Motorcycle security
Discussion
I'm back to a bike after an eighteen year break and a bit concerned about motorbike thefts..........I bought an Oxford Beast chain and Beast lock and an Oxford Screamer disc lock .......the disclock was £21.00 on E-Bay ..........Now I find Abus do a disc lock for around £200 , are they worth the extra? Is theft THAT much of a problem now ?
Normally the advice is get the best security you can afford but there are a lot more facets to security than just a lock and chain as the post above inferred.
So getting the best chains/locks is the starting point and then securing the bike to something. Ideally the bike overnight or when not in use is secured in a garage, purpose built bike storage or even a shed and if that isn't possible then covering it to stop people seeing what it is.
Bennetts always have lots of good articles on security and break locks, chains to test how robust they are too attack, here are some of their tips: https://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocial/news-and-vie...
So getting the best chains/locks is the starting point and then securing the bike to something. Ideally the bike overnight or when not in use is secured in a garage, purpose built bike storage or even a shed and if that isn't possible then covering it to stop people seeing what it is.
Bennetts always have lots of good articles on security and break locks, chains to test how robust they are too attack, here are some of their tips: https://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocial/news-and-vie...
V8RX7 said:
Why are so few bikers using trackers ?
Very cheap on ebay these days, I'll admit it won't take long to find them but do they even look ?
Because unless you go after the bike yourself, they'll do very little for you, except maybe reduce your insurance premium by 37p. It's almost as much use just sticking some stickers on the bike which say you've got a tracker.Very cheap on ebay these days, I'll admit it won't take long to find them but do they even look ?
The best security comes from where you leave the bike. Obviously you always lock it up but if they can't find it then they can't nick it.
Whatever the rights & wrongs of it, as a bike owner you simply cannot leave your bike just anywhere any more, You should be able to but the simple fact is you can't.
you need to be careful and selective where you leave it if you want to keep it - its a mindset thing....
Whatever the rights & wrongs of it, as a bike owner you simply cannot leave your bike just anywhere any more, You should be able to but the simple fact is you can't.
you need to be careful and selective where you leave it if you want to keep it - its a mindset thing....
Pothole said:
Because unless you go after the bike yourself, they'll do very little for you, except maybe reduce your insurance premium by 37p. It's almost as much use just sticking some stickers on the bike which say you've got a tracker.
Yes that would be my intention, get an alert and go after it. Wouldn't most ?Jazoli said:
Nope, I'm not tackling a gang of thugs or scrotes if I was to 'track' it down, I have nothing that can't be replaced and they are insured.
Must be nice to be able to not care like that, I can't do it.Was out last night after my garden alarm went off, presume a bird went through the beams
V8RX7 said:
Jazoli said:
Nope, I'm not tackling a gang of thugs or scrotes if I was to 'track' it down, I have nothing that can't be replaced and they are insured.
Must be nice to be able to not care like that, I can't do it.Was out last night after my garden alarm went off, presume a bird went through the beams
Jazoli said:
The way I see it is that I have a lot to lose and very little to gain, my bike is financed and new, if it gets stolen I will just get another one, I don't have the emotional attachment to bikes that some have and it would be no big deal to walk into a dealership and go 'that one please' to get a replacement, it might be different if I had something rare and irreplaceable that I'd owned for years, my thoughts may be different but after seeing bike thieves always being tooled up and in groups I wouldn't tackle them, I'm not a small bloke and not afraid of a ruckus but I just don't see the point.
I wasn't taking the pi$$ I agree, logically - it's the best outcome most of the timeJazoli said:
The way I see it is that I have a lot to lose and very little to gain, my bike is financed and new, if it gets stolen I will just get another one, I don't have the emotional attachment to bikes that some have and it would be no big deal to walk into a dealership and go 'that one please' to get a replacement, it might be different if I had something rare and irreplaceable that I'd owned for years, my thoughts may be different but after seeing bike thieves always being tooled up and in groups I wouldn't tackle them, I'm not a small bloke and not afraid of a ruckus but I just don't see the point.
Indeed. Even owning my bike outright I've managed to feel the same way - I love it, but I'm refusing to get attached to it as it could easily be nicked, or just written off for something minor.I had a tracker on my s1000rr, the Biketrac one I think, orange website. When the bike got taken they rang me, asked if I was making love to it, and when I said no and saw it was gone, told me to call the police. So I did 
. And pretty soon the police were liaising with Biketrac (this was maybe 2 hours after it went, due to me not waking up easily). Anyway Biketrac then locked me out of live position information due to company policy for obvious reasons. Police found bike.
They'd lost GPS but only because where it had been hidden. The scum had tried to find the tracker but failed. No idea if the police had the equipment to do RF locating or whatever it is, but it was a small industrial estate and the bike was a couple metres from its last recorded spot.
Still, steering lock borked, lots and lots of other damage due to them literally throwing it in the van (hotel cctv, which they refused to show me because 'gdpr sir').
Not sure what insurance implications are for a 6 grand repair vs a 14k total loss but if not much I'd have saved a heck of a lot of hassle with the repair and ineptitudes on that side of things.
Current bike has no tracker but I have gap insurance :/.
. And pretty soon the police were liaising with Biketrac (this was maybe 2 hours after it went, due to me not waking up easily). Anyway Biketrac then locked me out of live position information due to company policy for obvious reasons. Police found bike.They'd lost GPS but only because where it had been hidden. The scum had tried to find the tracker but failed. No idea if the police had the equipment to do RF locating or whatever it is, but it was a small industrial estate and the bike was a couple metres from its last recorded spot.
Still, steering lock borked, lots and lots of other damage due to them literally throwing it in the van (hotel cctv, which they refused to show me because 'gdpr sir').
Not sure what insurance implications are for a 6 grand repair vs a 14k total loss but if not much I'd have saved a heck of a lot of hassle with the repair and ineptitudes on that side of things.
Current bike has no tracker but I have gap insurance :/.
GriffoDP said:
I had a tracker on my s1000rr, the Biketrac one I think, orange website. When the bike got taken they rang me, asked if I was making love to it, and when I said no and saw it was gone, told me to call the police. So I did . And pretty soon the police were liaising with Biketrac (this was maybe 2 hours after it went, due to me not waking up easily). Anyway Biketrac then locked me out of live position information due to company policy for obvious reasons. Police found bike.
They'd lost GPS but only because where it had been hidden. The scum had tried to find the tracker but failed. No idea if the police had the equipment to do RF locating or whatever it is, but it was a small industrial estate and the bike was a couple metres from its last recorded spot.
Still, steering lock borked, lots and lots of other damage due to them literally throwing it in the van (hotel cctv, which they refused to show me because 'gdpr sir').
Not sure what insurance implications are for a 6 grand repair vs a 14k total loss but if not much I'd have saved a heck of a lot of hassle with the repair and ineptitudes on that side of things.
Current bike has no tracker but I have gap insurance :/.
Did they get the scrotes who nicked it? That would surely give you some sense of satisfaction from having had theTracker?. And pretty soon the police were liaising with Biketrac (this was maybe 2 hours after it went, due to me not waking up easily). Anyway Biketrac then locked me out of live position information due to company policy for obvious reasons. Police found bike.They'd lost GPS but only because where it had been hidden. The scum had tried to find the tracker but failed. No idea if the police had the equipment to do RF locating or whatever it is, but it was a small industrial estate and the bike was a couple metres from its last recorded spot.
Still, steering lock borked, lots and lots of other damage due to them literally throwing it in the van (hotel cctv, which they refused to show me because 'gdpr sir').
Not sure what insurance implications are for a 6 grand repair vs a 14k total loss but if not much I'd have saved a heck of a lot of hassle with the repair and ineptitudes on that side of things.
Current bike has no tracker but I have gap insurance :/.
sociopath said:
Security will stop scrotes, it won't stop a gang lifting your bike into the back of a van (speaking from experience) unless its fastened to something immobile, and even then it will only slow down the really committed.
I'm lucky as my bike is garaged however a chap round the corner has converted his (as lots do these days). He keeps his bike chained up to a pretty large tree in his front garden plus a ground anchor. It's been like that for years and the bike is on show to a lot of passing traffic so I'd agree that you'd need to chain it to something.Get a cheap tracker as above.
Mine saved my bike from the scroates. It SMS'd my phone as it was dragged outside. Police called, the scroates ran away and I had to deal with a couple of broken locks.
For £25 all in including running costs, it's been brilliant. £15 for the iMars GPS / GSM tracker and a tenner for a PAYGO sim that has not needed topping up in 3 years so far.
Yes it's not foolproof etc etc, but it saved thousands of insurance claim / premiums for me, plus the bike was super rare and would have been nearly impossible to replace.
Mine saved my bike from the scroates. It SMS'd my phone as it was dragged outside. Police called, the scroates ran away and I had to deal with a couple of broken locks.
For £25 all in including running costs, it's been brilliant. £15 for the iMars GPS / GSM tracker and a tenner for a PAYGO sim that has not needed topping up in 3 years so far.
Yes it's not foolproof etc etc, but it saved thousands of insurance claim / premiums for me, plus the bike was super rare and would have been nearly impossible to replace.
teamHOLDENracing said:
Did they get the scrotes who nicked it? That would surely give you some sense of satisfaction from having had theTracker?
They did not 
. It took so long to get it back and fixed I'd rather they left it as bait! But I don't suppose that happens much outside films. Nobody at the scene, and although the cctv made out the car and van plates, the car was stolen plates and the van was a... what do you call it, scrapped!
I will say the police people were at least very communicative from start to finish. Stayed on phone with the operator until it had been found, then calls from an assigned officer throughout, until the call to say yeah no no more leads.
Still. At least I didn't get the really annoying disc lock back.
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