Preventing saddle theft
 

I'm seeing too many posts on craigslist here in the Austin area saying their saddles are being stolen.

Are there any saddle locks or anything like that out there to prevent a quick allen-wrench theft?

Super glue ball bearings in the heads of your allen screws. When you need access to that particular bolt, a little acetone will melt the glue and you can remove the ball bearing.

Pitlock makes a seatpost binder bolt plus a seatpost loop, but you need to have a QR seatpost with flat surfaces on both sides of the clamp.

I never quite followed the ball bearing logic. Why wouldn't a thief be able to use the same method to remove the ball bearing?

They could, but it's better than having no prevention at all.

how many thiefs carry acetone around? If someone wants anything bad enough they will get it, the whole idea behind prevention is to make the job more difficult and time intensive so they don't take the risk. The longer it takes the less likely they will do it.

A cable lock works well, and doesn't prohibit you from changing seat height.

a thief that has seen your seat post before and has planned a way to get it. Thieves carry whatever it is they need to steal what they want, and if it's a seat post with ball bearings in it, they might have the tools to get the job done.

I agree with you that they will get it if they want it and that all we can do is slow them down, but I have simply not been convinced that the bearings are a good enough idea to go out and do it.

its just about making a little harder. there are other saddles that require no effort and they will get those first.

old chain?

Get a crappier saddle. Put on the saddle from an old Huffy that you rode as a kid and still have in your garage for some reason. Only use your good saddle when you're not planning on locking your bike up somewhere sketchy.

this

Yeah, but they could just use a cutting disk to lop the seatpost off if they really wanted the saddle. 90% of bikes have QR binder bolts, and those are the ones that get stolen most, I'll bet.

I see a lot of seats with old chains locking them to the frames. It's about as likely a thief would have a chainbreak on him as acetone, though.

Yeah, I use a cable lock too. Just weave it through the rails. If your cable is long enough you'll be able to get the back tire too. (there a thread in commuting about this).

Other people use a bike chain PLUS plastic tape (ace hardware has all sorts of colors). Now I know that an idiot could get it off but if you put like 3-4 layers of that stuff on it'll take them all day to remove it. And then if you catch them in the act you can Jean Claude VanDamme their face!

have you tried removing superglue + bb's before? it takes about 30 mins per bolt.

that's as good as any security measure as you're going to get when locking up on the street.

I actually have never tried. I guess I know what i'm doing tomorrow lol

^^^
That was probably a fun hour spent just to adjust your seat and stem haha
If it really takes that long seems like a decent idea. You could also get one of those ghetto gel seat covers and put that over it to make it look like a piece of crap

Old chain w/o master link + old tube = seat protector.

Made one for my beater, since it has a Fizik saddle.
Thats the only part worth stealing on the frame.

Since the chain went through the tube, the only way to really take the seat would be to...

1) Loosen the seat post clamp
2) Lower the seat post, to give slack to the chain, to turn it around to expose the chainlinks.
3) Break chain.

a bolt cutter would easily cut through an old chain, and I'm sure plenty of bike thiefs are aware of those

I've been told candle wax dripped into the hole of a hex nut can be used, as well.

And if the thief had a bolt cutter, they would go for more than just a seat anyways.

Point of the chain method, is a deterrent.

If a bike thief wants something, theyll get it, and have the tools to take it.

Not ALL thiefs carry around heavy duty tools.

Those who take seats simply carry an allen wrench set.

Good thing crackheads don't carry lighters!

:p

I've used wax on my allen heads and then used a silver paint marker to paint over it. It just looks like a solid round bolt head filled in with solder.

any deterrent is not 100% full prove...the most u can do is buy urself time....

making a theif go through a process which may take another 3-4 minutes MAY be enough for him to not want ur **** that badly

all the bike locks u see on the street EVEN with chains CAN be cut....but obviously there is a difference between walmart chains and the heavy duty kryptonite ones u see....