General Cycling Discussion - Saddle lock

I always take off my saddle and its pole (or whatever is the correct term) if I leave my bike out of sight. But seriously, shouldn’t there exist some kind of lock? Like a drilled hole through frame and pole where you can use any kind of lock? Or would that weaken the frame’s strength? Maybe it already exists? Please enlighten me.
:rolleyes: :confused:

I have seen little locks that lock the seat and post to the bike....just a wire rope with a rubber coating and loops on the ends. But I dont remember where they hook on to the bike....I bet you could hook it to the seatstay.

Great idea, I never thought of that! You can just draw a wire through the frame and through the saddle rails. How easy. :)

I have seen the wire seat locks that Klein mentions.

To me, they are just too thin to be much of a deterent.

On my most precious seat, I made a vinyl sleeve (with a color that matches my bike) and ran a small steel chain through it. I use this with a small, good lock to lock my saddle to the top tube of the bike.

i hate my seat, so i keep hoping someone at school wll snatch it from me. then, i can put my bike on the train and head straight for the bike shop, so i can replace it. =P i wastalking to some crazy/cool bike lady on a loooong train ride from va to pa, and she said she has special quick releases with locks on 'em...like, little keyholes are in the quick-release mechanism itself, and need to be unlocked in order to take stuff off. now THAT's something i'd like to have. anyone know anything about 'em?

-rob

Kryptonite makes those small cables. They are quite strong.

There is almost nothing that will deter a dedicated thief, so, at least, make them work for it

One of the magazine type programs on TV had a story about bike thiefs a couple years ago. They planted a bike, with a homing beeper in the handlebars, and waited for someone to steal the bike. With a hidden camera they watched a guy, carrying a messenger bag, go up to the bike, take out of the bag a pair of bolt cutters, cut the chain and ride off in about 15 seconds. They followed him and nailed him after he sold it to a receiver of stolen goods. As I recall they didn't have him arrested, but interviewed him for their program. (He said he wouldn't do it any more, now that he had been caught.)

Originally posted by mike
On my most precious seat, I made a vinyl sleeve (with a color that matches my bike) and ran a small steel chain through it. I use this with a small, good lock to lock my saddle to the top tube of the bike.
I think I need to see a pic of that. ;)

I have one of the Kryptonite saddle cables. It is quite sturdy. I don't actually use it for my saddle. I carry it in my bag with a Master lock in case I need to lock my bike up to run in a store. It is just much lighter than my heavy cable. Since I never leave my bike for long I just need a deterrent.

Removing a seatpost is so much hastle. Why not just use a cheap seatpost and saddle with a bolt and allen key, then no-one will want to steal it.
Try timimg how long it takes you to secure and refit QR mounted seatpost and wheels. (30secs a lockup). Multiply the number of lockups a year (500), that is 15000 secs (over 4 hours a year).
My non QR seatpost and axle bolts take a bit longer to change, but I get around 2 punctures a year, so apart from maintainance, my streetside wheel removal saves me 2 hours for every puncture. QR or SR. ?

I'm a bit of a goof, because I carry two locks -- one is a U-lock and the other is a long Kryptonite cable lock. It adds a whack of weight, but I prefer doing it this way because I don't want to deal with missing bike parts. (My bike isn't expensive and neither are the parts, but time is trickier to come by.)

I usually thread the cable lock through the saddle rails on its way around the rest of the bike -- so that the most removable stuff -- wheels, saddle -- are all strung together and then, preferably, locked to some immoveable object. I'm sure less weighty variations of this would suffice as a deterrent.

Originally posted by MichaelW
Removing a seatpost is so much hastle. Why not just use a cheap seatpost and saddle with a bolt and allen key, then no-one will want to steal it.
Yes they will and they did. That’s why I’m cautious now. But I do have two seats; for shorter trips where I gonna leave my bike I use the cheap one, which is a hell to sit on. I don’t have the expensive seat just cause it’s expensive, but cause it’s so much nicer to sit on than any seat I’ve had before.

Try timimg how long it takes you to secure and refit QR mounted seatpost and wheels. (30secs a lockup). Multiply the number of lockups a year (500), that is 15000 secs (over 4 hours a year).
Yeah, it’s about 30 seconds, as it is to lock the bike itself. But I don’t mind, I already use like 30 hours a year to brush my teeth, 120 hours a year to stand in line in shops and 950 hours a year to do nothing. Maybe that was your ironic point. ;)

I went for an allen key seatpost clamp, as a deterent, along with allen key wheel skewers - it won't stop a pro but hopefully will stop opportunists.

Of course it didn't stop someone stubbing out a cigarette on the saddle... :(

Richard

Fire alarms Mac computers and other security systems are secured with TORX bolts, These are like allen bolts, but instead of a hex pattern they have a star pattern. I doubt if passing bike thieves carry a torx driver.
There are other security bolt patterns. Any decent hardware shop should carry them.
You may have to saw off the handle of the driver and bent it over to make it small enough to carry.