UKC

Had a recent break in where thieves went to some length to get my £300 (ebay value) bike. Garage now properly alarmed along with Pragmasis locks etc.

Was wondering what is peoples' experience of return visits from thieves?

In reply to fast eddie:

They tend to give it a While, then return to see what you bought with the insurance pay out.

In reply to Choss:

In these cases rarely. People generally upgrade there security after a break in, so it becomes less attractive. Unless you have something really special, in which case a better lock won't help.

I have a special wall anchor and heavy chain lock to secure my bike in the storage box.

In reply to fast eddie:

get yourself an armed oscar pistorius

In reply to tjin:


I dug a hole in the garden underneath my shed. Filled it with concrete with a chain embedded in it. Massive lock passed through bikes and chain within the locked shed.

Made absolutely no difference, they used a bolt cutter and left in minutes.

Best protection for your stuff is insurance.

In reply to Father Noel Furlong:

You used to be able to get siren alarms that would emit a very, very loud noise when they went off, loud enough to be painful and you couldn't be in the room at the time. They were used to stop thefts from empty tenements in Glasgow.

Apparently the UB40 setting made your ears bleed

In reply to Father Noel Furlong:

Funnily enough, a mate of mine has just done that too! When I mentioned about the Bolt Cutters, he poo pooed the very suggestion a thief would go to that length!

In reply to Father Noel Furlong:



Would insurance pay out if they'd been unlocked?

In reply to goldmember:


What, to kill your girlfriend?

In reply to dek:

Depends on the thief I expect. An opportunistic scumbag probably wouldn't, he'll just nick whatever is easy to nick more or less indiscriminately. A lot of shed/garage theft is done by just such individuals, so the chain is worth the bother even though it'll scarcely inconvenience a more um.. serious (for want of a better word) thief.

In reply to fast eddie:

A mate had a high end hard tail pinched out of his garage (about £4k), already had a fair few security precautions, but added to these after the theft. Caught someone trying to get in through the roof. Added more security in the roof, but best bike now lives in doors.

My best bike lives in the dining room. I told my lodger he could do the same, but he currently has 5 bikes plus 2 frames in there. I think I need to have a word.

In reply to dek:
Ha! We found the shed open on Saturday morning and thought "oh we must have left it unlocked, how silly".......little did we know they had been watching us and on seeing my foolproof security came back that night with said boltcutter.

Got my Marin Pine Mountain and the missus Trek. They even had time to cut off the child seat attached to a bike rack as it was obviously an inconvenience. Bastards.

Oh i should add i also had a motion detector security light looking over the garden.

In reply to bigbobbyking:


I assume that would depend on your policy. It's a few years ago now and i've moved so honestly don't know whether they would have.

In reply to Father Noel Furlong:

Well the chain i use is a squared 10mm hardened steel version, which is not easily cut manually. I mounted the anchors so you can't really use body weight to add leverage to a bolt cutter. So the real only way you can steal it is to use a angle grinder.

In reply to tjin:

Gas powered bolt cutter?

In reply to dek:
You can buy 19mm chains now that are "meant" to be bolt cutter proof. Think they are too wide for the bolt cutter mouth to get around.

youtube.com/watch?v=7lDcViM1EKc&

youtube.com/watch?v=VC3hFr8p2ck&

In reply to tjin:

The f*ckers bust their bolt croppers on my so-called "uncroppable" Abus motorcycle chain, but still managed to crop it (and nicked the chain as well, just to add insult to injury).

In reply to fast eddie:

I have CCTV now which is a good deterrent.
My good bikes live in the house (road).
My shed has this http://securityforbikes.com/shed-shackle.php and the bike is secured through a few things with multiple locks. So much so it stops me using it (mtb), as I can't be bothered to undo all the locks regulary.

I also have a Siemens wireless doorbell system, where you can add things to the system - so the shed has a PIR in it and this is of a different sound to the normal doorbell. So if they get in and I'm home I would hear it.

In reply to Father Noel Furlong:

Bit specialised that. An 18v cordless angle grinder would more likely be the weapon of choice.

In reply to all:

Seems like the standard of security needed for even 'basic' bikes is really high. I'm just weighing up what to replace the bike with given that I'm mainly climbing at the mo.

One suggestion that I have come across that think would be a good deterrent would be to take the front wheel off and store elsewhere (if house storage not an option). I know that's a bit of a pain with disc brakes etc, but would make the bike look less attractive.

In reply to sleavesley:


Def a good move


I can definitely identify with that

In reply to fast eddie:

If you have something worth stealing they will probably be back in a few months to get whatever you have replaced it with. However, I think it depends if it was an opportunistic theft, or a more calculated one.

Thieves will go to great lengths to nick stuff. Our neighbour had his quad bike stolen a couple of years ago. It was locked in a steel framed building out of sight of the road. The thieves knew exactly which building to break into. I can also think of several other local thefts of plant and equipment where the thieves knew exactly which building to break into. This is in the middle of the countryside from buildings which aren't visible from the road.

Even worse if you catch them red handed and can actually identify the thieves, it seldom seems to result in a prosecution.

Like others have suggested CCTV and maybe fitting a tracker to a high value bike is probably your best bet.

In reply to The New NickB:


Ditto a mate of mine - beefed up security after first theft of several bikes and then they got in through the roof next attempt, but were disturbed and didn't get anything. Roof now reinforced with rebar and bikes stored in a steel cage inside the garage.

In reply to The New NickB:

I think you do. He has more bikes than you do? You need to up his rent and get more bikes.

In reply to fast eddie:

All my bikes (even the 18 year old Marin murewoods) live in the back room. And if I'm away for any length of time they are shackled together with every lock I own which is 4 d locks and a heavy duty chain.

I still think they would go if the right thief got in but it would take them ages and hopefully they would get disturbed before they cut the lot.

In reply to fast eddie:

to really secure your bike in a garage you have to think about what is outside your garage. motion sensitive lighting outside is good as is cctv covering the garage door area, gates and gravel drives also deter (opportunist scum won't mind riding your bike off down the street but more professional thieves would rather back a small van up to your garage door)

In reply to fast eddie:
How about uglifying it, so that they don't want it?

http://www.make-digital.com/make/vol11/?pg=76&search=u-g-l-y+your+bike&u1=t...

In reply to tlm:



Ok if you purely want something to get around on but do you really want to make your nice sleek looking bike look like a load of crap?
Also, Some thieves would still steal it, A friend had her ~£50 battered old bike stolen and that really was a total heap.

In reply to gethin_allen:



Did she have it insured and bolted to the floor in a locked, alarmed garage? It's one more tool that you can choose to use if you want to, among many.

In reply to tlm:

It was just D-locked to a frame. But wouldn't you suspect something wasn't quite normal about a bike if it was all covered in paint and crap but locked up really well?

In reply to gethin_allen:

For you, the best thing is to have a beautiful, sleek bike. It's fine. I don't mind. It won't upset me.