If you’ve just got a new bike it’s really important that you take some of the below tips to heart with most new bikes being stolen within 2 years and a vast majority of those never being recovered there is a very real chance that if you don’t take action your bike will end up on the front page of this website or others like it.
Record your bikes details
So you’ve just got your new bike, it’s nice and shiny and it’s sunny outside, time to go for ride? Stop! There are a few vital details you can record that dramatically increase the chances of recovering your bike should it ever be stolen.
Lock your bike… PROPERLY!
Welcome to the arms race! Unfortunately no lock on the market can resist a determined bike thief so the object of locking your bike properly is simply to make the thief look elsewhere for easier pray.
- Get the right lock
See those cable locks? walk right past them and go for a Dlock which are much harder to defeat without the use of power tools. I personally recommend the Kryptonite New Yorker, which comes with a anti-theft guarantee. - Location, location, location
Try to find dedicated bike racks in busy areas that are covered by CCTV, the more bikes using it the better.
- Use your lock correctly
If you don’t use your lock correctly you may as well have not bothered.
- Ensure that you at the very least include a major part of the frame, try to include one wheel as well, and if you have a second lock loop that around the other wheel and frame.
- Place the lock in a way that it can’t be moved lower to the ground, this stops bike thieves using the ground as leverage when trying to break your lock.
- Try to keep the lock tight around the object and the bike, so it’s harder for the thieves to move the lock around looking for a weak spot.
Other practical tips
- If you come back to your bike and find that the tyres have been deflated or another lock is on it, don’t leave your bike. It’s a common tactic that thieves are using, so they can wait for the area to be quieter before taking the bike.
- Placing random bit’s a Gaffa tap on your seat and other choice components can make your bike less appealing to a bike thief.
- In high crime areas you can secure your accessories by putting a ball bearing in the nuts, sealed with melted wax. Alternatively cheap cable locks or specialist locking nuts do the same job.
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