Look around any city’s bicycle stands and you’ll see tons of bikes without seats. Why? Well, some of them have been stolen. And some of them have been removed by their owners to prevent them being stolen!
Neither of these scenarios are good.
For sure, having your bike seat stolen is the worst! Not only will you have to pay for a new one (and bike seats can be expensive!). But you’ll also have to suffer to ignominy and discomfort of cycling home without being able to sit down!
However, having to remove your bike seat and seatpost every time you leave your bike (to prevent it from being stolen) is not much better. Carrying a bike seat and post around with you is a major pain in the ass (pun intended)…
Some of them can be heavy and they’re all awkward and unwieldy. And the posts are often grimy, threatening to stain your clothes or bags.
Plus turning up to a work meeting or a social gathering with part of a bike under your arm is just not a good look .
And then you’ve got to make sure you replace the seatpost at the same height when you come back to the bike or suffer an uncomfortable new riding position.
None of this is much fun!
But because so many bike seats are stolen if we don’t take them with us, many of us have come to accept this inconvenience.
I have written before about other measures that you can take to avoid having your bike seat stolen. But the sad truth is: if a thief wants your bike seat bad enough, if it’s left on your bike, he can take it by one means or another.
Seatylock, the team behind my favorite folding lock, have recognized this truth and rather than come up with a new seat lock that would make it more difficult (but not impossible) to steal your seat, they’ve made it easier to take your seat with you so that it’s impossible to steal!
The SeatyGo is basically a quick release saddle, with a seat that is super easy to clip on and off it’s rails.
To remove the seat you simply click the leaver under the front of the seat and lift it off. And to replace it you just snap the seat back onto the rails. Simple.
There’s a couple of significant advantages that this solution has over the old school seatpost removal technique…
First of all the whole operation is much quicker and easier than removing and then re-installing your seatpost.
Secondly the seat is much smaller and more compact than a seat and seatpost combination. And it should be cleaner too. So it’s much easier to carry…
You can realistically slip it into your bag or maybe your back pocket (although I’m not convinced that’s so practical). You’ll certainly be able to hide it away somewhere anyway!
And don’t forget, you won’t risk re-installing your seat at a different height when you return to your bike either!
There are other unexpected and positive consequences too. You’ll never return to a rain soaked seat again. And of course a bike that’s difficult to ride (because it has no seat) will be slightly less attractive to a thief.
So no more wet bottoms and less chance of having your bike stolen too. Bonus!
The SeatyGo is compatible with all seatposts. And there are three different styles of seat: the Urban for city bikes, the Dynamic for road/racing bikes and the EBike for (yes you guessed it) electric style bikes.
Before you get too excited, the SeatyGo is not available to buy yet. But you can pre-order on the Seatylock website.
