Pitlocks…

In anticipation of riding the JBK Haleiwa Metric Century this weekend, I decided to tweak my bike a wee bit more. On my beater bike I’ve been a Zefal Lock’N’Roll skewer up front to keep my front wheel from being liberated. Not that’d I’d worry too much if it disappeared, it must be at least 15 years old and was cheap to begin with…but it works well, so I might as well keep it.
But I’d really love to keep my the front wheel on my Quickbeam as it was built by Rich from Riv and isn’t even 15 months old.
Normally I carry two locks, a U-bolt and a cable. I realize the cable can be easily cut but my QB isn’t parked out on the street that much and I’m aware that I can really only prevent spur of the moment crimes anyway. If someone wants the bike, they’ll get it.
Still two locks are heavy and since cabling the front wheel only makes it difficult, not impossible, I thought I’d try a Pitlock up front. They are expensive little buggers, but if it deters theft, I’m good with it; especially as I don’t want to haul two locks to the north shore this weekend.
A bit of research turned up lots of places advertising low prices, but…and it’s a big but, they really only expedite an order from Germany where said locks are made and there’d be duty and such not included in the price. No bargain that.
That left only a couple of North American importers. The best option seemed to be urbanbiketech.com. They are Canadian and deal only in Pitlocks. Click the image to go to their site:

As I was buying for a single speed bike with horizontal dropouts it was recommended I not use a rear Pitlock as it won’t hold against all the forces applied. That’s not a problem as I usual lock my bike as suggested by the late Sheldon Brown. But because I also have relatively expensive saddles from Brooks, I thought I might try a Pitlock for the seat post.
Here’s my two cents on all this…
urbanbiketech.com – I had no problems at all and received my set very quickly, in time for the ride this weekend, something I wasn’t sure of when I ordered. Kudos.

Front skewer – I had almost no trouble installing this on my Quickbeam following the after-market instructions from urbanbiketech. My wheel rolls as free as ever and it even looks great, though I’ll probably trim down the skewer itself a bit. Trimming is recommended if it sticks out more than 4mm and I’m definitely there. I did end up adjusting one brake pad and creating a squeal, but that’s all on me and certainly wasn’t because of the new skewer. Still it’s something I want to deal with before I go.
Seat post lock – Here I’m not as happy, though it certainly isn’t the fault of the Pitlock or my retailer. It’s just that I had some trouble with tightening the lock down far enough to keep my saddle from slipping down. I took a 25 mile ride after doing the installation (front wheel great), and a few miles in I had to stop and reseat everything. I flaked off a bit of paint while doing it which, as you might imagine, didn’t make me overly happy; though I’m okay with beausage in general. A few miles later I had to stop again thinking the post had slipped, but it hadn’t. I’d just adjusted the nose of my saddle a bit off center and was paying the price. That took a few seconds to remedy and the rest of the ride was fine, though I worried a bit about slippage for the duration. That’ll pass I suspect.
All in all, things are good. I think I can carry one lock this weekend and feel pretty safe.
That’s it for now!