RockyMounts Hendrix Folding Bike Lock with Mounting Bracket - Hardened Steel - 27" Long

Video Transcript for RockyMounts Hendrix Folding Bike Lock Review

AJ: What's up, everybody It's AJ with etrailer.com. Today, we're going to be checking out the RockyMounts Hendrix compact bike lock. With the bike lock fully extended, you have 27 inches to work with. That's plenty to get around the front tire and the frame and lock it back into itself. But the great thing about this is you don't have to deal with this all the time. It actually folds up into itself, really easily, and it comes with a holster that we attached to the bike, these points here, where there would be a water bottle...

Actually the water bottle would probably be here, but it has the mounting points on your bike to attach the holster and keep it with you at all times.One of the things that really impressed me about this bike lock is that they didn't sacrifice any of the durability for convenience. So yeah, it folds in on itself, that's great, but how are these parts going to hold up They look like they're slim, but they're actually hardened steel, so it's going to be even better than a regular cable lock. It's going to be hard to cut through these if you even can, and you have the Hooligan that's also from RockyMounts. That's just a straight-up chain in a nylon sleeve, which that one's bulky and it's great, it's going to be hard to cut through that, but it's just going to take up a lot of space in your backpack or lugging it around. This one's way better.

Just keep it like this and in the holster.I have a bike stand and a bike here today. We're going to go ahead and wrap it around and see what we can do. I'm going to try and go around the tire and the frame, because you want to make sure that you get the tire secure so no one can just take the front tire. We could flip the bike around and just attach the back tire, but again, that leaves that front tire wide open. I don't know what they'll do with just one tire, but I'd want to go ahead and make sure my bike's fully secure.Well, it looks like it's not going to work with this mountain bike.

We learned that the tire is too far away from the frame, so this is too rigid. You can't move it around, so that's one of the cons about it. It's not like a cable lock to where you can get that little bit more bend, you can move it and bend it, it's more flexible. This is rigid. It's not going to flex or anything.

You have to use it in this or nothing at all.But I've got an aluminum road bike on this side of the stand. Let's check it out with this one. I can already see the tire's way closer to the frame so I think it's going to work. I'm going around the tire, the frame, and the stand. Slide that up and push the spring-loaded lock. There you go. It's locked in place.I want to point out that it is coated in a rubberized plastic so you don't have to worry about the straight hardened steel just scratching the side of your bike when you have it locked up. It also has a nice dust cap to cover up that spring-loaded lock, which, again, I really like the spring-loaded lock because you don't have to have the key to lock it up. It was kind of a pain when I was trying to do it. I'm going over here, if I had to reach around with the key and kind of do it while I couldn't quite see it, all I had to do was push that lock in and it locked into place.It also comes with three different keys, so that way you can take one and put it on your key ring of your car, have one separate, and then you still have one to keep at the house just in case.So, that's the RockyMount Hendrix. I was really pumped when I first got it out and I was first messing with it. I really like the compact design. The hardened steel was pretty cool. I like how it folds into itself and it has the holster, but we kind of started to see the flaws as we tried to use it. I didn't think that I'd have any problems using it on a mountain bike, and then we did. Then it came to me how rigid it is, and a cable lock gives you a little bit more room to flex. You can get it and contort it like you want. This one has to stay in that line and really can only do this loop. Anything outside of that, it's not going to work. Which makes me think when you're out and about, maybe you can't find a bike stand or something like that. You're going to have to improvise when you're downtown or something. That might really limit you in the end. So if you're wondering what other bike locks we have, you should check out this meeting I had with a rider earlier.Today, I'm going to be taking a look at some of these RockyMounts locks with Aidan behind the camera and Brian, a rider, is joining us too. Brian: What we're looking at here is you're going to have the Curly, which is the smaller version, and then the Lester is the bigger version there you have in your hands. This is really a step up from your basic steel-braided cable. You're going to see it has the nice four-digit programmable lock on there, a little bit easier than a key system, definitely saves you the hassle of having to worry where you left the keys or making sure you have them on you at the time.It's cool that they actually have a self-coiling design, so they're going to fold up nicely on their own. You're not going to have to help them a lot, which can help remove some of the hassle of handling them and getting them in position. And again, that's going to be cut-resistant, much like the braided-steel previous version. AJ: Yeah, I mean it seems like they get compact. That way you can just throw it in your backpack way easier than these here. Seems like they're a little cumbersome if you we're taking it with you. I guess you could coil it up yourself, but it's not going to stay like that when you throw it in your backpack or whatever. This one's a far better example. inaudible 00:05:11 about that, because that's a bunch of cable you're going to have to jam in your backpack. Brian: That one you're really looking at some maybe outdoor patio furniture, secure your grill. Maybe use it at a camping site to just bring some extra security to your setup. AJ: Yeah. Okay. I guess we'll talk about the Hooligan next since we have that one on the table. We've got two more installed, we'll go over and talk about those in a second. Brian: Yeah, so the Hooligan Max here is actually a pretty cool design. We're going to see a step up in security on this one. It's made with a plated steel. So not braided, it's actually going to be whole pieces of steel in there, much better in terms of providing that cut resistance.Another interesting fact on this one is the sheath that covers it is the nylon braid or weave. So what you're really going to get there is, it protects the metal, so you don't have to worry about it rusting or weakening over time. Also protects your equipment from rubbing, dings, any kind of abrasions. Some other kind of nice features we have here on this one, is it's got the spring-loaded lock. So it's going to come together, unlock really easily. It's going to have that nice tactile response. And you're also going to have, of course, a nice little dust mold cap there. It just keeps the lock clean, prevents any kind of debris from entering the system. Just keeps you safe down the line there. AJ: Yeah. This one seems pretty heavy to me. Like I said, it's a legit chain on the inside of that seat. So, unlike a braided chain, which there's nothing wrong with that, but I don't know. That puts my mind at ease a little bit, that it's a legit chain, like I said. Brian: Yeah. You're going to have a tough time getting to whatever's holding that in place. AJ: Yeah. The only thing I guess I worry about is just the nylon is nice, but it's kind of thin. So if it does hit a soft frame of your bike, it's probably going to dent it or something like that, if you're not careful with it yourself. But it seems like these have a little bit more of a pushing around them, but I guess that's what you get when you get the higher security, you're going to be more careful with it. Brian: Yeah. It's going to be a bit of a trade-off there, you know. I think the covering will mitigate a lot of the damage, but you're going to want to be mindful, of course. AJ: Cool. And it's not too cumbersome either. We can get it nice and inaudible 00:07:37 out there, throw it in your backpack, like I keep saying, I know, but I mean, that's what you're going to do when you carry an extra lock.All right, I guess we'll check out the ones we have locked to our bike rack here. First we have the U bolt or I think they call it a D lock too, I heard it was called. Brian: Yeah, right here, we're looking at the Maddox. Pretty cool design for a U lock. It works a little different than some standard U locks that'll have the pivot shackle where only one end will come loose. Here on the Maddox, you get a clamp-style. So just like that it'll fully detach, comes out real easy. It just makes the process of locking and securing the gear that much easier. Sometimes when the shackle pivots, you can have accessibility issues and tight spaces with odd designs. This really limits those. Again, you're going to have the rubber coating on it on both the lock and the shackle. That's just, again, going to protect your equipment, make sure everything stays nice and protected.And really it's a good, I think, general purpose lock, great design. It's got the spring-loaded lock again. So you get that real tactal response, you know when you're secure. You know when it's going to come apart. Yeah. Very dependable, great day-to-day lock. AJ: That's also got the part in the middle you can turn to protect your lock in there. So it's not exposed all the time either. I like that. We're seeing that a lot of people have their bikes in the city, they might not have the bike racks like that. Sometimes you just got to use what's around. So, the fact that it doesn't pivot, like the other ones you said, that it detaches gives you more options of attaching it to random spots, like a stop sign or something like that. Rather than I guess you said the pivot one so it would just do this. It wouldn't actually come apart. Okay. Yeah. So that's definitely way better than a pivoting head. Brian: Just a cool little take on the design. It's nothing groundbreaking, but just when it comes to usability, it's nice to have. AJ: Yeah, sure.Okay, let's step over and talking about this one then. Aidan: On that last one, does it have a mount to attach to the bike frame AJ: Yes. That's over on the table. Sorry. Aidan: That's okay. AJ: So it looks like you could mount it to where you'd have a water bottle. This one doesn't have one or on the down tube here too. You get the holes lined up. It looks like the holes don't line up on this one. Brian: Or wait, actually it opens up. Yeah. So loosen those screws and that'll open up that to wrap around the tube, and then it'll hold the. Aidan: Makes sense, yeah. Brian: The lock in that opening. That'll just clamp it into position. AJ: You can put it there and then it would. Oh, this part slides in here. Brian: Yeah so, that's kind of how it secures to the actual mount there. AJ: Okay. Brian: Yep. And so it kind of stores right in there, if it will fit on this particular bike. It looks like it'd be kind of a squeeze crosstalk 00:11:23. Aidan: Yeah, I think on a road bike you're going to have a lot more room. Brian: Yeah. Like over there on- AJ: We can try it on the other one. There's a nice push button to release. I like that. Brian: Yeah, so you can easily- AJ: Slides right out. Brian: Take it off, lock it up. AJ: Start on this other one here. Yeah, it looks like you got way more room. It would be in the center too, if it was actually mounted. Well, it looks like it's gong to hit that. Brian: So yeah. I can definitely propose a few clearance issues like with the water bottle holder and stuff, but it is nice that it gives you at least some way to store it on your bike. So you're not having to carry around a backpack with a lock or something like that. AJ: Any other questions on that one Brian: No, I, I think, yeah, that's definitely going to be good in terms of having it easily accessible around town. it's not unusual for RockyMount to include some type of mounting bracket with some of these more day-to-day style locks, where you would want to transport with you. Generally it'd either be the kind of Seacoast variety we saw, or there is one that's also designed more for a water bottle now, which I think we have here. Yes.That's the one we're actually. AJ has got the mount for it right now. AJ: That's going to be another. This is the Hendrix, right Brian: Yes, sir. We are looking at the Hendrix folding lock here, probably one of the nicer ones from the lineup. What you're going to see, it's got the really defined hardened steel plates and we'll be able to see those a little better here once we get this popped off, but it does come apart really easily, as you can see there, one end just disengages, goes into just a rope-style cable lock look almost. But you can see there that each plate is essentially just a hardened steel plate bound together.Interesting collapsible design there, folds down really small. To fit in your pocket, easy to carry in your hand. You got the spring-loaded lock, pretty consistent with a lot of the RockyMount products. So, stays together, comes apart when you need it to real easily. Good tactal response there. One of the nice things I thought of this one, was the rubberized coating and just the way it was done. I think the lock overall feels really good in your hands, feels strong. And this is one of the locks that comes with a higher rating in terms of security from RockyMounts. So great lock for urban areas. AJ: Yeah, it does feel like a sturdy, heavy lock. I'm impressed at how much it folds down into itself easily. It wasn't complex to do that and then folds up in its own mount, too. That way, if you didn't want to throw in the backpack, you could actually attach it like we're talking about here, and it looks like this would have no problem fitting on there with the water bottle. You wouldn't have to sacrifice water or a lock. Brian: Yeah. It's just a really nice one of those add-on features. Just there to make it easier to keep on you, keep security a priority, really.Yeah. This one is probably our favorite just for how well it folded up and it's really easy to keep on you, but just overall, it felt like it was just built really well. AJ: I agree. Brian: Yeah. I know. You know, when we first got these in, RockyMounts makes great rafts. So I was excited to see what they could bring to the security aspect of the industry. And I think the quality's there. It's definitely got some great features across the line. I think no matter what you're really looking to secure, there's going to be an option there for you. And it just depends on your location, what your sensitivity towards locking your stuff up is and how heavy-duty you want to go. AJ: Cool. That's all the locks we had today. Was there anything else, any other ones or any other questions Brian: I didn't have anything off the top of my head, really. I think you guys pretty much walked us through them and yeah, I think you really can't go wrong. AJ: Awesome. Well, thanks for your help. Brian: Hey, always a pleasure to drop in and see you guys. AJ: Have a good one. Brian: Yup, take care, guys. AJ: I hope that meeting gave you a couple other options to help you think about what bike lock is best for you and your bike. That does it for our look at the RockyMounts Hendrix.