What security do you use?
 

I have now had my SV650S for a couple of weeks and I must say I'm pretty paranoid about having it nicked. I sold my Vespa today which hads been working as an anchor as well as a parking space reserver outside my house in North London. I use an alarmed disk lock on the front and an Oxford chain on the rear wheel. I guess I will have to find a tree to secure my bike now. I assume when a bike is chucked in the back of a van that the bike was not attached to anything. Surely my bike should be safe chained to a tree with a good quality chain in a residential street. Any experiences or advice???
Mitch

If it's not in a garage and the scumbags want it, they'll take it.

Even heavy duty chains only stop the oportunist thief, as the professionals can get through them in seconds, pick up bikes, alarms wailing, and stick them in a van.

If anybody challenges them the line I have heared is "Should have paid the HP then we wouldn't have to reposses (sp?) it". That's normally enough to convince most bystanders...

Even in a garage it's not as safe as you think.....

.

i lock my garage door but thats about it? at work its got security cameras watching it. london is prob worse for bike theft< i dont know is it?

Suddenly they appear to be even bigger scumbags than I thought they were... not only nicking bikes but having the front to lie to people when caught and then just carry on nicking it :evil:

I always make sure mine is chained to something - ground anchor, another bike, a post... makes it harder to get, though if they want it they'll always make the effort. Get the bike off the road if you can - the more out of the way it is, and the more difficult it is to get at, the less chance they'll go for it. They might be cunning but they're also lazy, and they'll give up if it looks too hard. Which is why none of them have jobs and are out nicking bikes in the first place... :x

Yep. Sadly very few people are comfortable challenging people who appear to be stealing cars/bikes. One show (I forget what it was, may of been top gear) did a test, whereby one of their guys broke into a car (that they'd planted earlier) on a busy street. The one woman who asked what they were doing as he started slim-jimming it left them alone when he said it was his and he had locked the keys in the boot! No one called the police etc.

i used to know a car theif the once and he told me that if they were caught by the owner they would just say "go back to bed were avin it anyway" he said most ppl would just phone the police and let them get on with it! :shock: < scum bag i know! aint seen the guy for years i think he went for a spell of her magestys service!

Not sure I would agree with the 'seconds' bit. I've got an almax imobilizer chain around a tree and the only way anyone can get through that is with an angle grinder which would take a bit longer and make quite a bit of noise.

I've got an almax as well cos it came top in a ride mag test. Chained right around the bike and ground anchored to the floor of my garage. Which is double padlocked.... not that I'm paranoid. :twisted:

Rig the bike with explosives. If you cant have it neither can they :twisted: Then you'll kill some f***ers and claim back on fire and theft :D

You been watching the Lotus in 'For Your Eyes Only' recently?

Mine just a heavy lock on the fron, is in a locked garden that has virtually no access. When out and about it just has the front wheels locked. Apparently picking bikes up is uncommon in Holland as there isn;t a market for it over here.

However, the amount of front and rear scooter wheels I've seen around is scary :)

I still think we should be able to put a defence system in the grips like Blade has in his sword where blades fly out an slice up the hand of anyone who aren't meant to be handleing it. :twisted:

Like this

Of course you would need to remember to disarm it when you got back to your bike ofcourse.

i live in a residential street in north london, if i left it out on the road i wouldnt expect to see it the next day, if you have a front garden park it in that and chain it to somthing and get a decent chain like an Almax, an oxford chain can be bolt cropped fairly easily.

They spray it with liquid nitrogen, which freezes the metal and then hit it with a hammer, the chain just shatters....

.

You need guns..........lots of guns :twisted:

Doesn't work so well with a layered link... The metal doesn't embrittle to the same extent. Most pros seem to use pneumatic cutters these days, since they make a nonsense of anything but the most massive chains.

At work I lock mine with an Oxford Boss disc brake lock through the rear disc (better than the front- less bad if you forget to remove it, harder to access with tools, and the front still has the steering lock). At home, it goes in the garage with no locks. I can't see the point in any more to be honest, if someone wants the bike enough that they've already broken into my garage then a lock's not going to make much difference, and there's nothing to chain it to when it's in the street so the best chain in the world would be no better than my wee disc lock.

I own a 14mm chain but I only use it if the bike's parked somewhere dodgy or away from home overnight. I know there's better but when the hydraulic cutters come out a 20mm English Chain Co isn't significantly better than a 12mm Oxford, so why deal with the extra weight? Chains deter casual thieves only.

Sufficient. That is all I am telling you.

There's a pretty in depth review in Ride this month of a lot of chains with a pro thief and a locksmith both attacking them. An £80 Squire came out top, which is good for the wallet if you must have a serious chain. But they did make the same mistake all of these reviews do of not mentioning weight or size... one chain got a great mark because it was too tight to the bike to attack with most tools- but what that means to me is, it's too short to chain the bike to anything. And I'd rather have a thinner, lighter chain that survives 2 minutes of noisy attack than a battleship chain that manages 3.

Also, some very lightweight chains are judged along the same lines as the super-heavy ones, which is obviously nonsense- of course they're going to be easier to break, they've got half the chain mass. But that's why they're often better than the big boys, you're more likely to use them. A massive Almax or whatever in your garage is less useful than a lighter Datatool that you can carry everywhere.

The prices are way foff as well for some of them- for instance, they quote an Oxford one at £60 that I've never seen above £40.

Can you scan it for those who missed this issue :oops: Please...

I don't have any security on my bike at all. However at work it is parked in a private car park. To enter the car park you need a security pass for the main barrier. There are cameras EVERYWHERE.

At home it is parked in my brick built shed. The car is parked in front of the door. The car is alarmed so to get to the bike they first have to move the car. Even if they manage that, I have the door to the shed on a sensor and also a PIR inside the shed. If the door opens or the PIR sensor picks up movement the main house alarm will be triggered.

Think it should be safe enough.

Saying all this, anyone that has seen my bike will know it really wouldn't be worth the risk of getting caught to steal it. :lol:

Nah, it's been somewhat discredited- they used really cheap bolt cutters. If you want a good rundown of chains, go on Visordown and search for anything posted by Zanx. It'll strike you that he talks like he works for Almax, but his findings are thoroughly backed up. Basically there's only about 3 chains on the market that can't be cropped in under 30 seconds with a good bolt cutter. Almax is one, i think English Chain Co do another, and there's a smaller one which I think can be cut, but is vey resistant to attacks.

I think there should be some stuff on this on the motorcyclenews website, and it's either been in an MCN or is just about to be. Prepare to be a bit annoyed, if you've spent any amount of money on a Datatool, Oxford, Squire, English Chain Co, Motrax, older Almax... in fact, just about anyone but the Series 3 Almax or these 2 brand new ones. Any pro thief will have good croppers, and your hain might as well be a shoelace.

I'm glad I've got a £20 cheapy Oxford- it'll put off amateurs and kids, and protects against a real attack exactly as well as 9/10 of the other chains on the market (ie, not at all) and at a fraction of the price.

mine is garaged, chained (good quality) to a ground anchor and alarmed. garage is alarmed also. plus i have a home cctv set up around house and garage and a pitbull called smut with a rankin attitude towards said thieving scumbags. even the post man delivers my mail like those you see in the states..just lobs it at me. :evil:

What sort of chain? Out of curiosity. Because it turns out that most of whaty you think is good quality is pretty much useless...

lets just say even if you live in
a.safe area-any such place?
b.good security.
c.neighborhood watch area
if the scum want your machine then nowt will stop them. you can only try and put the sods off. :twisted:

Aye, but there are chains out there now that'll resist anything bar a sustained attack with noisy tools (which realistically doesn't happen much) or a full-on hypdraulic cutter attack (which only the most well-equipped thieves have access to). Most bikes are nicked by guys with big bolt cutters, and most £150 chains don't last any longer against those than a £20 chain.

exactly.

Did you know for instance that the Almax series 3 chain is the only one on the market that CANT be bolt croppedand is totally freeze proof?

If any of you have attended the ally pally or NEC bike shows where almax where you will have seen them take ANY lock you hand them and bolt crop them using Record 42" bolt croppers.

Any of you who dont beleive there staements need to take a cheap set of bolt coppers to your so called sold secure oxford/motrax/english chains and just see what kind of damage you can do.

Christ almighty!
No wonder my insurance is rocketing. You lot live in rough 'hoods dont you? Gives the SV a bad rep. :lol:


I have nada, nowt, nil, nuthin. Not even put the steering lock on. Hell, I've left the keys in the seatlock for days on end by mistake and no bugger touches it. Thankfully vehicle theft is rare here. Might have something to do with the majority of bikes looking a bit shoddy though. :wink:

This ain't quite true... It was 6 months ago but the new English Chain Co one is freeze and crop proof- but not impact proof, because it's overhardened.

Nuffin'. The bike's in an unlocked shed with the key in it.

There's never been a vehicle stolen here in the history of motorised transport.

Mine's usually just left in the garage with the keys in the ignition... Not a very good garage either. I figure, if thieves do come for it they'll have it pretty much regardless of what I do, unless I spend a fortune... So I might as well annoy them, by making them carry all the bolt cutters and everything into the garage only to find they don't need them. That'll show them.

maybe it helps that yours in in bits most of the time northy :wink:

In a walled, gated, locked compound, with neighbours either side who are almost always in. Ground anchor and chain bolting it down, with a cover on it. Entrance is down a narrow alleyway so it's a long and difficult way if anyone tries to carry it.

Plus it's an SV, so less nickable (at least slightly, I hope)

I dont bother. I leave it with the key in the ignition :shock: Well, i do when i go to brighton...or at work :oops: . Its insured at the end of the day. Most of the chains that i have seen are dearer than my insurance premium!!

Tis true, you'd need a sack and a shovel to steal mine ;)

Well the garage is guarded by a speed triple.... :lol: :lol: :lol:

Me and My housemate keep our bikes in a walled, gated, locked compound as well. One of the bikes is chained to the rsj supporting the fire escape and the others are chained to that one.
The sv's got the datatool alarm and an abus disk lock (which goes on the back wheel).
When the other bikes were knicked I hadn't chained the sv