About a month ago, The National Insurance Crime Bureau released a motorcycle theft report for the U.S. that found that a total of 46,061 motorcycles were reported stolen in 2012. With only about a 39% recovery rate, that’s a lot of motorcycles that people who have spent their hard-earned money on and will never see them again. So what can you do to ensure that your bike is safe when you’re away? If you follow these tips, the chances of your bike getting stolen could diminish.
Don’t Make Your Bike an Easy Target
Criminals are often opportunistic and will take advantage of riders who are not careful when leaving their bikes unattended. One thing that you can do to make your bike less of an easy target is to park it with other motorcycles. When your bike is alone, the thief knows that they are only dealing with one person. If your bike is with other motorcycles, it is less likely to get singled out to be stolen. If you have to park your bike downtown, being visible can actually be helpful. Parking under streetlights and in high traffic areas will deter potential thieves, because the likelihood of them getting caught is greater.
The best case scenario is to be able to keep your motorcycle in your sight at all times. Preferably, it would be in your sight, but if that isn’t possible, park it where a number of trustworthy eyes will be on it. Also, try to break up any patterns that you may have for the locations that you park. If the thief sees a motorcycle in the same spot at the same time every day, they can figure out your pattern and plan the best time to steal your bike. By being sporadic, you can keep them guessing.
Make It Look Like Fort Knox
If your bike is locked up in multiple ways, most thieves won’t want to waste their time. If it looks like too much work to steal your motorcycle, they will move on to the next. Kryptonite locks are some of the toughest bike locks on the market and are available in many different styles to secure your ride.
Your bike is most likely parked for the longest periods of time at your home. If you park on concrete, you can install the Kryptonite Stronghold Anchor. The anchor creates a permanent locking point to the ground with the included cement anchor bolts. Combined with a heavy duty chain lock wrapped around a non-removable part of the frame, your bike is going nowhere. Plus, when a thief sees that, they will think that you are serious about protecting your bike.
When you park somewhere other than at home, you won’t have the luxury of the anchors, but you can still use the Kryptonite chain or cable locks. If you can park next to a parking meter, light post or any other immovable objects, you can secure your motorcycle to it while you are away. You will want to avoid locking it to anything that can be easily cut, like a wood post or a chain link fence. Having the most secure lock doesn’t do you any good if it isn’t connected to something that is equally as durable.
If you don’t want to carry around a chain, a disc lock is a smaller option that can work just as well. The disc lock is attached to either the front or rear brake rotor by having a lockable pin that goes through a cooling hole on the rotor. The bike cannot be rolled away because the lock will hit the fork tubes, which prevents the wheel from turning. Unlike the chains or cables, the disc lock doesn’t prevent your bike from being lifted into a truck or van, but it will prevent them from being able to roll it. When using a disc lock, it is a good idea to use a brightly colored tether that attaches from the lock to the handlebars. This will remind you to remove the lock before you take off, because it is bad news when you try to take off and you still have a disc lock attached.
Don’t Leave Accessories and Gear on Your Bike
When you leave easy-to-remove accessories and gear on your bike, it will attract thieves like flies to roadkill. When they see that you were careless enough to leave these things on your bike, they will begin to think that you were equally careless about locking up the motorcycle. With your gear and accessories sitting freely on your bike, you are setting up a potential buffet for a thief. Either take those things with you or invest in lockable motorcycle luggage.
No matter what you do, if a thief is determined and skilled enough, there will always be a way for them to steal your bike. What you can do, though, is make it as difficult as possible for that person to do just that. The longer it takes and the more work that they have to do, the more likely it is that your bike will still be where you left it.
He continues to enjoy learning and sharing about powersports with others in his role as a Web Content Analyst and writer for Dennis Kirk, a role he's been in since 2015. You'll find articles written by Ryan that range from product overviews, how-tos, tech tips, lifestyle articles, and more.
When he's not writing about powersports, Ryan is often enjoying them himself. It doesn't matter if the machine has four wheels, two wheels, or a track, he finds enjoyment in it all.
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3 comments
HELLO …can u tell me how much the kryptonite lock costs and or do you have any other types of locks that are as effective for use out in public ? Thank you for your time…
Hey Juan, you can follow this link to find a list of all the different Kyrptonite locks that Dennis Kirk offers.
I WAS GIVEN A KRYPTONITE 4 DIGIT COMBO LOCK CABLE(THE $42.95 MODEL) I HAVE NO COMBO FOR IT OR INFORMATION AS TO WHERE TO GET STARTED AND USE IT FOR MY BICYCLE. I NEED TO GET IT OPEN SO I CAN USE IT MYSELF. ANY TRICKS AS TO HOW I CAN OPEN IT TO USE IT?