Foldylock Compact – Review [The Lightest Folding Bike Lock?]

For the past five years or so, I’ve been protecting my bike with Hiplok Lite. And it did a sterling job, until a momentary lapse in concentration on my part saw need to acquire a new bike.

The idea behind Hiplok is that you can also wear the lock around your waist as you ride thanks to the Velcro that also adorns the lock. However, with many people have expressed concern that falling off a bike with a piece metal strapped to your waist could cause some serious damage to your hip and my own vanity of not wanting to “wear” a lock, meant I often carried around my lock on my pannier rack.

However, as my new bike doesn’t have a pannier rack, the Hiplok suddenly seemed a lot less practical to me.

That’s when I became obsessed with the idea of a folding lock that you could store on your bike as you ride.

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And after a bit of research, it was hard to ignore the Sold Secure Silver-rated, Foldylock Compact, which Seatylock (yes, they also make bike locks that form part of your seat) proclaim to be the lightest lock in it’s category.

Foldylock Compact Review

Folding Bike Lock

One of the biggest appeals of this folding bike lock, is just how neat and tidy it can be stored on the bike. The lock’s mounting case comes with two Velcro straps, making it easy to attach to any tube of your bike – or, as I chose to do, it also comes with a couple of screws which can be used to securely fasten it in place of the bike’s bottle holder. Fitting the mounting case onto the cage holder was extremely easy and took less than two minutes to fit.

Grabbing your lock as you go to secure your bike, therefore, couldn’t be easier. It also looks very neat and tidy – which I like a lot. Although there’s no faster over the case, the Foldylock sits in the holder snugly and I can’t ever imagine it just popping out, even if you hit a massive bump and flipped your bike over.

How Much Does the Foldylock Compact Weigh?

Seatylock claim the Foldylock Compact weighs just 1kg, and my own test produced a similar result. The lock itself weighed in a 1.07kg, while the storage rack weighed just 95 grams, coming in for a combined total of 1.102 kg.

For context, the ABUS Bordo 6000 – also a silver-rated folding bike lock – weighs in at 1.22kg, although it is 5cm longer, at 90cm rather than Foldylock’s 85cm.

Foldylock Compact Colours

Unfortunately, when I ordered my Foldylock, the company was near sold out of everything following the pandemic-led “bike boom”. This meant I had to go with the standard black Foldylock Compact (which looks good, don’t get me wrong), rather than any of the many funky colours that the Foldylock is also available in, including: blue, orange, grey or – if you don’t like to choose – rainbow (a mixture of all)!

How Secure is the Foldylock Compact

When it comes to picking a bike lock, obviously the number one question is: “will this protect my bike from thieves?”

Now, I could run around with an axe and a chainsaw, but because of my previous convictions I decided against that.

After all, if you want to know how secure a bicycle lock is, there are professionals out there who test these things to the max: Sold Secure.

Sold Secure award three levels of protection certificates: Gold, Silver and Bronze. But that’s not to say bronze locks aren’t to be trusted – on the contrary, attaining any security certificate from Sold Secure is a clear indicator that this is a truly tough and resilient bike lock.

Sold Secure awarded the Foldylock Compact a “Silver” rating, which, will in essence, require a few minutes with power tools to break through.

Where to Buy Foldylock Compact

The Foldylock Compact is available to buy direct from the Seatylock website for $85 / £75.