Good post – we have a friend joining us this year who asked the very same question. I didn’t know about the fur-lined handcuff solution – I’ll be sure to mention it to him.
I carried my heavy bike cable and lock with me in my bag (coiled) last year – and it added alt least a lb. of weight I didn’t need. This year, I’ll leave the lock with my duffle on the truck and use it at night (as we did last year). Soooooooo many bikes in each town. I had trouble just finding a piece of wall to lean the bike against! The towns that have those wires in the middle of the street for you to hang the handlebars on – lifting your front tire off the ground – were great – and with over 1000 bikes on the cable – no need to lock the bike up.
If you ride outside of the main area in town though, like for ice cream or to a special store you want to visit in a different area of town, you might want to lock up then. Also – if you tent outside the main area – in a well-populated area – you might lock up. Last year a guy had his Trek 5.2 stolen and eventually got it back – but it was targeted by a local kid who had his eye on it when the biker showed up in town………
