Campsite theft, is it a thing?

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missing the VR6

Original Poster:

2,320 posts

188 months

Sunday 24th April 2022
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poo at Paul's said:
Motorhome with a garage is what you want to be as safe as possible, and. A bloody good alarm on it. You can get alarms with accessory loops on them, that plug in and you wrap a big wire loop through bike on the rack or chained outside etc, they only have to cut it, but alarm then sounds at least.
Roller team Sport is what you want, absolutely massive garage!
Funnily enough a Sport or a 690 is what we want, but they're so rare especially as an automatic I was thinking of giving up. But I think I will persevere and wait for the right one.

poo at Paul's

14,116 posts

174 months

Sunday 24th April 2022
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missing the VR6 said:
poo at Paul's said:
Motorhome with a garage is what you want to be as safe as possible, and. A bloody good alarm on it. You can get alarms with accessory loops on them, that plug in and you wrap a big wire loop through bike on the rack or chained outside etc, they only have to cut it, but alarm then sounds at least.
Roller team Sport is what you want, absolutely massive garage!
Funnily enough a Sport or a 690 is what we want, but they're so rare especially as an automatic I was thinking of giving up. But I think I will persevere and wait for the right one.
Don’t limit yourself to an auto. The manuals are super quiet and it’s a torquey enough lump to mean on motorways just set cruise and sit back.
Also, you’ll be glad of a manual on some slippy fields or muddy climbs at the MTB parks! As yiu will if you have to reverse on a steep slope as I did in an auto 690 when encountered a low bridge in Italy! Hahah, it just sat there not moving an inch!
Resale wise,, tej MX guys are crying out for Sports and most want manuals.

AJB88

12,269 posts

170 months

Sunday 24th April 2022
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We got robbed at Brands Hatch a few years ago while camping for BTCC, I woke up my tent door was open, I'd slept in my clothes that night with my car keys in my pocket so I lost nothing.

As we woke up a lot of noise around the camp at 6am, peoples phones missing, peoples car keys missing, stuff from cars taken etc etc.

local travellers had come through the woods that night, somebody caught them in the act and off they legged it through the woods.

chopper602

2,172 posts

222 months

Sunday 24th April 2022
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One of the reasons we have the motorhome we do now (Knaus), was the size of the garage.We have two e-bikes, which we take out just before a ride and put back straight away afterwards. No seem a problem with thefts, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

nagsheadwarrior

2,779 posts

178 months

Sunday 24th April 2022
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I've sold Motorhoems for 20 years and have had a few customers have their pricey electric bikes nicked, used to be mainly abroad but happening more in the UK now.
Stick it out and be quick when you see the van you want as market is mental, supplies tiny and anything with a garage flies out.
Defo don't hold out for an auto of you see a manual first and there's other and arguably better vans out there than just the Rollerteam tho they are decent tackle these days very much the Skoda of the Leisure industry with what they are now from what they were 15 years ago

AyBee

10,522 posts

201 months

Monday 25th April 2022
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Not a chance I'd leave 5 figures of bikes on a bike rack anywhere! If you leave them in plain sight, they're a target, if you keep them out of sight, unless they've been watched going in, people won't know they're there.

missing the VR6

Original Poster:

2,320 posts

188 months

Monday 25th April 2022
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The auto part is for health reasons sadly, I suffer with a type of Arthritis that flares up unexpectedly in my left ankle and did so after 2 days of uplift MTB last weekend. It's the first time MTB has caused this and as we want the van for 8-10 years want to future proof ourselves and for times I'm away with the boys and bikes not just my fiancé who would be insured on it. I would have struggled to drive home last week if I had a manual car.

Certainly not limiting myself to Roller Team, they just seem to have exactly what we want.

austinsmirk

5,597 posts

122 months

Monday 25th April 2022
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I’ve had bikes strapped to the back of my campers for 30 years now. It’s a case of being aware of surroundings.

Stopping off at a pub on the way: they’re going in the van.

Sleeping for the night: locked tight to the rack with an alarm. My heads only the other side of the rear window !

Depends where you are and how rough it is/ type of people about.

HardtopManual

2,405 posts

165 months

Wednesday 27th April 2022
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I've never had anything stolen on a campsite, but I'd still lock up anything that's attractive to thieves when I'm not on the site - mobile phones get locked in the car, bikes get chained to a tether that hooks into the boot.

You don't need to go to the lengths that you would if you were locking a bike up in a city centre overnight, but you do need to guard against an opportunist simply riding off on your bike.

Unbusy

934 posts

96 months

Wednesday 27th April 2022
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As already said, keep the bike out of view in the garage. Just like motorbike any big chain can be cut with bolt croppers. If the chain is one of the mashosive ones then a battery powered disc cutter will only need a few minutes to make it scrap. So chaining the bike to a rear rack has a risk to it. There is no perfect solution that I know of unfortunately. I’m looking at getting a motorhome later this year so I have this predicament to come. frown

rustyuk

4,568 posts

210 months

Thursday 28th April 2022
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We live in a tourist spot that is popular with mountain bikers and there are a couple of reports a year of bikes being stolen whilst on roof racks and the like.

Though there are many more reports of bike shops being ram raided.

Dog Star

16,079 posts

167 months

Thursday 28th April 2022
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Rosscow said:
We always chain our bikes with a very substantial chain to a tree.
I'm absolutely bonkers on security, especially of bikes and motorbikes.

Service stations etc: simply don't let the camper out of your sight - a simple 10mm cable lock to the rack or van should slow down any "smash and grab" types for long enough for you to get to them.

On site - get a 3m long chain and have this attached to the 'van frame (you can get ones that loop at one end which would be good for this) and attach the bikes with that.

Ideally you'd want a 16 or 19mm chain but that can often be impractical and unwieldy. A top quality 13mm chain would be plenty sufficient on a campsite or similar and is at least "usable" (I use 19 and 22mm chains on my motorbikes - they're MASSIVE, hard to move and very heavy. My ebikes use 13mm). The really decent stuff from the likes of Pragmasis are uncroppable and on a grass campsite there's no way. You'd need an angle grinder - if we are dealing with people angle grinding on campsite then I think it's game over to be fair. I actually use the 13mm chain on my motorbikes as it's at least portable.

Take a look at the Pragmasis stuff - this company is pretty well the best in the business. It's owned by a friend of mine and they take their stuff very seriously indeed. www.securityforbikes.co.uk - there's tons of very good information on there and if you give them a call they will be able to tailor stuff to your exact needs; you can specify custom chain lengths, key alike etc etc.

As I say - on site have a long chain that's wrapped around a chassis rail; attach bikes to that. If a thief is able to get your bikes from that scenario then you might as well give up.

Unbusy said:
As already said, keep the bike out of view in the garage. Just like motorbike any big chain can be cut with bolt croppers
A very high quality chain of 13mm and above is, effectively, uncroppable even with a set of 4' Rekords, and that's in a workshop with someone like Zanx bouncing around on the end of the handles on a concrete floor. That aside, there has to be a point where you realise you are on a hiding to nothing; even an obsessive like myself is prepared to believe that there is no realistic likelihood of someone using an angle grinder or set of 4' croppers on a campsite.

Some good impartial information on here....

https://www.bikelockwiki.com/pragmasis-protector-c...

Including a video of a tester attempting to crop the 13mm chain "If you watch the video, you’ll see that he did manage to crop the chain. However, just as he says, it would be very hard for a thief to replicate this on the street....Instead of using his hands to crop the chain, Wayne uses a length of metal chain connected to a ratcheting device. This device tightens and increase the force applied to the 13mm Protector chain by the bolt cutters. A force that would be almost impossible to replicate with your bare hands." I'll take that as an endorsement!



Edited by Dog Star on Thursday 28th April 11:09

samj2014

552 posts

111 months

Thursday 28th April 2022
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I’d trust a campsite about as much as I’d trust anywhere else, ie not at all. Particularly in the UK. Put your bikes inside the van IMO.

Dog Star

16,079 posts

167 months

Thursday 28th April 2022
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samj2014 said:
I’d trust a campsite about as much as I’d trust anywhere else, ie not at all. Particularly in the UK. Put your bikes inside the van IMO.
Another thing - if you haven’t anywhere secure to attach them or you are using a U lock simply u lock the frames together, one bike forwards, one backwards.

They cannot be wheeled or ridden away, the pair are incredibly cumbersome and you’d need a big van to be able to lob them into the back of. If ebikes it’s like trying to steal an anvil covered in projecting bars.

samj2014

552 posts

111 months

Thursday 28th April 2022
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Dog Star said:
Another thing - if you haven’t anywhere secure to attach them or you are using a U lock simply u lock the frames together, one bike forwards, one backwards.

They cannot be wheeled or ridden away, the pair are incredibly cumbersome and you’d need a big van to be able to lob them into the back of. If ebikes it’s like trying to steal an anvil covered in projecting bars.
Anyone with a battery grinder could get through a U-lock pretty easily. Most bike thieves are not opportunists, they know what they're doing.

Dog Star

16,079 posts

167 months

Thursday 28th April 2022
quotequote all
samj2014 said:
Anyone with a battery grinder could get through a U-lock pretty easily. Most bike thieves are not opportunists, they know what they're doing.
Taking that approach why bother locking anything at all. It’s simply to just make them look for something easier.

A battery grinder and thin disc are going to defeat anything, let’s face it.

troika

1,862 posts

150 months

Thursday 28th April 2022
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Never had a problem with bikes on the back of my California or anything else taken on campsites. Then again, I only take crap bikes when camping. No way would I put expensive bikes on the back, it’s asking for trouble unfortunately.

samj2014

552 posts

111 months

Thursday 28th April 2022
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Dog Star said:
Taking that approach why bother locking anything at all. It’s simply to just make them look for something easier.

A battery grinder and thin disc are going to defeat anything, let’s face it.
That's why you put the bikes inside the van, because any would-be thieves are much less likely to even know there's anything there to steal. That and it's a lot harder to break into a vehicle to steal bikes than it is to just take them off a rack. That said I managed to travel all of Australia with my bikes on the rack with zero trouble (except in big cities, they stayed inside the van there) but the moment I got home to Sydney somebody broke in and nicked the bike from inside the van. rotate

Edited by samj2014 on Thursday 28th April 22:08

Dog Star

16,079 posts

167 months

Thursday 28th April 2022
quotequote all
samj2014 said:
I’d trust a campsite about as much as I’d trust anywhere else, ie not at all. Particularly in the UK. Put your bikes inside the van IMO.
Another thing - if you haven’t anywhere secure to attach them or you are using a U lock simply u lock the frames together, one bike forwards, one backwards.

They cannot be wheeled or ridden away, the pair are incredibly cumbersome and you’d need a big van to be able to lob them into the back of. If ebikes it’s like trying to steal an anvil covered in projecting bars.

vikingaero

10,256 posts

168 months

Friday 29th April 2022
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Ask the campsite. I've been camping with valuable bikes and sometimes they have storage of some kind. I've put bikes in a locked plumbing cupboard on the side of the shower block and I put a cable lock to secure them. It was only a small faff to ask the receptionist to lock/unlock the cupboard. On other occasions they've told me to bring the bikes and leave them in the reception area - say at 9:50pm, before they close for the night.