Stolen bike...how can I stop this??

[Zac]

So I had my 1250GSA 40th Anniversary nicked on Tuesday. About 3:30pm from the John Lewis underground car park at White City West London - generally a busy place at that time of the day.

I've always thought the parking there was super safe. The bike was chained to an anchor point in the car park via the rear wheel. I also had anAbus Granit disc lock on one of the front discs and Oxford Ulock on the other front disc. Both of these were alarmed. I also had the factory fit tracker installed and armed. There is CCTV there too, although they will only relaase this to plod. When the bike was stolen I only received one text message notification and one call which I missed. I discovered the bike was gone two hours later when I returned. They had cut through both front discs (not the locks) and cut through the rear chain before pushing away with another couple of Maxi scooters. They then rode like that for another mile through West London, before disabling the tracker completely. The whole thing seems to have taken about 20 minutes.

I am just writing this out of despair really. My questions are:
What is the point of putting a load of disc locks on if they just cut through the disc itself?
What is the point of having the tracker on if the tracking company only call you once and the thieves can immediately disable it without too many problems.

Money no object what else can I do to secure the bike? Is there a Rolls Royce combination of locks or trackers that will stop them? Is there some sort of guard to stop them cutting through the discs?

Any help much appreciated although in all honestly I doubt I'll be able to carry on biking now as I expect my insurance will go through the roof.

Thanks all - I bloody loved that bike.

Z

 

[Barnoe]

The short answer unfortunately is there isn't anything you can do.
The security you had on would deter most thieves but determined professionals will have any bike away.

I feel sad for you, the 40th Anniversary is a beautiful bike, i was loaned one when i put mine in for a service... i really wanted it.

I'm in a lucky position to own a car and a bike.
If I'm not doing a round trip from garage back to my garage, i take the car unless I'm touring.

If you park your bike in the same place regular it will eventually go missing.
thieves see it and wait.

 

[Wapping]

Which company supplied and monitored the tracker, please?

Have you requested John Lewis / whoever runs / manages the car park to release any video to the police?

Who at John Lewis / at the car park, told you that they’d only release video to the police?

 

[richh]

What can you do? Shite aint it?

So first. We all must understand that this country has fallen. Not getting worse. Gone.

The police are only there to keep the law abiding in fear at this point. Not tackle crime such as this.

If you must ride such a nice bike I'd say as a minimum you need 2 of the hard to cut locks such as the hiplock etc.

Consider how you're locking it. Make them really hard to get to. Make it so they don't rely on the disc.


Personally I'd be more inclined (if you can live with it) to ride an old shitter into work.

I wouldn't park my bike anywhere it's out of site for more than a moment. It's just at that point now. Thieves have the protection.

 

[Guru Gora]

Really sorry to hear this.

Sadly there is no deterrent for the Scrotes, penalties are so light that they deem it worth the risk, low risk at that.


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[Paul S]

Something angle grinder resistant will help i.e. Litelok Mini on front wheel and X3/Hip lock on rear wheel will slow them down but still no guarantee

 

[Guru Gora]

Sadly they cut the discs in this instance, fuckers.

Karma will catch up with these fuckers


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[littleade]

Sorry to hear your bike's gone, it must be really upsetting for you.

I hope some of the following will be helpful in the future.

The ff trackers are always fitted in the same place at the rear under the passenger seat and can be found and ripped out in a very short time. Trackers like the Monimoto are self contained so can be hidden elsewhere on the bike making them more difficult for the scroats to locate.

Disc locks are better put through the rear disc as they can't easily get an angle grinder in there to cut through the disc.

Put a cover over your bike, it provides another layer they have to overcome as they can't see for sure what bike it is, what condition it's in nor what security you have on it.

In short if they want it they'll try and take it, your best option is to make it as difficult as possible to nick in the 1st place and hope they'll nick one that's not so well protected instead.

Once you get the insurance pay out check how much the renewal will be before you buy another bike and if they have cancelled the existing policy or if you can transfer the remaining term to your new bike.

Good luck

 

[MILLE_RIDER]

What a bummer . Amazing that a stolen GSA being pushed by two scooters through West London didn't cause them to be challenged.

Was the bike stolen from a parking space that you use regularly? I parked my GS in public parking bays in the city for years and everyday I would return to it expecting it not to be there. It was already 10 years old by that point and crusty from commuting so I guess that put thieves off. I guess ride an old shitter to work is the best idea

Hopefully the stolen bike will be recovered

 

[Barnoe]

What a bummer . Amazing that a stolen GSA being pushed by two scooters through West London didn't cause them to be challenged.

Was the bike stolen from a parking space that you use regularly? I parked my GS in public parking bays in the city for years and everyday I would return to it expecting it not to be there. It was already 10 years old by that point and crusty from commuting so I guess that put thieves off. I guess ride an old shitter to work is the best idea

Hopefully the stolen bike will be recovered

Mate of mine had his Vsrom 1000 stolen that he commuted on.

So after payout he bought another AND a cheap shit scooter to go to work on.
2 week later the scooter got nicked.

If you see a bike being stolen, yours or not ... kick the shit out of the thieving bastards!

 

[Doc]

Bastards sorry to read this.

 

[Paul S]

Sadly they cut the discs in this instance, fuckers.

Karma will catch up with these fuckers


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Indeed they do which is why you put it around the tyre and not a disc - they are then not pushing the bike without cutting it off first.

 

[Zac]

Which company supplied and monitored the tracker, please?

Have you requested John Lewis / whoever runs / manages the car park to release any video to the police?

Who at John Lewis / at the car park, told you that they’d only release video to the police?

The tracker was the factory fit datatool/scorpion (Stealth) system. I had an attempted theft a few years back on the same bike. On that occasion my phone went ballistic with all of the messaages and phone calls from the tracking compnay. I raced down to the bike and managed to stop the theft. This time, one message and one missed call, that was it. And bike gone.To answer your other question, security at Westfield said they would only release footage to the police. Notified them, but have heard nothing.

 

[zerax9]

If you see a bike being stolen, yours or not ... kick the shit out of the thieving bastards!

Love the idea of that... but I fear a prosecution for assault/ABH/GBH is likely... Don't forget that in our modern world, they have more rights than you do !

 

[Guru Gora]

You’re correct, but anyone takes any of my bikes and gets caught, I can assure you that they will be having their meals through a straw for a while.

I’m happy to take the consequences


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[Fiddlesticks]

So sorry to hear about this.

Have long since decided that disk locks are a waste of time (particularly since Mrs. Fiddlesticks put one on inside out and I needed to remove the brake disk to make room for the key ).

RoadLok are pretty good. Also Hiploks. Amazon do cheap motion sensitive alarms. There is no silver bullet but layers of security make it harder.

 

[Steptoe]

If I leave any of my bikes parked overnight in central London I let both tyres down.
Takes 2 minutes to pump them back up with one of those small rechargeable compressors.
Stops the scrotes being able to use their scoots to move the bike.

 

[Guru Gora]

That’s great outside the box thinking


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[er-minio]

Sorry about what happened Zac.

I use that parking every once in a while both by car and motorbike. Even though my GS is a shitty old GSA that could be stolen just for joyriding. Hopefully not.

Same question as someone above: did you use it regularly?
They went across a fair amount of shit to cut (and there is generally a lot of bikes parked there) so it seems like they were targeting yours.

I suspect having disc locks on both discs helps... as if they cut one disc they will have to remove the caliper... good luck pushing a GS without both front calipers
But, I admit, after many years using Abus disc locks (that I still use as secondary protection) I started doing like Paul S above.

Good luck.

 

[Neil W]

A number of tracker type installs are fitted in the easiest and therefore cheapest location for the fitter and thus the thieves quickly find out where they are and how to remove or disable them.( often helped by information from dodgy alarm insrallers as to where they fit or locate them)
On the 1250 gsa it would be a pita but if the tracker was fitted for example under the airbox, it is a pain in the proverbial to fit but also a pain to find and remove or disable thus giving you more time to find the bike if it is stolen
If you have ever fitted a replacement front shock to a 1200/1250 gsa lc you will understand what I am talking about and the work getting the airbox off.
Also consider the CYMARC centre stand lock mod if you get another one.
We had a few "bait" vehicles at work and where the tracking devices were fitted was simple but very sneaky