Chapter ten of Bike Easy explains how to deter thieves and keep your bike. At a hospital near to where I live, a father and son used to cruise the grounds every few days in a big white van equipped with massive bolt croppers and other cutting tools. They sliced through locks or through entire bike stands and harvested hundreds of bikes over several years before being caught.
According to the Home Office, around 150,000 bikes are reported stolen every year and the majority are never recovered. The Transport Research Laboratory reckons that the problem may actually be far worse – up to 700,000 thefts per year – because so many incidents go unreported. That’s a truly staggering one bike every 45 seconds being pinched. All cycles are potential targets, but BMX and mountain bikes are about twice as likely to be stolen than other types.
If a professional thief takes a shine to your bike it’s virtually impossible to stop them. Happily however, most bike theft is not done by professionals: it’s opportunistic, and it can be prevented by taking a few simple precautions. More>>>
