Originally Posted by northboundtrain

Agreed, but useful information nevertheless. I'm certainly not going to carry 3/8" cable and a couple of U-locks on tour, but it's good to know how best to lock a bike in a different situation. This ought to be posted in the single-speed/fixie forum if it isn't already.

I was actually thinking recently of the lightest possible locking system for touring. I was thinking about using solid axles and nuts on the the wheels so that I could just lock the frame with a very short length of cable, which I could have swaged at my local hardware store. I would get a couple of cheap 15mm and 17mm wrenches and cut them as short as possible -- maybe 2 inches or so -- to reduce the weight. I'm thinking the nutted axles would be beneficial for other reasons as well. I've never broken a QR skewer or lever, but it has occured to me -- while changing a tire in the middle of nowhere -- that I'd be rather stuck if it did ever happen. You also wouldn't have to worry about some overly curious or nefarious kid loosening up your skewer while you were buying groceries (I did catch some kids once messing with my bike while I was in a store. They were just curious, but it gave me something to think about.)