saddle lock chain thoughts?
 

ok ther double u-lock thread got me paranoid, and thinking about my brooks. it's not a swift or anything high zoot, just a b17 narrow, but if someone decided to jack the seat and post i'd be out a buck, and sad too. i never leave the bike for long, but it's the most innocuous theft there is. what do you guys think about those chain locks that go between the stays and the saddle rails? also question: can you buy these with some kind of cover? i know i could just make one with some old chain but i don't want something rattling around or chewing up my stays. also presumably if it's uncovered then you could just use a chain tool in like 3 seconds to get it off. anyway i don't know. they're ugly as ****, and i hate the idea of it, but i also like my saddle. what do you guys think?

Old chain + old innertube + zipties = cheapo seat lock. Works well, doesn't rattle..

Totally. Or go whole hog and buy a shiny new chain, skip the inner tube, run it figure-8 style so it's real taut, and it won't rattle anyway and will look sorta cool/tough.

this is what i did after my brooks got stolen on w.18th st. in the middle of the day when i was at work.

I saw this alot in NYC.

I also saw alot of bikes locked up on the street sans seats & handlebars.

How do you put the innertube on so it is nice and tight? cut a long strip and bandage the chain like a handlebar? If I buy an expensive saddle, I want it protected, but it has to look tidy...
I always wondered how they made the nice seat saver chain thingies I used to see on FGG. Surely not dozens of zip ties.

I put goo on the stem and seatpost allen key holes. Just stinks when you need to adjust something.

You can arrange the chain in a figure 8 and run two lengths of it through one tube so that where the chain crosses itself, it's inside one tube, with loops of single chain extending on either end.

I used chewing gum for my stem.

It worked fine for removing it.

I use a $5 cable (probably overpriced but they are hard to find and $5 so whatever) and a $2 padlock. Looped the cable to the frame right where the st and tt meet and locked up inside the Brooks. The padlock is pretty much out of site, and in a pleasant surprise turned out to be absolutely silent. I taped the cable to the seat post with gaffer's tape. Black tape on black post so its discreet. A lot more elegant then those chain tube contraptions and probably equally in/effective. And not nearly as elegant as no lock on the seat at all...

How much work will they do for a saddle anyway? mostly for saddles it seems like crackheads going for the quick releases.. Any stories of nice track drops or other handlebars getting snatched? I was already bike paranoid before reading all these theft stories on this board...

Yeah some ****** bag stole my 15 nashbar bullhorns with ripped grey(ex-white) tape hanging off of it. They also took the freaking face plate for the stem so I had to get a new stem.

****e, that suck wangster, where was it? day? night?

guess I got to start worrying getting paranoid about my Nittos now... What's the best secure method (other then ordering pitlock locking bolts from Germany)? Fill in the bolt heads with epoxy? Or figure out how to get a quill stem (w/o face plate) on a threadless headset? Or just write it of as a cost of riding in NYC?

Think I better go the later route, things get stolen around here, only so much you can do...

i'm with monkey. a little hot glue in the allen holes is going to do the same job. having a chain around the rails isn't going to stop a determined thief, just make the casual thief move on to the next bike. i think the goo-in-the-bolt would do the same.

rapping the chain in electrical tape works too

Very observant young grasshopper.

Yes we have been doing this since the early 80's (84-86) time frame. It works very well. It is more of an derterant to theft.

S/F<
CEYA!

note - you should probably use an NJS chain though... :rolleyes:

if you are unsure which one to use, just start a new thread :D

you never think you need to secure something until it gets ripped off.
better to have something you don't need than to need something you don't have.

has anybody ever seen this done with actual links of chain?
im getting a new chain soon and i think i might use someof the excess links to make something like this to protect my seat (also a brooks)

There won't be enough excess links, I think. Your old chain, though, will be fine for the job.

Perhaps eccentric but how about glue?