Do you lock your saddle to your bike?

Steve, from New York city (“I live  3 miles from where the World Trade Center used to be and 3 miles from Times Square.”) sent me this picture of his new saddle on his bike and I asked him about the chain around the saddle rails. Steve says it’s a pretty common way to foil thieves in the city.

I’ve spent my adult cycling life in Seattle and New Orleans. I have seen the occasional little cable for this purpose but I have never seen this bicycle-chain solution before. It got me wondering; how many of you feel the need to lock your saddle to your bike?

Please answer yes or no in the poll and if you want to elaborate add a comment to this post. Thank you.

4/1 FOLLOWUP: Yesterday’s online New York Times had a blog post titled “The Bike Thieves Among Us.” There are three pages of comments.

Tags: security lock

passé front pannier

For 2009 Ortlieb has changed the visual design of their Packer Classic front and rear panniers. We have some sets of new ’08 bags on Ebay at a discount.

Seller: wallbikeparts

Tags: sale

from BICYCLE QUARTERLY

The spring issue of Bicycle Quarterly magazine contains a test of the new Berthoud saddle. Editor Jan Heine cautions that the saddle is fairly new to him and points out a couple of negative points but he also says; “This saddle has been among the most comfortable saddles I have ridden.” and; “Overall I highly recommend the Berthoud saddle.”

We hope to have this new saddle in-stock sometime in April.

Bicycle Quarterly website

Tags: bicycle quarterly

Originally uploaded by guuwatanabe

Can anyone explain the bracketry on this fender?

From the GUU-watanabe photostream

Tags: mystery

Schwalbe makes their high-end Marathon Supreme and Marathon XR models available in both folding Kevlar bead and wire-bead. The thing is, the way they are priced the wire-bead tire is only about $3 less expensive at retail.

Kevlar-bead tires are lighter, easier to carry and store, and (for us) easier to shelve and ship. Wire-bead tires take up a lot of shelf space and, given the small price difference, I am inclined to leave the wire tires out of our inventory.

But maybe I’m missing something. What is the case for a high-end tire with a wire bead over folding Kevlar at almost the same price. Tell me why you want us to carry these top-line tires with the wire bead. Wallingford Bicycle Parts wants to be your best source for Schwalbe touring tires. If there is a market for the wire-bead versions we will get them in here.

honey Millbrook left, brown Glenbrook right

Brooks is offering a limited run of their popular Milbrook and Glenbrook saddlebgs in antique brown or honey leather. The leather versions will include a shoulder strap. MSRP is 300 for the leather Millbrook and 450 for the leather Glenbrook.

I am told that total production of these two bags is two-hundred pieces . We have our order placed and are hoping for delivery some time in April.

UPDATE 5/7/09: These bags are at the US distributor’s warehouse. We will probably have ours here in 1-2 weeks.