Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I just bought myself a 2007 CBR600rr and for now it's parked on Fort Bragg (Military base in NC). I plan to eventually be riding it up to raleigh every so often to visit the gf, however she lives in a college-age apartment complex area and I'm paranoid about having my bike stolen.
Have you or anyone you know had your motorcycle stolen? What were the circumstances? (Taken from garage, apartment parking, any locks or anything?)
What deterrents to you use if you don't have a garage? What are the statistics for bike thefts in big cities?
I had one of the first 1987 CBR600 Hurricanes that hit dealers. Had it for a couple years before it was stolen from my carport. I had a heavy U-lock on it. When the police recovered it, they said the thieves had hit my neighborhood and stolen 27 bikes that night with a forklift and moving trucks. I hadn't locked mine to any fixed object (since there was nothing nearby to lock it to). Wished I had sunk a deep concrete eyebolt into the back of my parking space and locked it there.
20 years of riding, 14 as a mechanic and I've never had a bike stolen nor have any of my friends or customers. For sure, it happens and you have a high target bike (just old enough to be commonly available used by kids with less money and similarly crashed by kids with less riding experience who need replacement parts).
There's a reddit thread by a reformed bike thief about doing what you can to protect your bike. The bottom line is that you Can't, so make sure you have good insurance. Past that, use the best lock on the market and lock the bike frame (NOT the wheels) to something solid/substantial. Parking around college kids you'll have more vandalisim than theft issues.
Have had several customer's bikes stolen through the years ...
and they weren't necessarily "hot" bikes in the marketplace.
One was a very tired 1970 'Guzzi Ambassador with a horrible repaint job on it, looked like a disaster with all the homemade touring bags and fairing on it. Ran out of gas on I-70 near Evergreen, Colorado. The owner hitched to go get gas and when he came back about an hour later the bike was gone. Never found or recovered. My bet is the bike was parted out because it's a collectable/restorable in some markets.
One was a pristine Honda Trail 100 left on consignment for sale at a Honda dealer in Littleton, CO. The shop service manager stole it and a number of other off-road bikes which he knew were not destined to be registered and licensed for the road, so a bill of sale and title paperwork wasn't needed to satisfy the buyers. When the scam was finally discovered by the shop owner, he did make a partial restitution to the bike owners for the FMV of the bikes, although the amounts that they were sold for was unknown. IMO, he was in on the program until there was documentation that multiple bikes were left on consignment and disappearing. The bike owners weren't generally getting a consignment receipt, so it was all their word that they'd left a bike there on consignment. What broke the case was numerous complaints to the police department and a bike finally showing up for registration and licensing at DMV.
Another was a Bultaco 200cc Metralla with a full factory bicycle kit (the road racing mods and fairing). Left at a shop for routine servicing and storage while an Army reservist went on his annual training, he came back to pick it up and it wasn't even acknowledged that he'd left the bike there at all. No signed RO in his possession, it took a bit of "persuasion" with the shop owner that he'd better come up with the bike pretty quickly or payment in full for it's value. The shop owner settled the claim by "giving" the Bultaco owner a brand new RE Continental 250 GT Clipper ... perhaps a prettier bike, but decidely inferior in performance and handling.
Another was a Norton Commando 750, stolen from in front of a bar in Denver. Owner went in for awhile, came back out and the bike was gone. Never recovered or found. Insurance took a long time to pay off for the mysterious disappearance.
Personally, I caught 3 guys trying to load up my '66 Ducati Mach 1 into a station wagon one day when I'd stopped for dinner at a cafe in Nederland, CO. I was alerted to that by a guy who walked into the place and was loudly mentioning to his buddies how "funny" it looked to see how the others looked trying to stuff a motorcycle onto the rear decklid and inside a station wagon. Dashed outside, it was my bike being loaded up. That was the first time it had ever been dropped when they stopped what they were doing and piled into their vehicle and drove off.
I know of at least a half-dozen Honda Gold Wings that were stolen in tourist towns or college campus areas in Colorado. As well, it's not unusual to see stolen bike notices posted around the regional motorcycle shops bulletin boards. While it's a small percentage of the total number of bikes in the area, it's still a problem. I got to where I wouldn't park my bikes without a fork lock if I was going to be away for more than a few minutes, but even that won't stop somebody with the ability to lift it up and load it.
My first shop biz partner had been a sheriff deputy in CA for awhile, and he told me that they'd had so many H-D thefts in the area (San Fran-Daly City) that CA started requiring impressions lifted from the engine crankcase serial numbers on the bikes where that was the only VIN. There was a huge business in CA at the time of stolen H-D's and way too many engine cases appeared to be restamped. By comparing the impression on file with the cases/bike being registered, it was they only way they had to match up the serial numbers. They caught a fair number of stolen bikes that way, which slowed down the theft problem for a few years. They confiscated the stolen bikes on the spot and required the owners to provide additional proof of purchase before title could be issued; most couldn't do that so the bikes were gone.
IMO, if you've got anything that can be picked up and readily stolen, it's a theft target ... doesn't matter if it's a popular bike in the market or not.
A lot of it is "security by obscurity" versus "directed targeting". If you have a very specific bike that's high dollar and loaded in expensive parts, it could be a directed target. If you have a run-of-the-mill bike (even one on the "most stolen" list) and you're in an area populated enough that there are a bunch of these around, hard locking it to something stationary is going to send a thief down to the next bike that's not as well locked up. That's something I observed during my law enforcement career in SoCal.
When my bike was stolen, I normally parked it on a well lit busy street in front of my apartment complex. But I came home from work and there were no spaces, so I put it in my carport (on a back alley) thinking I'd move it after dinner. Had I done that, it probably would still be around. But I went to bed feeling ill and never moved it, and in the morning the bike was gone. Again, it COULD still be stolen from a street area...but parked in a back alley carport was sure more attractive target versus that street where there would have been lots of witnesses 24/7.
Buy a really big thick chain and leave it at your girlfriends place.
If it takes more than just pick up and go it'll likely not get stolen. Also, a bike cover will help too. it'll make your bike less noticeable in the sense that thieves won't know it's a sport bike unless they actually look at it.
I had a 2005 CB 600RR that I rode around the Metro detroit area and never had any issues, but my friend who parked his bike in the drive way of his friends house had his bike stolen.
You could always do what my brother in law did. He was just informed that he lives in an area where at least 1 motorcycle a night gets stolen and he just bought a brand new r6, so he got a uhaul storage locker type thing across the street and parks his bike in there now.
I've had two bikes stolen in NYC in as many years.
1) KLX250SF in the Bronx. Parked next to a construction site security guard station. Thief pushed the bike up to the security guard and asked where the gas station was. Got directions and just walked off with the bike.
2) TW200 in Manhattan. Stolen at night off the street. Had this bike two weeks.
A buddy of mine had his Triumph Sprint ST stolen from Alameda, which is supposedly one of the safer suburbs around SF. It was parked on the street overnight with no extra theft protection (disk lock, alarm) beyond what the bike came with.
Amazingly enough, though, he got it back. Someone who had seen the theft notice on a local bike forum spotted the bike and put 2 and 2 together. It was only a few miles away, and the thief was basically joy-riding on it; according to the bike's computer it had been taken up to 159mph.
And the guy was riding around on a fake license plate that he had made with crayons and a piece of cardboard.
I don't think they ever caught the guy, but at least the owner got his bike back in one piece, minus a jacked ignition switch.
I park my bike on the street in San Francisco 24/7, but it's an older V-Strom and thus basically theft-proof. No self-respecting thief would want to be seen on it.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
