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I just had one of these delivered, the mini version, and its weight is why I'm now reading this thread.
I will leave my bike out of sight so very rarely that I cant bring myself to take the extra weight of it. I know its only 1.2kg but I am trying to travel really very light.
If, on the road, it becomes an issue I can always try and buy something more substantial.
In terms of sight seeing, I will stay in a hotel whenever I want to do such things and the bike will be in the room. Im going to look at some of the options posted here.
Stoo61-
I travelled across France in the middle of August. Honestly, I didn't notice the extra weight from this lock, and I did get a lot of piece of mind from it! I'm sure there was more variation across the day from the 4 bottles of water I was carrying: 3 in constant use, one spare hidden inside a pannier - I was probably drinking 10-12 bottles a day, and easily finishing 2 or between opportunities to fill up.
Specifically, I was very glad of the lock when I unexpectedly spent 24 hours in Lyon and had to lock my bike up outside (admittedly, not on the street, but it was in an internal courtyard with quite easy accessibility to a lot of people I didn't know); it went through both wheels (front is quick release) and the bike rack which I was very pleased about.
I was also glad of it one night when I couldn't sleep next to my bike: I found a perfect place to (wild) camp that was in a field, tucked away from the road and out of view of houses - only issue was it was 25m away behind a closed gate. I left my bike outside the gate, hidden and locked, and had a wonderful night's camping.
My general feeling is that you don't need a lock if touring with more than one person, but if you're on your own and you want to prepare for every eventuality then I would highly recommend. And, ultimately, weight is much less of an issue touring than, say, racing - I averaged about 150km per day, with a max of 210km (and wouldn't have said I'm particularly fast although I guess a lot of people would disagree).
d0cA
Thanks everyone for the replies - and @edmundro for the offer of accommodation! I've just ordered an Abus 540 (review: https://thebestbikelock.com/best-u-lock/abus-granit-x-plus-540-review/ ) which is a little under 1.5kg and I hope the peace of mind will outweigh the weight as I'm sure I will be kicking myself about how I didn't really need it at some point during the ride!