Bike theft is still rising

Someone has PM’d me asking what the white tape is.

It’s a strap, used to tie down new bikes that BMW ship in crates from Germany. I loop it between the U lock and the front brake lever, as a simple reminder to take the U lock off.
 
Interesting to look a the profile of bikes stolen lots of scooters https://bikersunited.co.uk/stolen-bikes/ . Trackers seem to get found, have been thinking about concealing a couple of apple air tags, cheap and no power required; put one in an obvious place so it gets found and hopefully the other one (or two) might last a bit longer.
 
Being from Merseyside, I know all about theft and I've been a victim of it more than once. It will eventually destroy motorcycling. What' the point of having a bike when you can't even park it for 10 minutes or you can't sleep well at night for fear of theft.

The problem is the rise of gangs. Organised crime. Motorcycle theft is just another part of their business. Just look on ebay and see where all the parts are being sold from. Lithuania etc !!!

Then there is the FACT that these scrotes know full well that they won't be caught. If they are caught they wont be prosecuted. And if they are prosecuted they won't go to jail.

The Police tell me this freely. They are are frustrated as we are.

CPS is backlogged, police numbers have been cut. Beaurocracy and political correctness is insane. It's a criminals charter.


This is not a Global problem. Or even a European problem. It's a U.K problem. I've literally just got back from Porto. I was amazed just how many beatiful expensive motorcycles are parked, unlocked. Left overnight. No covers.

It's sadly a culture now. Britain is BROKEN.
 
Wapping said:
The trouble with asking what is the best chain or indeed what is the best lock, is that you’ll inevitably receive a lot of replies from people who have not come close to having their bike stolen. This implies that their chain or lock must be good, which brings us round to the pound of butter in the fridge, as being equally effective.

I would just Google ‘Best motorcycle security chain’ and chose one that suits your little as possible spending limit. Quite often you’ll see chains being heavily discounted and / or including padlocks in the deal. This is on the grounds that any chain is better than no chain.

One of my chains was free, as it was dumped by thieves who had left a FireBlade in the alley behind my house, waiting to see if it had a tracker on it. Now I think about it, I should have nicked the bike…. The biter bit. The chain itself was fine, it was the cheap padlock that the thieves had mangled.

I can say that since I have had the stolen chain, my bike has not been pinched, so it must be fantastic. That and the pound of butter in the fridge, naturally.
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Very true.

I had a Thatcham 5 approved monster thick chain on my Berg……a hydraulic nut splitter went through it is seconds.

Personally I think you can only ever deter the opportunist thief, if they want it….they have it. Having seen how people just stand around filming these shitebags whilst they grind their way through your £250 chain/lock, it’s all a bit futile. Until the police start shooting them and reducing their numbers, we will continue to see a rise in all crime.
 
MotoRevive said:
Being from Merseyside, I know all about theft and I've been a victim of it more than once. It will eventually destroy motorcycling. What' the point of having a bike when you can't even park it for 10 minutes or you can't sleep well at night for fear of theft.

The problem is the rise of gangs. Organised crime. Motorcycle theft is just another part of their business. Just look on ebay and see where all the parts are being sold from. Lithuania etc !!!

Then there is the FACT that these scrotes know full well that they won't be caught. If they are caught they wont be prosecuted. And if they are prosecuted they won't go to jail.

The Police tell me this freely. They are are frustrated as we are.

CPS is backlogged, police numbers have been cut. Beaurocracy and political correctness is insane. It's a criminals charter.


This is not a Global problem. Or even a European problem. It's a U.K problem. I've literally just got back from Porto. I was amazed just how many beatiful expensive motorcycles are parked, unlocked. Left overnight. No covers.

It's sadly a culture now. Britain is BROKEN.
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sad but true.

I have 2 mates who have given up on bikes because of this.
another will only use his bike for rides out from his garage back to his garage!

Dont blame Merseyside, its the same in Manchester and surrounding areas!
Its sad that this is how it makes you feel and shouldn't be like this.
 
Going off a previous thread were people are talking about saving a few llbs by using an aftermarket exhaust.
carrying a big chain is heavy and frankly dangerous in an accident.

That's the problem, these lighter smaller products are more user friendly, but wont stop a professional thief.
as Wapping said though, anything is much better than nothing.... don't make it even easier for them.
 
If true, the rise in the theft of scooters might be down to several factors:

1. Maybe, I really don’t know, scooters are (due to their design) are harder to protect than a motorbike.

2. The large increase in Deliveroo type food delivery services, many of the riders using scooters. I doubt if it’s top level pay, so the riders maybe won’t care too much where the scooter or parts come from.

3. Most likely, the explosion in the number of scooters in everyday use, is simply creating a bigger pool of vehicles to be stolen and a larger demand for parts.
 
Put the airtag in wife's pocket for dog walk (with her knowledge!), didn't show up as I guess no apple device nearby. So that doesn't work in a semi rural location.
 
For sure a heavy chain is, potentially at least, not going to be great in a crash. But there again, neither is a pound or so of simple air compressor, flying forward from the soft bag on the bike’s pillion seat, potentially hitting the rider in the small of the back. You can spend all day looking at the ‘What if’ scenarios; crashing is never good, either way.

Most things in life are a balance of one thing or another. A bike secured with some sort of security (even a cheap disc lock) is better than no security at all. A bike with a better quality disc lock, is better than one with a cheap one. A bike chained to something solid, is better than one chained to itself. What level of protection and loss prevention to accept - right down to zero - is up to each individual to decide.

Earlier in this thread I confessed that Covid restrictions had made me lazy at home, often relying on nothing more than a pound of butter in my fridge, which I must say, has worked. Having realised my laziness (along with frequently seeing very lazy ie. nonexistent security for bikes on my walks to work in the City) made me reassess what I did by way of loss prevention. Others may or may not do the same; that is up to them.

What I don’t accept is the oft heard “Bike manufacturers need to do more”. You only need to look at the posts which say “My bike came with a factory fitted tracker. The first year free subscription is over. What a rip-off to renew it. I ain’t going to do it”. This might now be on a bike, a year old, with a conservative value well north of £10,000 but they’ll happily spend £100 on a new ‘must have’ hugger, because it looks ace, mate and keeps the shock shiny. It’s in the same camp as blokes on bikes demanding that councils do more to protect motorbike bays with CCTV and bars to chain their bikes to (which they won’t use, as it’s a faff) but then bitch in MCN - and on these pages - that the same same councils are ripping bikers off, by charging them £1 a day to park.
 
Wapping said:
For sure a heavy chain is, potentially at least, not going to be great in a crash. But there again, neither is a pound or so of simple air compressor, flying forward from the soft bag on the bike’s pillion seat, potentially hitting the rider in the small of the back.
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I keep mine in a special bag, strapped down securely
 
I’m heading over to the UK on two wheels in May which will be the first time in a number of years I’ve ridden in the UK.
Bringing the scoot so will add a disc lock.
Such a shame that the UK is full of thieving scum.Happy to park up almost anywhere in mainland Europe without even a lock but the UK is a different matter.
 
Even on a Euro trip I still carry a 2M oval link hardened chain and SS50 padlock in a pannier (plus the Roadlok disk lock permanently fitted to the fork leg).

It adds weight to the bike and causes a slight annoyance fitting it upon arrival at the hotel each day but hey, its also a fucking long walk home.
 
Thanks for the kick up the arse I needed.
I've bought myself a disc lock. As you say it's a 30 second job to use, weighs relatively little and takes up no space.
I will be using it from now on.

On a separate note how did the pound of butter thing start please?
 
It’s a long walk home, for sure, though your nice fully comprehensive insurer, may well give you a hire car. The rip-off insurance will suddenly look more and more like a bargain, especially if it is pissing down with rain or steaming hot.

What will seem like an equally long walk home and certainly a miserable one, is when someone pinches your bike, when you nip “Only for a minute” for a coffee, only a few miles from home. See several posts where this has happened. It’ll be equally dull, when you leave your City office, in your bike gear, at 17:45 and find your bike (which you abandoned to chance at 08:30 that morning, totally unsecured) gone.
 
Call Centre Chimp said:
On a separate note how did the pound of butter thing start please?
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I coined it when I replied to one of the regular “Tell me the best lock to buy” requests. We got the usual, “I have an XYZ” and someone else had an ABC, neither of whom had had their bikes nicked, and in doing so confirmed that their locks therefore had to be ‘best’. I simply chimed in that I had neither lock - or indeed any lock at all - and hadn’t had my bike nicked either, which I put down to having a pound of butter in the fridge.

For some reason or another (hopefully because it’s mildly amusing) it stuck.

Of course the same pound of butter wards off all sorts of other potential calamities which might happen in life, but which never happen. It really is powerful magic, big juju.
 
Greg Masters said:
Isn't the industry standard now 'Sold Secure Diamond'?
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From the Sold Secure website blurb from December 2022, so reasonably current:

Sold Secure Gold vs Diamond


So if you're high risk, which should it be: Gold or Diamond? Well the truth is: it's a bit complicated at the moment!
Locks can only be rated when they're submitted for testing (once every year). Since the Diamond rating is new, there's loads of locks that are currently rated Gold, but will definitely be bumped up to Diamond when they're tested again. This means the current picture is slightly distorted. We can't assume that locks on the Diamond list are more secure than all the locks on the Gold list. Because they're not.
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Pukmeister said:
Even on a Euro trip I still carry a 2M oval link hardened chain and SS50 padlock in a pannier (plus the Roadlok disk lock permanently fitted to the fork leg).

It adds weight to the bike and causes a slight annoyance fitting it upon arrival at the hotel each day but hey, its also a fucking long walk home.
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My view exactly, the bike isn’t effected by the weight and as you say it’s a long way to walk home.
 
Pukmeister said:
Even on a Euro trip I still carry a 2M oval link hardened chain and SS50 padlock in a pannier (plus the Roadlok disk lock permanently fitted to the fork leg).

It adds weight to the bike and causes a slight annoyance fitting it upon arrival at the hotel each day but hey, its also a fucking long walk home.
Click to expand...

I always take my 1.8m chain too
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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