by Jan | May 11, 2020 12:50 pm
These days it is increasingly important to protect your property lest someone tries to get it for “free”. The following basic points of bicycle theft prevention will help you increase the chances that your bike will stay yours for extended period of time.
Don’t opt for the cheapest locks that are available, they are cheap for the reason! Use strong D-lock, preferably with Sold Secure Gold or Silver rating, plus extension cable for the front wheel (optionally two D-locks, one to secure the rear wheel + frame and the other one for the front wheel + frame if possible). As a general rule, the security devices should amount 10% – 15% of the value of your bike when it was new.
Using appropriate lock(s), along with the correct locking technique, is crucial for bicycle theft prevention and for turning thieves away, though it will not stop them once they decide to get your bike. Lock your bike adequately even if you stop for a short break and you are just a few meters away. Also, lock your bike safely when at home, even if it is stored inside the shed and away from the public view – thieves very often follow you if they want to get your bike, and they will get to it when you are sleeping.
Leaving as little room as possible inside the lock prevents thief from inserting a breaker bar or moving lock to a better position for cutting. Try to avoid locking your bike over the top tube only, the thief may try to break the lock by using your bike as a lever and even if they do not succeed this will leave your bike in a very sorry state.
Always check the structure you are locking your bike to, there are reports about bicycle racks being cut through with the gap taped over, allowing the thief to remove the bike without any effort. Also, your bike can be lifted over if the post you are attaching it to is not high enough, with the road signs being also removed from their posts to allow lifting the bike over the top.
While most of the bikes are taken in their entirety, thieves are also happy to take anything off your bike if it is not secured, with the most stolen bicycle parts are wheels and saddles. For example, if you lock your bike by securing the front wheel to a railing while having a quick release skewer fitted, most of your bike may disappear leaving just the securely locked front wheel. The thief will then go on and obtain suitable front wheel from another bike, very often the bike next to yours.
Component theft is on the rise, components like stems/handlebars, brakes, shifters, etc. being stolen even from bikes, locked otherwise properly, but left in out-of-sight places for long enough time. You can secure the components by replacing their fixing screws with special ones (Torx, PitLock) or blocking the Allen key sockets by fixing steel bearing balls in with wax (the ball can be removed for adjustment by heating it with soldering iron but it prevents the thief to steal the part quickly).
Consider fitting anti-theft skewers for front and rear quick release wheels (allen key or specialized products like TranzX, PinHead, PitLock work all well) or get the axles converted to the ones using standard nuts. Replacing seat-post quick release with bolted clamp is also strongly recommended, plus there are ways to secure your seat using other techniques.
Register your bike on Bikeregister.com, providing basic info like Frame number, Make, Model, Size. Also provide the current picture of the bike with all the accessories fitted, and keep safe all the paperwork that you got with the bike.
Knowing the Frame Number is largely important as there are hundreds of bikes of the same make and model sold and in most cases only the Frame Number can be used to distinguish between them. If the Police find your bike after it being stolen, they can also link that bike to you and return it.
Report the crime to the Police as soon as possible. At this point most of people fail to provide vital details such as the frame number because they can not find their bike invoice, nevertheless you should be OK as you have the details available through Bikeregister.com, all along the photos.
Mark your bike as stolen on Bikeregister.com, Stolenbikes.co.uk (seems defunct at this time) or similar, try to avoid providing too much info as thieves have access to these sites too and very often they use info provided by victims to remove any distinctive parts / marks.
Start looking on Gumtree, Facebook, eBay or other advertising sites and keep looking for at least 2 months as thieves usually wait until the bike becomes less hot. You can also set notifications on most sites using keywords so the site sends you a message if anyone lists any bike using these keywords.
An example: Stolen Python F1 folding bike – 3 notifications set: “Python”, “F1” and “fold” (the last one taking into consideration that this bike can be offered as folding, folder, fold-up or fold-down).
Source URL: https://cyclo-jan.co.uk/findings/bicycle-theft-prevention/
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