Subscribe Feed (RSS)Locking Up Saddles
March 31st, 2009 by Bill | Filed under Articles.
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
i'm a self diagonosed, harpaxaphobic (the fear of being robbed). howeber, i do have a b-17 champion so i'm somewhat scared of having it taken. not that it's the nicest saddle out there, but more because i'd be really sad to have it taken. all someone needs is an allen wrench and it is theirs. for the specialized bike thief (i have a feeling the economy will be producing more of these), nice bikes that are only locked at the frame are asking to be picked apart.
Maybe it is just a matter of herd behavior. But with more and more people locking their saddles here in Chicago, I have started doing so as well.
I park my bike on a University campus for 12-14 hours a day. It's protected from rain, but not from thieves. So I bought some Pitlock skewers and seatpost lock and don't worry at all. You wouldn't even notice unless try to steal the seat. And you can't.
For sure, after losing one saddle and riding home standing up. Anything that isn't locked down will eventually get stolen. Finders keepers right? crooks…
The bike chain around the saddle rails is a very original idea, but I guess you can cut it with the same bolt cutters they use to cut cables and locks. I guess the only advantge to it is you can make one for free with an old chain.
I have used the bike chain around the saddle many times, but I usually put the chain in a piece of inner tube first to protect the bike's finish. The old smaller tubes from my 23mm racing tires worked great.
Aaron
How about installing metric security screws for the seatlug and seatpost? These require special removers and have oddly shaped head recesses. They would be immune to anything save a drill: bolt cutters would be useless.
as more just a quick deterrent, someone once suggested to me putting a single loose ball bearing in the hex-socket of your securing bolt (whatever size fits, with a little room to move) and then dripping liquid wax into the socket.
So aside from a theif carrying an allen key – they would also needing a pointy object and the time taken to sratch out enough wax to remove the ball bearing (slippery due to being covered in wax) before they could use their allen key to remove any bolt
Foolproof? No, but a low profile, low cost deterrent all the same.
Steve: Pitlock already makes a seat post collar and fastener that need a special key to open. An added benefit using them is the quality of the German made parts is much better than the cheap OEM stuff most bike makers use these days.
Brilliant. I will try that on my kid's new bike to be shipped to him in New York.
I don't lock or chain my saddle, but I use cheap Flites from eBay, which are not hip, at least not at the moment, at least not in LA. Were I to use a Brooks, I'd definitely rig up a bit of drive chain in an inner tube. I first saw that trick in New York years ago. But since I have no problem with visually-worn saddles as long as they work for my tuches, so far no chain.