Dec 13, 2017
Bike Lock Review — Seatylock
Short Answer: Please get a more secure lock for your fancy bike!
The promise of the Seatylock is a all-in-one secure bike lock and seat that allows you to commute without having to carry a heavy lock. The concept is amazing in theory. In reality you have a heavy seat which weighs you down the same as a traditional lock.
I’ve been using my Seatylock since Spring of 2016 (Order #: 102233603). I don’t need my bike to be as light as possible so the Seatylock has been great for my daily 6 mile commute to work in San Francisco. Unfortunately, on 11/2/2017, my Seatylock was broken in order to steal my Marin Gestalt 3 bicycle.
As you can see from the picture at the top of the post, the Seatylock was broken at one of the steel nodes.
If you have a more than decent bike, skip the snazzy Kickstarter locks as your primary lock and go with Wirecutter’s highest rated lock, the Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboudit Mini. If you register your lock you can even pay for anti-theft insurance via Kryptonite which is unheard of. It cost me ~$26 to cover the full value! Since I’m more paranoid now about my bike and still enjoy testing out Kickstarter concepts I use the OttoLock as my secondary, not primary lock for the tires. OttoLock is even smart enough to say on their website that it is not meant as a primary lock. It’s Kevlar, therefore stronger than the easy to cut cables and OttoLock rolls up into your back pocket conveniently.
I was fortunate to have my bike covered under my AllState renter’s insurance policy. Before you buy a snazzy bike, make sure the bike is covered under your current insurance policy by calling your agent, or buy insurance to cover the bike outside your home.
I offered to mail my broken seat back to Seatylock so they can figure out how to improve upon future designs. They’re not interested as it seems they are aware of this design flaw and were gracious enough to offer me a 25% discount on a future purchase.
The wise approach for Seatylock moving forward is to either take a play out of Kryptonite or OttoLock’s book and offer the anti-theft warranty or tell people before buying that Seatylock that it is not meant to be a primary lock.
I’m Adam Hurwitz — hit the clapping hands icon and check out the rest of my writing if you enjoyed the above. Thanks for reading!
