Best security options to prevent theft - don't need another stolen bike

[Plodder]

Arrived home recently to find my old e-bike gone.
Waiting on a new trek delivery at local shop but thinking of things to do in the mean time to stop the same thing happening again.
The main things i can think of (apart from keeping the garage properly locked) are:

• Don't leave it outside unattended (sometimes unavoidable)
• Get better locks (good ones seem expensive)
• Trackers (GPS seem better option than bluetooth tags)
• Security cameras at home
• Insurance

Any recommendations on above - or additions?

I'm guessing more than one of the above at a time will be best option.

 

[Weeksy]

To be honest mate, if they want them, they're taking them. They'll just hacksaw through the frame. They don't want to ride it, own it... They're either flogging it in the pub for £100 or they're parting it out.
Insurance really, the rest may hold them up, but insurance will get you a new bike.

 

[Tony4wd]

The Litelok X1 looks like a good option for public places - effectively angle grinder proof because it takes too long to cut through. Put it through the frame and rear wheel and they've got to cut through more components to get the bike - easier to move on and find another target.

Hiplock also sell a ground anchor made of a grinder resistant material: Hiplok 1000 Ultimate Bundle - Motorcycle & Bicycle Lock | Hiplok

 

[Plodder]

To be honest mate, if they want them, they're taking them. They'll just hacksaw through the frame. They don't want to ride it, own it... They're either flogging it in the pub for £100 or they're parting it out.
Insurance really, the rest may hold them up, but insurance will get you a new bike.

Yeah, the f…ers will get it if they really want to. Thankfully, insurance paid out this time - but no doubt the premiums will go up too.
Do many here use trackers?

 

[Polar]

No locks are too expensive if you want to protect your bike.
If you want a tracker beside airtag check out Bikfinder it got BT, GSM and GPS.

 

[steve_sordy]

I have a Kryptonite New York Noose, plus other stuff. See pic.

It is 1.3m long and the chain links are made from 12mm hardened hexagonal bar (you can get bigger). Crucially, at one end of the chain is the "noose" - a ring made from the same hex bar. It enables you to loop the other end of the chain through the bar and lasoo your bike. It almost doubles the effective length of the chain. It comes with a Kryptonite key operated lock. The whole combo is rated Sold Secure Gold. I also bought a Kryptonite ground anchor.

Here is a pic of it in use on my first emtb.

As you can see, I added a Kryptonite cable and combination lock for the front end.
I very soon changed the detail arrangements beyond what you can see in the picture. The cable now secures the fork, not the wheel. I also now wrap an old folded tea towel around the shock and down tube to add protection from the rough sleeve covering the chain.

To install the ground anchor you need a 20mm dia masonry bit. If you are drilling into your garage floor, I strongly recommend that you borrow, beg, steal, or even buy a rotary impact drill of the SDS type and the 20mm bit to go with it. It will save you a huge amount of grief vs a standard 1/2" chuck hammer drill. (I speak from experience!)

I also bolted the garage window shut. I replaced the cheap wooden man access door (glass panels and plywood panels) with a solid wood door (40mm thick), three 4" stainless steel heavy gauge hinges and two five-lever mortice locks. The two up and over garage doors have been bolted to the garage floor with two sliding bolts each. They allow opening from the inside but not the outside. This will only slow them down, but maybe enough for them to decide to go next door instead!

As has been mentioned above, if someone really wants your bike they will get it. At its simplest, they will just cut through the bike and leave you with the chain. They will sell all the remaining bits for enough cash to make their efforts worthwhile. But at least you will have demonstrated to the insurance company that you have taken reasonable precautions.

Tip: When you buy two locks ask for them to have the same key. Any locksmith will do this as a matter of course, no charge.

 

[jimslade]

Steve_sordy has it right. Anyone in security will tell you that a layered defense is the way to go.
I have an auto-closing garage door so I’ll never leave it open. Floor and wall anchors inside the garage. Solid bump proof side door. Same NY noose chain , and a hiplock d1000. Bikes locked down inside the garage. Motion detection in garage. Airtags in the bikes.

 

[Rod B.]

Arrived home recently to find my old e-bike gone.
Waiting on a new trek delivery at local shop but thinking of things to do in the mean time to stop the same thing happening again.
The main things i can think of (apart from keeping the garage properly locked) are:

• Don't leave it outside unattended (sometimes unavoidable)
• Get better locks (good ones seem expensive)
• Trackers (GPS seem better option than bluetooth tags)
• Security cameras at home
• Insurance

Any recommendations on above - or additions?

I'm guessing more than one of the above at a time will be best option.

I like Steve's option for home theft prevention. Crooks like easy theft, they don't like things that take effort, noise, i.e. grinder, and time to steal. Time will get crooks caught. A "Ring" door bell camera mounted in your garage will alert you on your phone if somebody enters your garage and triggers the viewing plane of the camera. This allows you to call the cops or deal with it yourself.

I like PowUnity's BikeTrax GPS tracker. The nice thing about the Powunity BikeTrax GPS tracker is it comes in various wiring configurations for all the major eBike drive systems. It's made to be mounted internally inside the bike and is powered by the bike's battery. it's a compact setup and pretty much plug and play. The system works in Australia and Europe, but unfortunately not in North America.

GPS tracker Bosch Generation 4 ▷ bicycle GPS for Bosch e-bikes ▷ e-bike GPS

GPS tracker Bosch Generation 4 ▷ GPS set incl. cable ✚ free smartphone app ➥ GPS theft protection for e-bikes with Bosch motor ➥ BikeTrax GPS

powunity.com

In America there are no compact, plug and play GPS offerings available. I travel with my bike a lot. I worry my bike will get stolen from my bike rack during a pre or post ride vehicle stop. I try to park where I can see my bike, however there are times where parking isn't the best and I don't have a clear view of my bike. As stated by you fine folk, 'If somebody wants it, they're going to get it.' To help me recover my bike after it has been stolen, I mounted three Apple "Air ID tags" on my bike. I figure a $7,000 eMTB (Levo Carbon Comp) is worth a few Apple Air Tags. The nice thing about Apple Air Tags is that they are small and can be mounted all over a bike. They don't require charging or a subscription plan. Most importantly, they will give you about a 12 -24 hour window to track and recover your bike via your iPhone.

I mounted the first Apple Air Tag inside the rear wheel using a Muc Off air tag holder.

I mounted the second inside the down tube/battery cover using double sided Gorilla Tape.

I mounted the third under my saddle as a "Throw Away" air tag. I bought a saddle rail air tag holder off of Amazon. I figure the crooks will see the saddle air tag and quickly remove it, thus making the shit bags think the bike is clean. The air tags won't prevent a theft, but they'll give you about 12 hours to track and recover my bike with the help of police.

The Apple Air Tag has one weakness. When the Air Tag first came out, it was a beautiful way to track keys, a lost pet, lost luggage, etc. Then jackasses began using them to track people by planting them on the person's vehicle. To combat the stalking, Apple added an alert feature to the air tag. If an air tag is placed "Long Term" in the vicinity of a person's iPhone for a period of over 12 hours and the air tag doesn't belong to that person, i.e. the air tag hasn't been paired to that iPhone, it will send an alert to the phone letting the iPhone user know they are in the vicinity of an Apple Air Tag. A short time after the alert, the Apple Air Tag will start beeping. This allows the person being tracked to locate the Apple Air Tag.

Naturally, it would be exceptionally nice to not alert the crooks that the bike they've stolen has an Apple Air Tag tracker mounted on the bike which they will find and remove. Fortunately, there's always a hack. You can easily remove/disabled the Apple Air Tag beep emitter from the air tag. This will buy you an additional few hours while the crook tries to locate the air tag hidden on your bike.

The air tags hidden in the down tube and rear wheel have the sound emitter disabled. The air tag mounted on the saddle rail does not. My thought is this, once the crook gets the alert on his iPhone and the the air tag starts beeping he/she will remove the saddle rail Apple air tag. The crook will think everything is good to go. The crook will continue getting an alert on his iPhone because of the other two hidden air tags. Hopefully, the shit bag will confuse the alert he/she is getting as being caused by the saddle rail air tag and not the other two air tags which are not emitting a beeping noise. I realize this is not fool proof, but hopefully it'll buy me a few more hours of recovery time.

I agree, homeowners/bike insurance is exceptionally good and useful. However, your insurance may not reimburse you for all the custom mods/additions you may have done to your bike. I also don't want to be looking at every single bike I see for the next three years wondering if it's possibly my stolen bike. I'm vindictive and I want to catch the piece of shit who stole my bike. Air tags help facilitate recovery.



Be safe,
Rod

 

[Polar]

I like Steve's option for home theft prevention. Crooks like easy theft, they don't like things that take effort, noise, i.e. grinder, and time to steal. Time will get crooks caught. A "Ring" door bell camera mounted in your garage will alert you on your phone if somebody enters your garage and triggers the viewing plane of the camera. This allows you to call the cops or deal with it yourself.

I like PowUnity's BikeTrax GPS tracker. The nice thing about the Powunity BikeTrax GPS tracker is it comes in various wiring configurations for all the major eBike drive systems. It's made to be mounted internally inside the bike and is powered by the bike's battery. it's a compact setup and pretty much plug and play. The system works in Australia and Europe, but unfortunately not in North America.

GPS tracker Bosch Generation 4 ▷ bicycle GPS for Bosch e-bikes ▷ e-bike GPS

GPS tracker Bosch Generation 4 ▷ GPS set incl. cable ✚ free smartphone app ➥ GPS theft protection for e-bikes with Bosch motor ➥ BikeTrax GPS

powunity.com

In America there are no compact, plug and play GPS offerings available. I travel with my bike a lot. I worry my bike will get stolen from my bike rack during a pre or post ride vehicle stop. I try to park where I can see my bike, however there are times where parking isn't the best and I don't have a clear view of my bike. As stated by you fine folk, 'If somebody wants it, they're going to get it.' To help me recover my bike after it has been stolen, I mounted three Apple "Air ID tags" on my bike. I figure a $7,000 eMTB (Levo Carbon Comp) is worth a few Apple Air Tags. The nice thing about Apple Air Tags is that they are small and can be mounted all over a bike. They don't require charging or a subscription plan. Most importantly, they will give you about a 12 -24 hour window to track and recover your bike via your iPhone.

View attachment 140538

I mounted the first Apple Air Tag inside the rear wheel using a Muc Off air tag holder.

View attachment 140534


I mounted the second inside the down tube/battery cover using double sided Gorilla Tape.

I mounted the third under my saddle as a "Throw Away" air tag. I bought a saddle rail air tag holder off of Amazon. I figure the crooks will see the saddle air tag and quickly remove it, thus making the shit bags think the bike is clean. The air tags won't prevent a theft, but they'll give you about 12 hours to track and recover my bike with the help of police.

View attachment 140537


The Apple Air Tag has one weakness. When the Air Tag first came out, it was a beautiful way to track keys, a lost pet, lost luggage, etc. Then jackasses began using them to track people by planting them on the person's vehicle. To combat the stalking, Apple added an alert feature to the air tag. If an air tag is placed "Long Term" in the vicinity of a person's iPhone for a period of over 12 hours and the air tag doesn't belong to that person, i.e. the air tag hasn't been paired to that iPhone, it will send an alert to the phone letting the iPhone user know they are in the vicinity of an Apple Air Tag. A short time after the alert, the Apple Air Tag will start beeping. This allows the person being tracked to locate the Apple Air Tag.

Naturally, it would be exceptionally nice to not alert the crooks that the bike they've stolen has an Apple Air Tag tracker mounted on the bike which they will find and remove. Fortunately, there's always a hack. You can easily remove/disabled the Apple Air Tag beep emitter from the air tag. This will buy you an additional few hours while the crook tries to locate the air tag hidden on your bike.

The air tags hidden in the down tube and rear wheel have the sound emitter disabled. The air tag mounted on the saddle rail does not. My thought is this, once the crook gets the alert on his iPhone and the the air tag starts beeping he/she will remove the saddle rail Apple air tag. The crook will thing everything is good to go. The crook will continue getting an alert on his iPhone because of the other two hidden air tags. Hopefully, the shit bag will confuse the alert he/she is getting as being caused by the saddle rail air tag and not the other two air tags which are not emitting a beeping noise. I realize this is not fool proof, but hopefully it'll buy me a few more hours of recovery time.



Be safe,
Rod

You can have the bike full of trackers and Airtags but the most important is a good insurance.

 

[Darren66]

I had two ebikes and a hardtail mtb stolen (£10000 worth) two weeks ago from my garage whilst we slept, most houses around here have cameras and/or ring doorbell cameras, police weren't interested didn't attend, just gave me a crime number via text!
Luckily all stolen bikes were covered separately on my home insurance and I was given a settlement within 24 hours.

 

[jimslade]

I like Steve's option for home theft prevention. Crooks like easy theft, they don't like things that take effort, noise, i.e. grinder, and time to steal. Time will get crooks caught. A "Ring" door bell camera mounted in your garage will alert you on your phone if somebody enters your garage and triggers the viewing plane of the camera. This allows you to call the cops or deal with it yourself.

I like PowUnity's BikeTrax GPS tracker. The nice thing about the Powunity BikeTrax GPS tracker is it comes in various wiring configurations for all the major eBike drive systems. It's made to be mounted internally inside the bike and is powered by the bike's battery. it's a compact setup and pretty much plug and play. The system works in Australia and Europe, but unfortunately not in North America.

GPS tracker Bosch Generation 4 ▷ bicycle GPS for Bosch e-bikes ▷ e-bike GPS

GPS tracker Bosch Generation 4 ▷ GPS set incl. cable ✚ free smartphone app ➥ GPS theft protection for e-bikes with Bosch motor ➥ BikeTrax GPS

powunity.com

In America there are no compact, plug and play GPS offerings available. I travel with my bike a lot. I worry my bike will get stolen from my bike rack during a pre or post ride vehicle stop. I try to park where I can see my bike, however there are times where parking isn't the best and I don't have a clear view of my bike. As stated by you fine folk, 'If somebody wants it, they're going to get it.' To help me recover my bike after it has been stolen, I mounted three Apple "Air ID tags" on my bike. I figure a $7,000 eMTB (Levo Carbon Comp) is worth a few Apple Air Tags. The nice thing about Apple Air Tags is that they are small and can be mounted all over a bike. They don't require charging or a subscription plan. Most importantly, they will give you about a 12 -24 hour window to track and recover your bike via your iPhone.

View attachment 140538

I mounted the first Apple Air Tag inside the rear wheel using a Muc Off air tag holder.

View attachment 140534


I mounted the second inside the down tube/battery cover using double sided Gorilla Tape.

I mounted the third under my saddle as a "Throw Away" air tag. I bought a saddle rail air tag holder off of Amazon. I figure the crooks will see the saddle air tag and quickly remove it, thus making the shit bags think the bike is clean. The air tags won't prevent a theft, but they'll give you about 12 hours to track and recover my bike with the help of police.

View attachment 140537


The Apple Air Tag has one weakness. When the Air Tag first came out, it was a beautiful way to track keys, a lost pet, lost luggage, etc. Then jackasses began using them to track people by planting them on the person's vehicle. To combat the stalking, Apple added an alert feature to the air tag. If an air tag is placed "Long Term" in the vicinity of a person's iPhone for a period of over 12 hours and the air tag doesn't belong to that person, i.e. the air tag hasn't been paired to that iPhone, it will send an alert to the phone letting the iPhone user know they are in the vicinity of an Apple Air Tag. A short time after the alert, the Apple Air Tag will start beeping. This allows the person being tracked to locate the Apple Air Tag.

Naturally, it would be exceptionally nice to not alert the crooks that the bike they've stolen has an Apple Air Tag tracker mounted on the bike which they will find and remove. Fortunately, there's always a hack. You can easily remove/disabled the Apple Air Tag beep emitter from the air tag. This will buy you an additional few hours while the crook tries to locate the air tag hidden on your bike.

The air tags hidden in the down tube and rear wheel have the sound emitter disabled. The air tag mounted on the saddle rail does not. My thought is this, once the crook gets the alert on his iPhone and the the air tag starts beeping he/she will remove the saddle rail Apple air tag. The crook will thing everything is good to go. The crook will continue getting an alert on his iPhone because of the other two hidden air tags. Hopefully, the shit bag will confuse the alert he/she is getting as being caused by the saddle rail air tag and not the other two air tags which are not emitting a beeping noise. I realize this is not fool proof, but hopefully it'll buy me a few more hours of recovery time.



Be safe,
Rod

okay now I have to up my airtag game. TY for the ideas
Do you use the Muc off holder with cushcore?

 

[Rod B.]

okay now I have to up my airtag game. TY for the ideas
Do you use the Muc off holder with cushcore?

Jim, I don’t use cushcore inserts so I haven’t tried an air tag with that setup. I don’t think it’ll work because the air tag holder protrudes into the inner tire too much.

 

[Tony4wd]

Luckily all stolen bikes were covered separately on my home insurance

They may well return for the replacement bikes. Did they have to use an angle grinder and do you have ideas for increased security?

 

[Darren66]

They may well return for the replacement bikes. Did they have to use an angle grinder and do you have ideas for increased security?

They forced the wooden side door open, this is being replaced by a multi lock steel security door

 

[Darren66]

I did see this...

axe killer bicycle #mtb #shorts #short #diy

(DISCLAMER) this video was made for entertainment purposes only. this contraption was never set and left anywhere where it could harm somebody. the bike was ...

youtube.com

 

[steve_sordy]

A more subtle and hence harder for the thief to see would be a 7" spike that launches through the saddle, unless disarmed. Just don't forget to disarm it before riding it yourself!

I saw a USA video made by some students who left a trick bicycle for people to steal. It had a counter steering gear in the headset. When you turned the bars to the right the bike went left. Every single thief fell off, badly. I have seen similar stuff where the brakes were disabled. That went almost as badly for the thieves.

I am unsure where the law sits on the intentionally disabled bike scenario. Best not try this one at home!

 

[RustyIron]

Maybe a small investment in security measures will mitigate the risk.

 

[Darren66]

This is all we are allowed in the UK

 

[DieBoy]

There's no 100% anti-theft device (unless you can hire 24h security guards ; -) ), so the first thing is decent insurance. Note that standard home content insurance often won't cover the full price of an ebike even if stolen from home.

Always always lock your bike up even (or especially) at home, and always lock the bike to something robust. Consider wall or floor mounts in your garage/cellar. Note most bike insurance policies requires the bike to be locked to an inmovable object otherwise the insurance is invalid.

A good lock. Most insurance policies require a minimum rating and/or value, so that's your starting point. Avoid combination locks. D-locks are generally better than folding locks, but less convenient. If you're parking in a high risk area you'll need 2 locks of differing types. There's very few axle-grinder resistant locks, such as the Litelok X1, but they're not cheap and tend to the heavier side. A very heavy duty but non-portable chain for securing at home as others have mentioned is worthy of consideration.

If there's a bicycle coding scheme in your part of the world, use it and get your bike engraved (if not carbon).

Make a note of your frame number and motor + battery serial numbers and keep it safe. Make sure you have photos of your bike to give to the cops.

If possible, avoid parking at the same place during the same times on a regular basis.

GPS devices rely on the police in your jurisdiction being willing (and able) to actually act upon the info. YMMV. (Or you've enough big mates and the required attitude to take things into your own hands, with all the risks involved). I suspect professional thieves these days search for and disable such devices.

If the bike has some sort of electronic lock (eg Bosch ebike Lock), use it.

 

[Arminius]

A neighbors bike was stolen this week and he was able to track it by GPS tracker, found it 20km away to be in a apartment building. Called the police, they came but refused to go in as it would be private property that they are not allowed to enter without official decision and there would be no imminent danger.
Couple of hrs later the tracker was deactivated.

 

[fitlikemike]

Yeah, the f…ers will get it if they really want to. Thankfully, insurance paid out this time - but no doubt the premiums will go up too.
Do many here use trackers?

You want it back afterwards...?

 

[Darren66]

You want it back afterwards...?

I agree, when my bikes were stolen I didn't want them back, they are now the property of my insurance company.
Although I may have thought differently if I hadn't had good insurance.