Securing seat on a Brompton and other security matters.

[Time Waster]

Ignoring the arguments over not locking and leaving a Brompton aside, this is a question based on how to make the best of the situation that is the need to lock and leave.

So you can use many types of locks to secure the frame, wheels and so on. I guess you can even use pinlock skewers or similar perhaps on the wheels (not sure but I reckon you can). What about the seatpost/seat?

I have a telescopic seatpost and I drop it and feed my cable lock thrrough it and thee frame and the rack I am locking to. You can get cable tie locks with pin keys or combinations locks, but I wondered what people would do?

 

[sheddy]

I thought the Brompton seatpost is captive
I'm sure mine is

 

[Time Waster]

I thought the Brompton seatpost is captive
I'm sure mine is

My seatpost is telescopic and at least the upper section with the seat on it comes out. Whether it is supposed to or not I do not know but for me it is an issue because it can come our on mine.

 

[Time Waster]

Aside from the seatpost what about the wheels. Can you get locking bolts or something like that for Bromptons?

What else on a Brompton is potentially more vulnerable than on a full sized, rigid bike and what you can do to secure it?

Also, what lock do you carry and how do you use it, carry it when not using it, etc?

 

[TheDoctor]

To be fair, I can't see anyone bothering to steal the wheels from a Brompton, because there's hardly anything else they would fit.
I usually just use a D-lock, through the frame or the folded bike, onto something large and substantial.

 

[Schwinnsta]

I use a 1/4 inch or 5mm seatpost leash and I run it thru the Helmet seat and thru the chain of my lock. Working here since 2014 but I choose safer spots to lock it mostly.

 

[Kell]

I've never owned the telescopic version, so didn't realise the top part came out.

Can you take it with you?

To be fair, I can't see anyone bothering to steal the wheels from a Brompton, because there's hardly anything else they would fit.
I usually just use a D-lock, through the frame or the folded bike, onto something large and substantial.

To this point, some people don't even do it to sell on, they do it because they're peanuts and want to cause damage to something nice.

 

[Time Waster]

I bet a keen cyclist could come up with quite a bit of mischeivous tampering on a locked bike if they were to have a mind to. What would your evil sabotage be? I think the simple seat removal is a good one. Having said that I have seen some people without seats or seatpost riding around on undersized bikes with small, fat wheels trying to relive their youth when the humble BMX first came out!!

There was that cycle shop cartoon that taught me about a very incorrect use of ball bearings on a car valve. Never used it but part of me wants to observe the effect over time in a safe and purely experimental way of course. Is there something similar with bike valves? Logic tells me that certain ones this would work with the right sized ball bearings. Road bikes generally have the wrong valve type for it to work though. My Brompton does have the right one for that mischievousness though.

 

[Kell]

I bet a keen cyclist could come up with quite a bit of mischeivous tampering on a locked bike if they were to have a mind to. What would your evil sabotage be? I think the simple seat removal is a good one.

I did watch a programme about bike theft a while back. One of the methods of thieves is to steal something that makes your bike unrideable so that you then leave it locked up overnight and then it's easier for them to come back and nick it then.

However I stand by my original comment about people just being idiots. I regularly walk past bikes that are locked up but both front and rear wheels have been kicked in and bent. It's the same (limited) mentality of people that key cars.

On a related note, my sister in law works in a cafe by a river and came in to work a couple of weeks back to find that some mindless scrotes had thrown all their tables and chairs in to the river. The world is full of morons.

 

[Time Waster]

I did watch a programme about bike theft a while back. One of the methods of thieves is to steal something that makes your bike unrideable so that you then leave it locked up overnight and then it's easier for them to come back and nick it then.

However I stand by my original comment about peole just being idiots. I regularly walk past bikes that are locked up but both front and rear wheels have been kicked in and bent. It's the same (limited) mentality of people that key cars.

On a related note, my sister in law works in a cafe by a river and came in to work a couple of weeks back to find that some mindless scrotes had thrown all their tables and chairs in to the river. The world is full of morons.

With my local canoe club we paddled a tidal section of the River Lune through Lancaster. At one point there wass a high embankment wall with a path the other side and a supermarket not that far away. Can you guess what we saw? A stack of supermarket trolleys that like a river estuary spread out from a narrow stack at the top to a wide base. We could not see the bottom but there were at leasst 31 going up from the waterline and the tide was high so there must have been a lot more under the waterline!! There wass a bike or two in the stack too. Impressive actually how the stack was built up like that!! It was solidly built as it lasteed a long time through quite a few high flow periods.