Leather U-lock Rack Mount Road Test Results

Results: belt leather, excellent! Zip ties, not so much

A follow-up post to the first one, inspired by a story on the Velo-Orange blog (currently trending toward the French-like pronunciation, in case you were still wondering where I came down on that vital question). I've been using this to carry my u-lock in a convenient place for about three months now. I carry the lock tucked inside the loop of this former leather belt, and also strap it to the strut with some Velcro One-Wrap. The idea of the wrap was to quiet the lock from rattling, which is does pretty well depending on how tight I wrap it, but the extra step has had an unintended or unforeseen benefit.

This has happened twice

Twice during the three month road test, the zip tie holding the front end of the belt to the rack snapped off. Both times, fortunately, the One-wrap caught the lock and slid it down to the bottom of the strut, and not into the rear wheel. Both times happened going over exactly the same bump, where the canal transitions to the street. Anyway, I like the mount, so I am giving it one more try, this time reinforced with a wrap of Gorilla tape on each end.

Note, though: any mounting approach which includes the possibility of a u-lock flipping around into the back wheel is potentially unsafe. I don't recommend anyone try this approach. Experimental at this time.

Yikes the flash brings out the ugly really well

This is just temporary, excuse the hasty tape job. I just need something to get me to work and back for the next few days. I've got some better ideas which make use of the remarkably strong and durable pieces of the rest of the belt I saved, for version 2. Or I guess it will be version 3. Why go this way any way? As I said in the first post, the supplied mount for the lock rattled. Furiously, I would say. And never looked right. This is rattle-free when wrapped down, and is still quick to deploy or store. Still super-easy to put together. I just need to improve the leather-to-rack interface so the mount last more than three months of commuting. Or one test session of riding back and forth over that same bump a hundred or so times. The fallback will be to throw the lock into the gaping pannier bag hanging off the other side, but that seems like it would take more time to deploy or store, and could get the clothes or other contents dirty. Or smack into the laptop. Version 2 test in progress!