As we mentioned in a previous post – losing your bike, a depressingly large number of bikes get stolen every day in the UK. What are the most important things to prevent a bike getting stolen?
1. Avoid Public Places, except when necessary. Over 90% of stolen bikes are stolen from public places away from your house. Therefore, only lock your bike in town where necessary. Avoid leaving a bike locked up over a weekend or overnight, unless absolutely unavoidable.
2. Lock all the Time. It is tempting to think, if you leave your bike for 3 mins it should be fine. Unless you can keep your eye on the bike, always get into the habit of locking it. It is much quicker just to lock rather than calculate the % chance of getting away without locking it.
3. Be Wary of Lending bike. If you do lend your bike to a friend, strongly impress upon them the importance of locking the bike, at all times. Here, I write from experience, I once lent a bike to a sister, in turn she lent to a friend, and her friend forgot to lock the bike. The bike never returned.
4. Lock Bike to Object. I have had a bike stolen from back of house when it was locked to itself. Someone must have come in a van and picked it up to cut through lock later. Never be surprised at the audacity of criminals. Just because you can sometimes see your bike from kitchen window, doesn’t mean you always can.
5. Lock 10% Value. A rule of thumb suggests spending 10 – 15% of the bikes value on a lock. The more valuable a bike is the attractive to thieves. Generally, thieves will be looking for easiest option. If you have high quality locks and multiple locks, your bike is less likely to be a target. Best Bike Locks
6. Wall Mounts for locking bike. I have a small D lock fitted to my garage, it means you have something solid to lock the bike to. This is important for meeting most insurance criteria that the bike is locked even inside a shed.
Visible Bike Parking scheme outside Leeds Station.
7. Choose The Best Public Places. When locking your bike, your best bet is a highly visible bike lock park. Locking in a quiet back street makes it more vulnerable to theft.
8. Thieves Operate in the Countryside Too.
Often cyclists leave top of the range road bikes outside cafes whilst they enjoy a cup of tea in the middle. I know its a pain to weigh down your ultra light carbon fibre bike with a lock, but, it’s better than leaving it unlocked. At least, use a thin lock, which prevents opportunist thieves who don’t have a pair of lock cutters.
9. Dumb Down.
Some town bikes are real head turners. A shiny white fixed speed bike, catches the eye. I can see the attraction of having a great town bike to impress the other cyclists as you speed away at traffic lights, but, it does increase the chance of having bike stolen. My town bike is a ten year old, well worn bike. It’s pretty quick, but, its commercial value is fairly limited. If it did get stolen, it’s not the end of the world. I’d like a flash town bike, but, I fear if I had it I would spend much more time worrying about losing it. At least, with this bike, I lock it then leave it in the hands of the Gods.
10. Get it Postcoded.
Stolen bikes do get recovered. Many stolen bikes are disposed of because their owners never claim them.
11. Leave it unlocked then employ a private security guard to catch the thief red handed. If I was a minister, I would definitely employ this scheme. I wouldn’t even lock up the criminals as the prisons are probably full already. But, I would make them pay heavy financial compensation for being a thief to a cyclists fund for building better bike racks. This financial hit is probably as painful as being sent to prison. That would teach them. It seems such a good idea, I’m sure it has no chance of ever been implemented….
Bike Locks at Wiggle
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