Locking up your bike while out and about can be a right hassle. Although
securing your bike is essential, carrying a heavy duty shackle lock about on the
frame as I did when
I first had the bike can be a real pain. The frame mounting holders never see to
last long, and carrying the lock in a pannier always rattles. Always on the look
out for a better solution, it was whilst on a break in Amsterdam in 1999 I
spotted this fantastic idea.
Amsterdam is the cycling capital of Europe, and I spent a little time studying the cycles I saw there. Whilst more traditional in design, I noticed they were mostly fitted with a type of lock I had never seen before. It was usually fitted to the frame, horseshoe-shaped and functioned by placing a bar through the spokes of the wheels, preventing the wheel from rotating. This struck me as being a fine idea... and I set out to buy one.
After searching, I found one in a a hardware store near the Damrak - it cost me
the princely sum of 10 guilders (about £3.30), and came with two keys and all
mounting hardware. Made by AXA Holland,
the SL7 lock is a cracker. From the picture it can be seen that it mounts on the inside
of the upper rear stays on a couple of hooks. The key is non-removable until the
device is locked, which means you never lose the key, and because the unit fits
on the inside of the stays, once it is locked through the wheel, even unbolting
lock and wheel will not allow the removal of either because the lock is too
large to fit through the frame.
The device is locked by rotating the spring-loaded key and sliding the red lever down, whereby it latches a hardened steel bolt through the wheel and into a socket on the other side of the lock, allowing the key to be removed. It's a great unit for quickly locking the bike whilst popping into shops or suchlike, and a great deterrent to the opportunistic thief. I still use a shackle lock when leaving the bike for long periods, but the SL7 works just fine for those 'just popping into a shop' moments.
I've only ever seen one bike in this country fitted with this kind of lock, and that was a Dutch type of bike parked in Birmingham city centre. However, I've since learned from a friendly postman in my local (hello, Colin!) that post office bikes, made by Pashley, are fitted with these as standard. When I came to compile this page, I searched the net for a supplier in the UK, and found this page here. Although the price shocked me (£17.99 - what?) I would recommend it for convenience and security. One of the big disadvantages of the lock is that it doesn't allow the fixing of the bike to a fixed structure - such as railings or a lamp-post - I do notice, however, that Canterbury Cycle Mart also sell a cable that actually plugs into a socket in the lock to allow this. My order was dispatched as soon as I found the page...