Bike theft is a major problem in the UK. Unfortunately, the police often lack the resources to follow up these ‘minor’ thefts. If you lose your bike, you will only have a small chance of getting it back. Stolen bikes are one of the biggest factors putting people of cycling. These are my top ten tips for preventing bike theft.
10 Tips to Avoid Bike Theft
1. Spend on a Good lock
Some shops suggest 10% of the bike’s value. This is not bad advice. If you get a £400 bike, a £40 lock will provide a good level of protection. For best theft prevention, I would recommend something like the Kryptonite New York lock which offers a really strong protection. The thicker and stronger the lock the more difficult it takes to cut through. You would really need quite a high end piece of kit and power source to cut through a lock like the New York. Ultimately, there are machines which will cut through anything, but, the longer it takes, the more it will deter thieves. If you are willing to spend the £75 on a lock like the Kryptonite you would be very unfortunate if a thief spent the time and effort to cut through this. The downside is that the more powerful locks are heavier to carry around, but if you want piece of mind you will have to live with the inconvenience.
If you are unconvinced look at this youtube video. A bike thief literally just pulled a bike off the bike stand. Fortunately, there was a happy ending and the thief was caught red-handed.
2. Lock in Visible Places
Locked by a busy crossroads.
If you lock a bike in a visible place, thieves will be very reluctant to cut through a lock in the sight of many passers by. Avoid leaving your bike in a vulnerable place overnight.
3. Lock to Something Solid.
If you lock to a small tree, it might be easier to cut through the tree, rather than the lock.
4 Lock the Frame
It may seem obvious advice, but people often just lock their wheel to the stand. This nice specialised bike has just its back wheel locked to the fence. A thief could have this nice bike away in a few seconds. Some people think that the rear wheel is more difficult to take off a bike, but it isn’t.
5. Don’t take your best bike into town.
My commuting bike will always remain a bottom of the range town bike. This means when I leave it locked to itself I don’t have to constantly worry about it. The point is that because it is cheap, it is less attractive to be stolen and if it did get stolen it is not the end of the world. My best bikes I keep in the house and locked to a solid special frame and drilled into the wall.
6. Be Careful of locking a bike to itself.
much better to lock to cycle stand.
In many places, there is little alternative to locking the bike to itself. However, when a bike is locked to itself (putting lock through wheel and frame) there is a greater chance a bike thief can lift your bike and put into a van to deal with in his own time. I once had a bike stolen, which was locked to itself. Someone came and took the bike from the back of the house, and presumably put it in a van to be uncut at the thieves leisure. Often professional bike thieves will work on quantity, trying to steal 10 at a time. They will simply go to a popular spot and lift as many as they can and put into their van. Bikes locked to themselves are a perfect target.
7. Be Careful in Lending Your bike To others
I once lent a bike to my sister, she lent it to her friend. Her friend forgot to lock it. Her friend had no money I never got my bike back. – The moral of the story is people may not be as security conscious as you are.
8. Don’t be Complacent
Better than nothing, but not much better.
Cyclists can be a funny breed. We take our £200 commuting bike into town and assiduously lock it several times. But, when we take our £2,000 top of the range road bike into the countryside we often just leave it outside a cafe. We think if everyone else is leaving their bike unlocked, it must be ok for us. Just because you are in a idyllic part of the world, doesn’t mean thieves won’t be active. I’ve heard many unfortunate stories of really nice bikes been taken from outside cafes. Don’t assume because there are some cyclists around it will give your bike immunity.
9. Lock bikes even in Garages
If you keep a bike in the garage it is still advisable to lock it to a wall. In fact if you insure your bike, this is probably a requirement of the insurance company. You can get brackets which are drilled into a wall so that you can have something to lock it to.
10. Don’t show off your new Bike
Thieve are more inclined to target bikes which have a strong resale value. Some go as far as to repaint their top of the range commuting bikes to make it deliberately less attractive.
Other things You can do
- Bike Insurance – At least you can protect the value of your bike
- Get Bike registered. Make sure you have your bike clearly identified and you have written down the frame number e.t.c.
- Don’t buy a stolen bike. Be careful buying second hand bikes, you don’t want to contribute to the problem by buying dodgy second hand bikes
- Stolen bikes can be recovered. 1 in 6 people whose bike has been stolen, report later seeing it online
My last bike was stolen from uni. Thief took the lock too. Heart breaking moment when you walk down to the bike racks in your gear to find an empty spot where your bike once was