Usually one can use a cable to go through the saddle rails and part of the frame (seat stay) to lock the saddle. If the cable is too short to reach through the seat stay, how about let the cable through the rear wheel? Would that be secure, too?

(It seems to me that even if the rear wheel is not locked to the frame or fixed object, it's impossible to remove both the saddle and the rear wheel together without cutting the cable?)

Advantage of old style seatposts, you can use the hollow tube to run a loop of cable out of the top around the saddle rails
and back in again then fixing the other ends to a plug held in by using a longer seat tube mounted water bottle cage.

I recently got a Brompton Penta-clip. it is a premium saddle clip its micro adjustability removes the
notchyness of lesser saddle clips, and as its mostly aluminum, weight is reasonable ..

I used to use a piece of bicycle chain encased in a old piece of inner tube on my commuter. Help add to the ugly factor.

Aaron

The LBS did that to my bike, too, but I'm afraid it can be somehow broken? Between the bike chain and cable, which one is more secure?

What about my original question--if you do use a cable, and the cable goes through the rear wheel instead of the frame, it works, too?

Bolt Cutter & Chain Tool = Free Saddle

Yes but you need to remove the cable to ride the bike if it is run through a wheel. Usually it is more convenient to cable or lock the saddle to the frame in such a way that you can ride w/o removing the cable or chain. Also typically a chain or cable from seat to frame can be shorter than one run to a wheel.

Cables are quite esasily cut compared to chains IMO though either can be cut using a large enough bolt cutter. Cables can be more easily cut with diagonal cutters or smaller tools than chains. Using an old bicycle chain it can be disassembled using a chain tool.

Doesn't matter what you use short of welding the saddle to the bike a determined thief can and will steal it. All you can do is make it less attractive to them.

Chances are a thief out to steal a bicycle is going to have a pair of cable cutters rather than a chain tool. If they are carrying a battery powered mini grinder all bets are off.

Aaron

I just replace the quick release with a locking skewer. This is both more attractive and harder to defeat than a cable or chain.

They used to sell a little device... a "star-fangled" nut went into the seatpost, and you screwed an eyebolt into that. suspended from the eyebolt was a short length of cable and a plug that would fit into your seat-tube. Also included was an extra-long water-bottle cage bolt.
So, you'd drop the plug down into the seat tube, screw in the water-bottle cage bolt, and viola... The seatpost could be pulled up a bit, but would mysteriously stop.

I don't know if they market these any more, but it would be pretty easy to make one.

Thanks for the replies!

In my case the seat stay is very low so running the cable through the frame (seat stay) requires a longer length than through the wheel (which is exactly why I'm considering the wheel )

When I looked at the locking skewers, they all seem to be more expensive than the saddle itself

Usually, you can replace the QR with a standard clamping nut and bolt. How often do you need to adjust your saddle, anyway? Very few roadsters feature QRs.

And the QR is mostly a holdover on mountain bikes from an earlier period when riders were advised to lower the saddle when making steep descents. No one does this anymore; everyone learned that you just move completely off the saddle anyway.

But a thief could carry a wrench to unscrew the bolt, which is not hard, either?

Really? Mine were nowhere near as expensive as my saddle, although I did get them on sale.