Locks. Many people have differing opinions on what is the right type / combination of locks to bring with you on tour.
It’s a tough decision; as your bicycle is the most expensive bit of equipment you have, and so much time and research went into getting it right, and not to mention that … it’s also your mode of transportation! The last thing you would want is for it to be stolen.
When it comes to picking a lock there are two main factors which will decide what you are going to bring: weight and space.
After some searching around on the web we found some very clever seat posts with an integrated lock, The Interlock.
The Interlock, is one of many new and innovative products which started life from crowdfunding on Kickstarter. It’s also a Canadian designed product, and as a Canadian I’m always proud to use and support a home-grown product.
We were sent a pair of interlocks to test out. It’s been a little over a month and we are already finding them to be fairly handy.
The lock is integrated into the seatpost and tucks away neatly, out of the way in the seat tube of the frame. The lock itself is made from a fairly thick gauged, laminated and flexible steel stranded cable. The locking mechanism is simple, reliable (so far) and uses a non-circular tumbler lock and comes with 2 keys (including serial numbers if a replacement is needed).
A few things which we like about the lock:
- It’s simple – it’s an innovative design, but otherwise it’s a simple cable lock that is a pretty good length, allowing for fairly flexible locking options.
- It’s location – This is good for a variety of reasons. It’s easy to access, we do not have seatbags, so the lock is always easy to get out, no fumbling around or digging in panniers. It’s also out of the way; the lock is not sticking out of the frame to kick when we are peddling or prone to falling off when we go over a bump.
- You can lock your saddle with it.
- Its long enough to go around your wheel and a post.
So far the Interlock has been extremely handy for locking our bike overnight, when we run into a shop, and in town.
I had one problem when installing the interlock on Claire’s bicycle. The cable would not go into the frame past the water bottle holder. This however was an easy fix, the bolts attached to the bottle holder were too long and were extending into the tube of the frame and stopping the cable from sliding in, I switched the bolts out for slightly shorter ones and the problem was fixed.
We think that the Interlock is great for a tourer for the reasons noted above (accessible, yet compact). However, the one downside is that the lock is not heavy duty enough to leave the bike alone in cities/towns for extended periods of time. Therefore, we decided to bring with us another lock to add extra protection, a titanium Tigr lock (review to come). We do feel that this Interlock is well worth bringing on a tour as the pluses of this little lock outweigh the one downside and we are never really too far from our bikes and panniers for very long anyway.
I would also be pretty happy with a longer cable, to increase the number of locking options you have, but I suppose it would not fit all frames (hooray for tall people as we could have one!).
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