Bike manufactures to make bikes more secure
Bike manufactures to make bikes more secure
Author
Discussion

Appleby

Original Poster:

67 posts

200 months

Thursday 25th January 2018
quotequote all
So the mayor of London has met with representatives from the MCIA to tell them they need to make bikes harder to steal.

Article

What can they do to make them more secure? I can't really see much more you can do to stop three guys picking one up and dumping it in the back of a van. What with bolt coppers and battery angle grinders, most security is a visual deterrent at best.

With little to no consequences of crime I can't see any of these gangs being put off.

After speaking to a member of the met, I believe the police and crime commissioner has approached bike manufacturers before and been told that London is the only major city that has this epidemic and that they need to fix their policing. I was recently shocked on a bit to Paris how many nice bikes are parked with just the steering lock for security.

So, is there anything that can be done? Any cunning designs to stop the scum?


CAPP0

20,881 posts

234 months

Thursday 25th January 2018
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It's a well-worn tale, I took out a loaner today whilst my bike was in for some warranty work and seriously thought about going back and discussing a deal until I remembered that I commute into London regularly and the new bike wouldn't last 5 minutes.

Young guy in my office had his Street Triple taken from Minories car park last week.

bogie

17,106 posts

303 months

Thursday 25th January 2018
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Nope, just seems like passing the buck to me. How on earth can you secure something that is easily lifted into a van. The biggest chains can be cut with rechargeable tools. Passers by ignore alarms going off. We have a shortage of real Police on the streets that could actually give chase and apprehend thieves.

So there is no deterrent to theft really, for those who live on the wrong side of the law its easy money and will continue to be so long as we take our namby pamby liberal approach to crime and fail to invest.


MrGman

1,670 posts

237 months

Friday 26th January 2018
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I'm sure i read that in 2017 there were 15,000 scooters stolen in London alone, what i can't figure out is what is happening to all these bikes?

They can't all end up on eBay parts can they?

If they were being shipped abroad surely we'd have heard about the odd container being discovered, surely you'd only get 50 bikes on a 40ft shipping container?

There can't be all that many people that are happy to buy a scooter with no paperwork can there??

Scrapping them? Surely with the price of scrap at the moment you'd only be looking at a few quid per bike?

Steve Bass

10,756 posts

264 months

Friday 26th January 2018
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MrGman said:
I'm sure i read that in 2017 there were 15,000 scooters stolen in London alone, what i can't figure out is what is happening to all these bikes?

They can't all end up on eBay parts can they?

If they were being shipped abroad surely we'd have heard about the odd container being discovered, surely you'd only get 50 bikes on a 40ft shipping container?

There can't be all that many people that are happy to buy a scooter with no paperwork can there??

Scrapping them? Surely with the price of scrap at the moment you'd only be looking at a few quid per bike?
Worth more as parts......

Why ship whole bikes that require documents when shipping S/H parts is easier and worth more.

Appleby

Original Poster:

67 posts

200 months

Friday 26th January 2018
quotequote all
CAPP0 said:
Young guy in my office had his Street Triple taken from Minories car park last week.
frown such a shame. The police officer I was talking too was saying the street triple is one of the most stolen bikes, I can't remember the exact figure per week but it was ludicrous for just a single model. I'd have one in a heartbeat if I didn't think it would be gone just as fast.

I think the industry responded sensibly to Mr Khans request, saying they are doing as much as they can as it hurts their business too. I definitely agree that more policing, tougher sentencing and more secure parking facilities are then only solution.

2Btoo

3,835 posts

234 months

Friday 26th January 2018
quotequote all
bogie said:
Nope, just seems like passing the buck to me. How on earth can you secure something that is easily lifted into a van. The biggest chains can be cut with rechargeable tools. Passers by ignore alarms going off. We have a shortage of real Police on the streets that could actually give chase and apprehend thieves.

So there is no deterrent to theft really, for those who live on the wrong side of the law its easy money and will continue to be so long as we take our namby pamby liberal approach to crime and fail to invest.
Spot on Bogie. Bikes are not subject to the astronomical theft rates anywhere else in the world compared to those in London. The problem isn't with the bikes - it's with the people who steal them. That Khan should try this tactic tells us more about Khan's approach to crime than anything else, but it's not something we didn't already know.

The stats released yesterday about the vast increase in crime in the last year tell us the same thing; law enforcement in this country is pathetic and ordinary people are bearing the brunt.

stuckmojo

4,122 posts

219 months

Friday 26th January 2018
quotequote all
2Btoo said:
Spot on Bogie. Bikes are not subject to the astronomical theft rates anywhere else in the world compared to those in London. The problem isn't with the bikes - it's with the people who steal them. That Khan should try this tactic tells us more about Khan's approach to crime than anything else, but it's not something we didn't already know.

The stats released yesterday about the vast increase in crime in the last year tell us the same thing; law enforcement in this country is pathetic and ordinary people are bearing the brunt.
I agree. And Khan would never miss the opportunity to make a political point about this.

cmaguire

3,589 posts

140 months

Friday 26th January 2018
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If they aren't already, it really is time there were coordinated sting operations with bait bikes for this, possibly involving armed Police.
It has got to the stage where half-arsed efforts with the odd arrest will act as no deterrent to the rest.
They need to throw the kitchen sink at this now, and don't pussy about, any nonsense and just Taser them or wallop them with a baton.
They'd be a lot less likely to try anything with armed Police and MP5s in the background anyway.

Biker 1

8,609 posts

150 months

Friday 26th January 2018
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I'm amazed anybody bothers biking in London at all - if they don't cut your chain & nick it, they'll throw acid in your face at the lights & nick it anyway.
Seems to me what with knife crime on the rise, massive resources directed at terrorism, & ever shrinking budgets, that something will give soon. Will it all end in lawlessness & the army on the streets, or will the bike industry be sacrificed in order for the other high visibility crimes to be dealt with instead?
Sad times.

black-k1

12,811 posts

260 months

Friday 26th January 2018
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If Khan wants a solution to this that doesn't involve the police chasing the thieving scrotes and risking death or injury to yet another "promising young footballer" then he needs to provide proper secure parking, and lots of it. Proper large, heavy duty ground anchors with chunky chains and big locks provided in parking bays that are regularly paroled by one of the many uniformed local authority employees would be a significant step forward. But that would mean he'd have to sort something rather than attempting to pass the buck onto someone else.

TT Tim

4,168 posts

278 months

Friday 26th January 2018
quotequote all
I'm hoping to restart commuting bck into central London next week after an enforced break (Bike blew up!), having spent a lot of money getting a new engine and sorting it, I thought I'd get a more substantial chain and lock. This I did, but no sooner had I done so than I came across this:

https://youtu.be/Wimo09WV-rY

Checked and they are easy to get hold of and not at all expensive. frown

Wait until the little scrotes get hold of these.

I see little that will stop these and make a nonsense of just about any kind of deterrent, other than maybe a Rottweiler!

T

naetype

890 posts

281 months

Friday 26th January 2018
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Don't think that's the doomsday scenario it appears to be.

In a reply to a comment made on that video:

" Also, I try not to destroy locks that I don't think I can open, so that helps."

Moulder

1,648 posts

243 months

Friday 26th January 2018
quotequote all
TT Tim said:
I'm hoping to restart commuting bck into central London next week after an enforced break (Bike blew up!), having spent a lot of money getting a new engine and sorting it, I thought I'd get a more substantial chain and lock. This I did, but no sooner had I done so than I came across this:

https://youtu.be/Wimo09WV-rY

Checked and they are easy to get hold of and not at all expensive. frown

Wait until the little scrotes get hold of these.

I see little that will stop these and make a nonsense of just about any kind of deterrent, other than maybe a Rottweiler!

T
I would like to think that would be classified as a firearm so would attract a longer sentence if caught, which might be prohibitive.

A battery grinder is in theory just two blokes on a scooter off to do some DIY right up until a theft.

cbmotorsport

3,065 posts

149 months

Friday 26th January 2018
quotequote all
I can't back this up with figures, but I was under the impression that most of these bike thefts in cities, are scrotes on scooters pushing them away, as opposed to white vans lifting them. A really effective way of stopping them from being wheeled away would definitely see a drop in theft I'm sure.


Krikkit

27,941 posts

212 months

Friday 26th January 2018
quotequote all
That's the biggest problem - battery-powered grinders are small enough to fit in a backpack and basically impossible to defend against with sensible security.

However the manufacturers try to combat it, the problem is that everything is easily accessible and light-duty on a bike.

The solution is to combat the thieves, but that's a very expensive option which the coppers can't afford.

cbmotorsport

3,065 posts

149 months

Friday 26th January 2018
quotequote all
TT Tim said:
I'm hoping to restart commuting bck into central London next week after an enforced break (Bike blew up!), having spent a lot of money getting a new engine and sorting it, I thought I'd get a more substantial chain and lock. This I did, but no sooner had I done so than I came across this:

https://youtu.be/Wimo09WV-rY

Checked and they are easy to get hold of and not at all expensive. frown

Wait until the little scrotes get hold of these.

I see little that will stop these and make a nonsense of just about any kind of deterrent, other than maybe a Rottweiler!

T
It's overkill. Why bother. A £50 portable angle grinder from ebay will be through that chain in less than a minute, and these scrotes have no fear of being caught.

croyde

26,525 posts

261 months

Friday 26th January 2018
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I left London 2 years ago. I was paying 130 a year for my Vespa 300. In the country side only 25 miles away it went down to 80.

I've just returned. Same area except Vespa will be parked behind gates and the same insurance company won't carry on covering me.

Quotes I'm getting are 3 times what I was paying in London 2 years ago.

CAPP0

20,881 posts

234 months

Friday 26th January 2018
quotequote all
cbmotorsport said:
I can't back this up with figures, but I was under the impression that most of these bike thefts in cities, are scrotes on scooters pushing them away, as opposed to white vans lifting them. A really effective way of stopping them from being wheeled away would definitely see a drop in theft I'm sure.
On a lot of bikes (well modern one at least) there isn't much gap between the wheel and the swingarm - I wonder whether some sort of locking bolt right through the swingarm and wheel, which they can't get a grinder to, is a fairly easy answer? Like the sort of things you get on a steering lock, or a disk lock, where you push them in and they click into place and you have to put the key in to release them. Would have to be manufacturer-driven, you can't have people randomly drilling 12-15mm holes through a swingarm though.

CAPP0

20,881 posts

234 months

Friday 26th January 2018
quotequote all
Biker 1 said:
if they don't cut your chain & nick it, they'll throw acid in your face at the lights & nick it anyway.
I've taken to making sure that my visor is always down at traffic lights now. Still leaves my neck exposed I guess, even if I wear a Buff. Not sure how that's going to be come the hot weather again though frown