Benthedude

i am going to get a u-lock soon, and i dont want to have to carry around a cable to lock up my front wheel, or have to take off my front wheel every time i want to lock my bike. so i read somewhere that there are hub locks, that you have to put a key into it to get your wheel off. ive been searching around and i cant find anything on them. does anyone know anything about these? are they really heavy/bulky/expensive? any ones that you would recommend?
thanks

jimn

A few companies make the locking skewers for bikes with quick-release hubs. Pitlock are one such locking skewer, and while they are not bulky they are expensive.

A cheaper alternative is a cable lock.

BarracksSi

Could just get another smaller U-lock, too.

Cyclist0383

I've used Pitlocks for years and can say they they are wonderful and well worth the money. Put them on and forget about them. Perfect.

Rollfast

Last new bike I had was a stupid Wally-World junkpile but it was like many newer ones in that it had a hole for a pin to hold a retainer piece in and it slipped over the thread to be bolted in place. Not having seen any of this or your bicycle might I ask why can't such an arrangement be locked on the complete diameter with a pin through the hole and locked on the outside of the fork?

Cyclist0383

Huh?

BarracksSi

+1

Rollfast

!

Rollfast

Shoulda done that first, yep.

'Zit work for ya?

joshandlauri

https://www.performancebike.com/shop/...slisearch=true

check these out, i was thinking about getting these.

BarracksSi

Okay, I think I see what you mean --

Basically, it turns a quick release into a not-very-quick-at-all release, right?

I think it'd be easier to just use locking skewers.

matthew_deaner

So how in the world can this prevent theft?

BarracksSi

OH -- (this is what happens sometimes after a glass of wine.. )

What Rollfast is talking about seems to predate the so-called lawyer tabs on quick-release forks (possibly even quick-release levers themselves). It's this little piece of metal with a skinny, T-shaped tab that slips through a hole in the fork just an inch or less above the axle line, and it hangs down to engage the axle bolt.

You don't use these with quick-release skewers, though. These are for axles that you'd simply bolt to the fork by wrenching down a nut on both ends. So, in sequence from the hub outwards, each axle end will have the hub, the fork dropout itself, this little retainer piece, and the securing nuts holding it all together.

My first two bikes -- an AMF 20"-er and a Huffy ATB -- had these things. They kinda held the wheel in place even if the axle nut nearly came unscrewed. But, they just couldn't be used with quick release wheels.

Rollfast's modification, I'm guessing, would be to use these little devices and lock them to the fork, preventing removal of the wheel even if the other mounting hardware is removed.

I still think that Pitlocks are the better, simpler solution, and a second U-lock would be another good alternative.

geo8rge

FWIW, Your LBS probably sells skewers that work off an allen key.