To steal an unprotected bike, all I have to do is kick up the parking stand and wheel it down the road — simple.
Dr German said: “Both motorcycles and scooters are easy to steal from the street if they are not secured.
“Thieves will simply pick them up and load them onto a trailer or put them in the back of a van.
“Organised crime gangs will use effort and resources to steal a valuable machine so garages, museums, warehouses and even houses also need to be secure.”
Oxford Products estimate that around 80 per cent of all bike thefts happen at home — reinforcing the importance of good locks on not only your bike but also on the shed or garage doors.
Picture (Left) : DISC LOCK . . . the Squire ML2L high security brake disc lock — priced around £65
Picture (Right): SECURE . . . Squire Stronghold SS50CS/TC4 lock and chain (Sold Secure gold standard) — priced around £225
1.2m — £69.99
1.5m — £79.99
2.0m — £89.99
Secured with a Rota Force Ground Anchor — £79.99 and a Boss Alarm lock £44.99
Picture (Right) : Oxford Docking Station — £99.99
A U-lock can be incredibly strong as there are so few moving parts but its dimensions mean that it is difficult to lock the bike to an immovable object and difficult to transport.
Disc locks are very popular due to their compact size and portability and they represent a good visual deterrent to the casual thief.
There is a huge choice of different shapes, colours, sizes and types available, but their basic job is to immobilise the front wheel and prevent your bike from being ridden or just wheeled away.
However, bikes secured with only a disc lock can still be lifted into the back of a van. Buy one with a movement sensor alarm then your chances of your bike being avoided are all the greater.
Ground anchors come in all shapes and sizes but their aim is simply to provide that immovable object. Every garage, every work place and every bike park should have one for every bike.
Look for a ground anchor with a double skin. The Oxford AnchorForce ground anchor features double layers of hardened steel and is fastened with anti-tamper bolts giving it a Sold Secure gold standard rating.
KEEP IT COVERED
THE old adage ‘out of sight out of mind’ is really important when it comes to motorcycle security.
Keep your bike covered when parked at home, at work or even in the garage.
If a thief cannot tell what’s covered, they are less likely to spend time investigating.
STRIPPED FOR PARTS
STOLEN machines are often stripped and sold for spares or cloned.
It’s common for the police to find several stolen machines having their individual parts exchanged making identification difficult.
Kevin Howells from the Motorcycle Crime Reduction Group has spent years developing the Datatag system.
The Datatag system incorporates hidden transponders, stealth etching and microscopic technology whereby you mark almost every part of your bike using one form or another.
This makes it incredibly difficult for tagged stolen parts to be passed on as thieves have to be 100 per cent certain that they have removed every invisible trace of the Datatag system.
And as the Crown Prosecution Service has never lost a case when Datatag has been used as evidence — bikes displaying the Datatag sticker become much less desirable to thieves
Kevin Howells said:
“We did an experiment in November when we spent days trawling internet auction sites for spare parts and you soon realise their value.
“A bike brand new may fetch £4,000 but when broken down into resaleable parts, it is worth a combined total of around £9,000.”
Figures supplied by Datatag reveal that the most commonly stolen bike for parts is the Yamaha YZF-R6.
When stripped for parts, a YZF-R6 bike registered from 2006 onwards fetches around £7,533 on the spare parts black market.
The chassis alone sells for £2,450, the wheels £90 each, the engine £1,650 and even the headlight unit attracts £120.
“Around 75 per cent of stolen bikes are taken for parts — that’s why we came up with Datatag, added Mr Howells.
“A thief doesn’t know which part may or may not be marked or etched and so when a dealer or the police scan a bike using a simple handheld scanner, the stolen parts will show up.
“Datatag is not like a good chain or a lock — it cannot physically stop your bike being stolen. But it is a deterrent. “A tagged bike is far less attractive and there are easier pickings available.”
THE SOLUTION
AFTER studying dozens of locks and security systems and speaking to industry experts, it is clear that bike theft is a big — and growing — problem.
There is no easy way to deal with the problem but it becomes obvious you need to think in layers. Buying the best chain and lock you can afford along with a ground anchor should be your primary physical security feature — looking of course for the Thatcham or Sold Secure accreditation.
Add to this a disc lock as this stops the ‘ped-pushing’ technique previously mentioned.
But with the chain cut and the bike lifted onto a trailer, you now need hidden scientific features such as Datatag which will help you trace your stolen bike and will make it harder for thieves to sell on your pride and joy in pieces over the internet.
Finally, the supply and demand culture helps feed these crimes.
Buying spare parts on internet auction sites may be cheaper than getting the genuine spare from the manufacturer — but was it your neighbour who had his bike stolen to feed your need for a spare front Honda CBR fork?
One to divide opinion — to engrave or not to engrave your bike
ONE topic certain to divide opinion is whether you should etch markings on to your bike?
It’s quick and cheap to do — the Dremel Hobby Engraving kit I tried costs just £28.99 — but the debate lies in firstly whether you would want to etch your pride and joy, and secondly, if it is effective.
As the police have found, serial numbers and chassis plates are easy to remove and alter. And so anywhere you are able to gain access to use the engraving machine, a thief can access also to grind off these very markings.
The debate will always rumble on and the decision to engrave or not will largely depend on the value of your bike.
If your bike is only worth a few hundred pounds and is fairly worthless for used parts, then maybe engraving on your postcode or name is a cheaper alternative to chemical DNA technology and tracking systems.
Anything is better than nothing in the fight against crime and a visible marking may put off the opportunist thief looking to make a quick buck on the black market.
Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the engraving argument, I put the Dremel Hobby Engraving kit to the test. This unit is mains powered, is supplied with three tips for use on wood, metal, plastic and glass and comes complete with stencils.
The engraver has five power levels so that you can vary the depth of marking depending on the surface material — but this may take you two or three attempts to get just right.
Changing the engraving tip is easy and the unit is easy to hold like a jumbosized pen with a simple on-off switch.
A variety of stencils are included with the unit, but remember this is a hobby engraver so not all of the stencils are security themed.
The number/letter stencil is small, but easy to use. I did however find it troublesome to make sure I had all of my letters correctly aligned and level.
Although an extra expense — if I was using this machine on a regular basis I would opt for a custom-cut stencil using one of the many online stores.
Practice makes perfect and I would certainly recommend trying this machine for tip suitability and engraving strength before setting to work as mistakes will be costly to rectify — especially on an expensive bike.
My tips for areas where you can use this engraver on your bike without causing too much cosmetic upset is on plastic parts under the seat (if it has hidden storage), behind your number plate on the plastic mounting and on certain areas around light housings.
Admittedly, marking any portion of the engine, frame, wheels or exhaust is going to be visible — and nonreversible — so it again comes down to security over looks and value.
As for the engraver itself, it does the job it is designed to do, quickly and fairly easily.
The Dremel Hobby Engraving kit costs £28.99 from
www.dremel-direct.com.
Science to outwit the bike thieves
Datatag
www.datatag.co.uk, 08450 700440
WITH the majority of stolen bikes being stripped down for individual parts, it is time to think science.
A Datatag kit contains a series of devices which are invisibly hidden on your bike.
These Datatag products each feature a unique code which you register against your bike.
Datatag then run a permanently manned 24-hour-a-day call centre and computer database which the police can access.
Approved by the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Home Office, this database will flag up stolen parts if scanned by the police or a bike dealer.
Datatag is effective because it utilises many different technologies that can be applied all over the bike.
Tags
Each Datatag kit you buy (average cost between £79 and £89) contains a number of state of the art electronic transponders. These microscopic tags feature a unique code programmed into its circuit which can be detected by handheld scanners.
Typically these tags are inserted into the foam of the seat, within the frame, the wiring loom or even within the wheels.
ETCHING
Each kit also contains a UV etching kit. If you stamp all of the plastic panels of your bike, this marking only shows up under ultra violet light and is impossible to remove.
DATADOTS
Each kit also features a tube of microscopic datadots.
Each dot — around the size of a full stop on this page — features a microscopic code number.
The dots are suspended in a clear lacquer and with 1,000s per tube, they make it increasingly difficult for a thief to be 100 per cent certain he has removed every last dot.
Paint under your seat, behind the dials and in every nook and cranny on your bike and they pose a real problem to thieves.
TAMPER-PROOF LABELS
Place these on your bike as a warning to thieves. Do they want to run the risk of being caught in possession of a spare part you can 100 per cent prove was stolen from you?
These deterrent labels should send the thief looking elsewhere.
TIME TO SELL
When the time comes to sell your bike, Datatag provides a change of ownership form just like the DVLA.
The Datatag products are installed on the bike for life — either through a dealer or using simple DIY skills — all you have to do is keep the database up to date with the current owner’s details.
OTHER INDUSTRIES
Datatag is not just for bikes. The system is so successful it is widely used to protect boats, cars, farm machinery, construction equipment and even expensive boilers in homes and offices.
Article reproduced from the Burton Mail with kind permission of the author Stephen Sinfield.
Article source:
Stephen Sinfield
To steal a car you usually have to break a door lock or smash a window, then comes the removal of the screaming alarm and the deactivation of the immobiliser before you can even dream of driving off.
CHAINS are the most popular form of security device because they offer the best combination of strength and flexibility. The toughest chain locks are almost impossible to breach, while they allow you to lock your bike to something immovable.
