find out whether something so tiny can be a reliable system for such an important task.

It’s important to note that the reason why Hexlox inserts stay in the head of the bolt is because they’re magnetic. However, most thru-axles that come standard on your bike are aluminum – meaning that you will likely have to purchase a steel thru axle for the Hexlox insert to work. Hexlox sells a huge range, so you should be able to find one which is compatible with your bike. Or, if you do happen to have a steel thru-axle knocking about, you can just use that.

Hexlox’s system can not only be used on wheels, but also for essentially every bolt on your bike. You can drop the inserts in the bolts for your saddles, seatpost, handlebars, stems, pedals – the list goes on. It’s more likely that at least some of your bolts might be steel (and will therefore work with the magnetic Hexlox inserts), but if not, Hexlox does sell a variety of replacement bolts for different applications, too.

It’s a little trickier to remove the bolt – even with your matching magic magnetic key. I found that I had to really push the key in – and be very precise with removing the insert completely straight (not even at a slight angle). This isn’t the easiest thing to do when you’re crouching by the side of the road on an impromptu stop – most likely when you have a puncture and need to remove your wheel. Luckily I haven’t actually had a puncture on my commuting bike so far this year (thanks to Schwalbe’s excellent G-One Allround tyres), and so the only reason I tried removing the bolt was for the benefit of this test!

I decided to try to remove the insert with a magnet that I pulled off my fridge door just to see how it’d cope and I wasn’t able to remove the insert. I don’t have any other stronger magnets around to test it with, but Hexlox claims that it’s not possible to remove the insert with a more powerful magnet. It says: “The Hexlox is held in place in your bolt with a very small magnet but the key does not use magnetic force to remove the Hexlox – there is a mechanical bond.” I had no success in using pliers to remove the insert either.

A single Hexlox costs £14.00 and Hexlox key costs £14.00, which adds up to £42.00 for protecting your front and rear thru-axles. If you need a front and rear thru-axle to go with it (because your current setup doesn’t have a magnetic steel head) then that’s an extra £54.99 for each. This brings the full cost up to €151.98. This is certainly a steep investment and a considerable amount more than simply using a cable with your D-lock. For example Kryptonite’s Kryptoflex costs just £14.99.

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