SEATYLOCK Foldylock Forever Bike Lock – Test and Review

Updated May 27th, 2024

Manufacturer and Model: SEATYLOCK Foldylock Forever
List Price: $125

Summary

The SEATYLOCK Foldylock Forever is a heavy duty folding bike lock designed to prevent bike theft. It has a Gold Sold Secure Rating. It is a hefty lock weighing in at almost 4 pounds with heavy duty construction including concealed rivets and high strength steel bars. It is designed to protect against bolt cutters, crowbars, and other common theft methods. It comes with a handy mounting case. It’s large size makes it easy to mount to your bike frame. It is one of the best ebike locks available today.

SEATYLOCK Foldylock Forever Review and Test

My first experience with how good a lot of bike locks aren’t came a few years ago in a Walmart parking lot. My biking friend couldn’t open his cable lock that was locking his bike to the rack on his truck. We didn’t want to miss out on riding, so we went to the nearest Walmart and bought a hacksaw blade to see if we could cut the cable with that. It took him all of maybe 3 minutes to cut through the 1/4″ thick cable with a hacksaw blade he was holding in his hand.

If you want to leave your expensive ebike somewhere unattended, you need something substantial to keep someone from taking it. A basic cable lock isn’t going to do it. Given enough time alone with your bike, a determined theif is going to get through any lock you can buy. It’s still important to choose the location wisely when leaving your prized possession alone for a few hours.

SEATYLOCK sent us a Foldylock Forever lock to review after contacting us and asking if we’d like to review any of their locks. I asked what their best lock would be for locking an ebike that has a larger size frame downtube. They recommended the Foldylock Forerever

The Foldylock Forever showed up in the mail a few days later. My first impression was that the box weighed a lot for a bike lock. My next thought after opening the box was that this is one massive chunk of metal for a bike lock.

1 – Gold Sold Secure Rating

The Foldylock Forever has a Sold Secure Gold rating for a bike lock. This is their second highest rating and provides protection against “Offering theft resistance against a dedicated tool list (aimed at preventing dedicated attacks)”. There are no folding locks available for sale that get the Diamond Rating from Sold Secure. There are only a few U-Locks that meet that category.

2 – High Strength Steel bars and secure rivets

The bars of the Foldylock forever are made from high strength steel to resist cutting with bolt cutters, nut cutters, and hacksaw blades. The metal surrounds the rivets which are embedded into the bars, so they can’t easily be cut. The steel frame has a smooth coating on it, so it won’t scratch the paint on your bike while you use it.

4 – Vibration Resistant Design

The rivets and joints in the Foldylock Forever have a spring loaded design that keeps the lock from vibrating and making a lot of rattling noise. It works quite well. I rode my bike over some rough, cracked up pavement with the Foldylock mounted to it. I never heard any extra noise coming from the lock.

5 – Easy to lock around things

The Foldylock Forever has a 34.5 inch circumference to wrap around things. I tried locking a Himiway A7 Pro ebike to a few things. The A7 Pro has a step-thru frame with a large diameter downtube to hold the battery. It is also a full suspension ebike, so there is a lot going on with the frame seat tube with a shock and pivots in it. This is kind of a worst case bike to try and lock to things.

I found a smaller bike rack with U-Shaped metal stands. I was able to set the bike next to it and wrap the bike around the seat tube and the metal rack structure. There is not too much challenge here.

I looked for something bigger. I found a sign with a 5 inch square post. I was able to get the Foldylock Forever around the bike and the post and still get it to lock. I had a little bit extra. It might be able to squeeze around a 6 inch by 6 inch square post and still lock, but it would be tight.

I wondered if the lock was long enough to go around the frame tube and through the front wheel. This allows you to secure the wheel and the bike frame from theft. The Foldylock Forever was not long enough on this bike. I could reach the front wheel but did not have enough length to get any part of the lock through the wheel. The lock would need to be at least 6 inches longer to go around the frame tube and the front wheel on an ebike frame with a frame mounted battery.

If you do need more length, you can connect 2 Foldylock Forever’s together end to end to get a longer lock. The ends of the lock are the same on all of the locks. Just the key hardware is unique.

One other thing I noticed while locking my bike to things was this. You can only remove the key from the lock when the lock is locked. You can’t take the key out while it’s unlocked. This keeps you from accidentally leaving the lock unlocked somewhere when you thought your bike was locked.

5 – Mounting Bracket and Hardware

The Foldylock Forever comes with a mounting bracket that you can mount to your bike frame. It includes 2 sets of mounting hardware to go with it. You can either use the water bottle attachments on your frame or you can use 2 wraps that go around the frame.

I used the water bottle attachments on my Himiway A7 Pro to attach the Foldylock holder. The lock comes with 2 mounting bolts. I used those as opposed to the bolts that were already on the bike. The bolts on the bike were very short and did not have enough threads left to hold the holder securely.

When choosing a mounting location, make sure you have enough room to slide the lock in and out of the holder. I mounted mine to the top 2 holes on the A7 frame first. It put the holder too close to the handlebar stem, and I couldn’t get the lock into it. I had to loosen everything up and move the holder down to the next set of bolts.

The holder does a good job of keeping the lock in place while riding. It doesn’t get in the way of my knees or feet when stepping on or off the bike. The lock fits tight enough into it that it won’t fall out or rattle around.

5 – 3 Year Warrany and Key Replacement

SEATYLOCK offers a 6 month warranty on their locks. They upgrade it to a 3 year warranty if you register your keys online. By registering your keys, you can get replacement keys if you ever lose them. I’m far from the first person to forget where I left the keys for things in the fall when I go to find them in the spring. Be sure to register your keys for that reason.

Recommendation – Buy or No Buy?

If you want a folding bike lock that will keep your bike from disappearing, I highly recommend checking out the SEATYLOCK Foldylock Forever. It has a Sold Secure Gold rating to go along with it’s hefty, solid metal construction. The included holder makes it easy to mount to any bike frame. It’s a little on the pricey side, but how much is too much to keep your several thousand dollar ebike secure?