Hiplok D1000 Review: Anti-Angle Grinder Motorcycle Lock

The old saying goes, “If you don’t want your motorcycle stolen, park it next to one that is more desirable.” Still, if the bad guys want to abscond with your precious, what can you really do to thwart their success, or at least get them to look elsewhere for an easier bike to steal? Hiplok seems to answer that question—the Hiplok D1000 anti-angle grinder motorcycle lock.

Based 20 miles southeast of Birmingham, England, Hiplok has been in the bicycle lock business for 10 years. The company now has a special material D lock that truly slows down someone who wants to roll or ride your motorcycle away. It won’t stop four thieves from lifting your mount into the back of a pickup, though. An auxiliary chain lock is required to prevent that, though make sure you get a chain with links with openings large enough to accommodate the thick Hiplok shackle.

The Hiplok D1000 is made of a graphene-reinforced ceramic composite that resists cutting by angle grinders. This material literally wears the discs down more than allowing itself to be cut through. Hiplok, and others, have videos showing it taking 10 minutes or more of cutting and blade changing to make a single cut through the D1000. Also, you have to make two cuts to get it loose due to the locking mechanism design. Watching other people try to destroy the lock was enough to dissuade us from gratuitously repeating the process—we’re convinced of its near indestructibility.

This is a serious four-pound lock with an MSRP of $385 that will genuinely discourage any thief who plans to roll your motorcycle away in a hurry. If the would-be motorcycle thief only brought one cutting blade, the blade wouldn’t survive to cut someone else’s lock.

Measuring six-by-nine inches, the D1000 isn’t a lock you can carry in your pocket. A touring bike has space, but four pounds can be a quarter of a saddlebag’s load capacity. If you carry it on a multiday ride, know you might have to leave behind some tools or your emergency reserve gas can.

I tried to fit the Hiplok D1000 through the wheels of several different motorcycles, and it doesn’t work on most because the disc rotors don’t allow the pass-through. It is compatible, and locked through, the cast-aluminum rear wheel spokes on my friend’s Aprilia RSV4, but there is no place to store it on a superbike.

It fits on several bikes with wire spokes, such as the Ultimate Motorcycling Yamaha Ténéré 700 Project Bike, but it is easy to cut the thin spokes to defeat it. Motorcycles cannot get close enough to anything they can secure to without a chain, so this lock is really for stand-alone security. Don’t worry about scratches when installing the D1000, as its shackle is coated to protect your finishes, and the lock is plastic-covered.

If the Hiplok D1000 fits through the front or rear mag spokes on your bike and you have a way to carry it, it will deter the quick-get-away thief from stealing your motorcycle. If you can’t carry it and it does fit, then the Hiplok D1000 is an at-home theft deterrent. It is large and imposing in appearance, and just could be that extra bit of security that keeps your motorcycle from being stolen.