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TECH NEWS
Saddle Lock 1Saddle lock design wins Red Dot award
This new bike security system features a seatpost that pivots backwards and a rear wheel lock integrated into the saddle. The Korean innovation has just won a Red Dot design award.
The design is the work of Lee Sang Hwa, Kim Jin Ho and Yeo Min Gu. Of course, if you really want to make sure your bike is still there when you get back – or at least to stand a fighting chance – you actually need to lock it to something immovable. That’s obvious. This is intended as a quick and simple way to lock your bike when you’re making a short stop – maybe even easy enough for Damon Albarn to use.
The designers say, “In complex cities, the number of people using bicycles to travel short distances is increasing. Following the trend, bicycle design has been evolving rapidly. On the contrary, the evolution of the bicycle lock has been slow. When they make a quick stop – such as at a coffee counter or a convenience store – people still look for something to lock their bicycle to. Even though they are only stopping for a few minutes, they must perform quite a number of actions to lock their bike.
“Saddle Lock provides a way to quickly lock the rear wheel without the need for additional locking accessories. The seat post swings down around the main frame when a button is pushed. The saddle features a cut-away shape that allows it to sit over the rear wheel. A combination lock allows the release of a special alloy rotating lock that extends from one end of the saddle to the other, securing its connection to the wheel.”
Red Dot awards are bestowed by the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Essen, Germany for design excellence.
Here at caring, sharing road.cc, we like to support innovation wherever possible, but while we appreciate the design is intended for commuting rather than for all-out performance, we can’t help wondering what the lack of any triangulation at the rear of that bike does in terms of frame flex. Admittedly, those tubes do look pretty sturdy.
We’re also curious about saddle height adjustment – in that there really isn’t going to be a lot here. Maybe you can chop the seatpost to length.
It seems to us like quite a lot is forfeited for the sake of the ability to immobilise the rear wheel.
We remain to be convinced but, still, interesting stuff.
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.
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28 comments
Acutally having looked at the site, I cannot find this particular design. BUT. There are some other totally dumb ideas you can laugh at. There is another integrated lock and seatpost that you have to take the seatpost out, thus potentially getting grease all over yourself, increasing the likelihood of busting the clamp with over use and increasing the rate of corrosion by water getting into the bike and the damage of constant wear and tear.
There is a seatpost/pup, that is an even worse idea. A saddle that is made of a block of plastic with holes in so if it rains water drains through. Looks really inflexible and uncomfortable, oh hang on, the frame is carbon fibre. that makes it ok.
And a flouro green version of the cyclehoop already in use in london (and many other places).
Jeez. Cant these people get awards for actual working practical solutions in production that people like and use?
Those wheel locks don't just come attached to dutch bikes y'know.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/ABUS-Bicycle-Lock-4850-Black/dp/B001BADNJ8/ref=pd_sim_sbs_sg_1
What a silly design. Why have the mocked up a road bike with discs when that is not going to be their market?
problem with design schools they dont practice reality. had this bloke rode a bike all his life and long, he would understand the bicycle, like the wheel has reached its full design potential. to design an integrated lock like this is like making a hexagonal wheel. I've seen samsung tv's where techwise they have eradicated blur meaning when Black Beauty runs across your tv screen you wont see the beauty of motion blur. Believe me, I rather have the blur. When I want to watch a swimwear pageant I will call them.
The Tigr lock should be winning awards
http://www.paxplena.com/2012/04/review-tigr-lock.html?m=1
I prefer locks that don't require buying a whole new bike! As others have said, this is only good for a very short stop. In that case, just carry a flimsy lock or one ofthose Scandinavian style wheel locks. It's generally important to lock to a fixed object for insurance purposes even if the lock is cheap. Also, isn't everybody like me with a whole series of locks depending on which bike I am riding, where I intend to leave it and for how long?
Precisely!!! That's why the article says, "Of course, if you really want to make sure your bike is still there when you get back – or at least to stand a fighting chance – you actually need to lock it to something immovable. That’s obvious."
Is there something in the article that makes you think we consider this a successful design?
Make it mandatory for all eBay and Gumtree sellers to produce an original purchase receipt, and for all cable locks to come with a sticker saying "warning, this will only protect your bike against a small child armed with a plastic spoon", and you'd probably halve bike theft overnight. This, on the other hand...
My design of a tea cup made of biscuit is being considered for next year's red dot award give-away.
I wish in my line of work it were possible to win awards for concept sketches that were deficient in every way possible (less secure, impractical, heavy: this ticks all the boxes) but looked nice.
I'm amazed how the front derailleur manages to hover in thin air!
I think it is a bit funny to give a design award to something like this when it hasn't been built.
The 'security' this affords is that the back wheel cannot turn. Nothing at all stopping someone carrying it away. Therefore, how is this any different to the age-old 'Dutch' style wheel-lock gracing a bajillion bikes around the world?
This isn't 'design'. Good design is a Monopol corkscrew, Eames chair, or anything that is both beautiful AND functional. This fails totally on the latter, and is arguable on the former.
Has anyone else noticed the strange squiggly shapes between the pictures?
I see what you did there. Clever.
I repeat: how is this different to the ABUS Granite City wheel lock on my Dutch bike? I don't need a lamp-post. If someone wants to nick it, they'll have to lift about 35KG of unwieldy, large bike. This is no different to this 'award-winner'. Except that my bike can also have panniers, a rack, mudguards, over-sized tyres, a saddlebag, and the saddle height can be adjusted for my wife / friends to use.
This isn't 'design', it's fail.
Well, at least it's not yet another "commuter" design study with a TT position - it looks like you could actually ride relatively comfortably.
Not to mention both QR-levers pointed forwards for maximum twig-catching carnage!
i live in the middle of rotterdam,bike theft is rife... after seeing an vanmoof three years ago i bought one.too my delight its still here today,locked to a lamppost every night [the model is vanmoof no5] p.s. also a red dot winner...tot ziens rob
Hi Rob, I hear from a Dutch friend in the business that Vanmoof have a pretty poor reputation for componentry - rust, failure etc - thoughts? Maybe just the early ones?
hi kiwimike,not much of an problem with my vanmoof perhaps the mudguards but thier steel.ive painted them once yeah otherwise everything is ok[im doing 25km every day
Large-Large gear combination on that cgi bike, too
I love it when I have to use a hacksaw to change my saddle height. Also you could still walk away with most of the bike with an allen key and a flick of the rear QR by the looks of it
Design for the sake of design.
hmm, Mudguard-free commuting? Not my cup of tea.
Both interesting designed, but flawed. That Interlock cable looks thin enough to be cut thru in a few minutes. perhaps suitable for locking up your bike when you pop into a newspaper shop but neither look secure enough to risk using on their own when you leave your bike at the train station for the day for instance.
I'll stick to using two locks when I'm securing my scruffy old mountain bike for the day thanks.
OldRidgeback, be honest: you didn't read the words, did you?
I did as it happens. I just don't see the point. With this I'd pay more for a bike that's less secure. A d-lock thru the frame to something secure doesn't take that long to do when popping into a shop. This frame design is less secure as when you want to lock it properly, slipping a d-lock thru the back wheel means a thief could still slip the frame out.
An old Dutch bike with one of those simple wheel locks is just as effective as a temporary measure, but a good deal cheaper.
Stuffing a cable lock in the seat post isn't a bad idea. But the cable looks too thin.
Interesting enough, but strange looking.
Here is another seatpost lock that I noticed the other day
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/solgaarddesign/the-interlocktm-the-l...
Not sure how that really differs from my Abus Phantom lock that clips on the downtube. Permanently available and located right over the centre of gravity.
Hmm, I like this. It certainly won't stop a determined thief and I wouldn't trust it overnight, but seems like it could be suitable for use on my town bike.