I have been using Hero Lectro for almost 2 years now, the bicycle is an absolutely fantastic way to get around with your daily commute. The electric motor helps you get all the gradients and flyovers that you may find difficult when navigating through a city. But, there's always a concern that the bike cannot be left alone. Kids and sometimes adults out of their curiosity tend to play around & mess up with the electrical system.
The biggest flaw that Hero has made in this bicycle is not providing a method to lock or turn of the electrical system. Just press a button and the electric control will turn off, once you see the lights you can easily accelerate, being a bicycle it is light in weight, and unlike most motorbikes, you cannot just go with a handle lock. I used a cable lock to ensure that the bike stays at the place where I left it, but there's often insecurity that people can mess up with the bike when the electrics can be turned on with just a tap of a button.
As a solution, I installed an ignition lock similar to that in motorcycles. This was just a switch operated with a key that I purchased from Amazon and did some engineering to install on the bicycle.
Following is a quick explanation of how I installed the lock:
1. Get the lock
You can get any key-operated switch from Amazon or any other available sources. Below you can find my affiliate link to purchase the same lock that I'd used for myself.
2. Get the mounting accessory
In my case just a strip of this metal part was useful. I visited a local bicycle repair shop and asked the person for any fixtures that they use for mounting stuff on the bicycle. There I got this bicycle lock ring which perfectly fitted on the bicycle handlebar.
3. Tap the electrical
The speed control console that comes with the Hero Lectro has 5 strands of wire when you cut it. The console provides access to change the speed setting and other adjustments to activate the pedal-assist or throttle only.
4. Red wire
Here just cut the red wire and put the ignition lock wire in between as I did with the two yellow wires that could be seen in the above image.
Here the ignition lock is just a switch that operates with a key so the installation is similar to the installation of any other switch in an electrical circuit.
Also, I had to cut all the wires and rejoin them as I wasn't having the sufficient skill or tools to perform this intricate task, anyways it works either way just cut those, reconnect them, and then put insulation tape so that there's no short-circuiting and it remains waterproof.
With all this done the bicycle was not ready and I could now rest assured that no one would mess up with the bike. As there's no response when you tap on any of the buttons without the keys in place the casually curious people tend to move away after a couple of attempts.
In my opinion, Hero should have supplied the lock as a part of their standard accessory with the bicycle as it is very bad for the motor when it is tied with a cable lock and someone turns on the console and pulls the throttle. Such current inflows without any release of the wheel may simply burn down the motor.
Anyway, it's been 2 weeks since I did this modification and there's no side effect observed in terms of performance from the bike, I do sometimes forget the key and keep pressing the console button only to realize that I had made this modification. Perhaps after a couple of days, I'll get used to the change.
I'd be glad to assist anyone who'd like to install such system on their bicycle, feel free to connect me on Linkedin at linkedin.com/in/sayyedshadaab
Thanks for reading
-Shadaab