- Mar 25, 2020
- 174
- 598
- Funster No
- 69,618
- MH
- SWIFT KONTIKI 649
- Exp
- SINCE 1980
Just wondering if anyone has any good tips to foil thieves of bikes and motorbikes?
I'm asking because I've just had my motorscooter and electric bike stolen from Tredegar House campsite in Newport, South Wales, where I am staying as a full-timer.
I never dreamt my bikes could be stolen. We are within a camping compound, surrounded by thick trees and a 2m wire fence and locked gates. The scooter had the steering lock engaged, a clamp lock on the front disc brake, a flat battery and also my e-bike was chained to it with an Oxford ‘’Monster Lock’’. I thought no way it could be taken. The only way to take it would be to pick it all up together and carry it away, all 200+ kgs of it - ha, ha! As if that could happen. But that is exactly what they did. The CCTV caught two of them coming onto the site, but they went for help and about six young men picked up the whole ensemble and silently carried it away - lifted a ranch fence out of the ground to get past it, then dragged it all across a field, cut through the wire fence and out into the woods. I followed the trail in the morning and found my motorbike and the remnants of the chain lock - cut through with an angle grinder with the remnants left on the ground. The e-bike was long gone, but the scooter had defeated them - they’d busted open the front fairing to get at the locking mechanism and broken it, but they went too far and snapped the steering column, so although the handle bars would turn, the front wheel would not turn in unison. And even if they hadn’t snapped the steering column, it wouldn’t have started with the flat battery. I’d only discovered the flat battery the day before and gone to ASDA to get a battery charger to sort it and it was only when I went to charge it early the next morning that I realised it was missing. Although the thing was covered in smudges and prints from six people carrying it, the local police felt it ''not worth'' doing any CSI on it and the insurance company said it sounds like they will write it off, which surprised me. They are sending an assessor to look at it, but she said it sounds like a goner. So I'm over two grand down - 700 quid excess on my motorbike insurance and total loss of 1350 quid on the brand-new leccy bike. I phoned the club to see if my van insurance would cover my leccy bike, but they said that only bikes INSIDE your van are covered and then only to the value of 500 pounds. I ask you, who keeps their bikes INSIDE their motorhomes? What a swiz.
The only thing I can think to do differently in the future is to somehow secure both bike and motorbike TO the actual motorhome itself, so they can't be physically carried away and any angle-grinder-type theft would involve noise right next to me.
Any suggestions, folks?
Cheers,
Mick
I'm asking because I've just had my motorscooter and electric bike stolen from Tredegar House campsite in Newport, South Wales, where I am staying as a full-timer.
I never dreamt my bikes could be stolen. We are within a camping compound, surrounded by thick trees and a 2m wire fence and locked gates. The scooter had the steering lock engaged, a clamp lock on the front disc brake, a flat battery and also my e-bike was chained to it with an Oxford ‘’Monster Lock’’. I thought no way it could be taken. The only way to take it would be to pick it all up together and carry it away, all 200+ kgs of it - ha, ha! As if that could happen. But that is exactly what they did. The CCTV caught two of them coming onto the site, but they went for help and about six young men picked up the whole ensemble and silently carried it away - lifted a ranch fence out of the ground to get past it, then dragged it all across a field, cut through the wire fence and out into the woods. I followed the trail in the morning and found my motorbike and the remnants of the chain lock - cut through with an angle grinder with the remnants left on the ground. The e-bike was long gone, but the scooter had defeated them - they’d busted open the front fairing to get at the locking mechanism and broken it, but they went too far and snapped the steering column, so although the handle bars would turn, the front wheel would not turn in unison. And even if they hadn’t snapped the steering column, it wouldn’t have started with the flat battery. I’d only discovered the flat battery the day before and gone to ASDA to get a battery charger to sort it and it was only when I went to charge it early the next morning that I realised it was missing. Although the thing was covered in smudges and prints from six people carrying it, the local police felt it ''not worth'' doing any CSI on it and the insurance company said it sounds like they will write it off, which surprised me. They are sending an assessor to look at it, but she said it sounds like a goner. So I'm over two grand down - 700 quid excess on my motorbike insurance and total loss of 1350 quid on the brand-new leccy bike. I phoned the club to see if my van insurance would cover my leccy bike, but they said that only bikes INSIDE your van are covered and then only to the value of 500 pounds. I ask you, who keeps their bikes INSIDE their motorhomes? What a swiz.
The only thing I can think to do differently in the future is to somehow secure both bike and motorbike TO the actual motorhome itself, so they can't be physically carried away and any angle-grinder-type theft would involve noise right next to me.
Any suggestions, folks?
Cheers,
Mick
