Had bike 3 weeks and already been cased out and cover stolen...

Motorcycling Stolen!
1

Bah, only had the bike on the drive 3 weeks and found the cover stolen on Sunday morning. Dead thankfully the bike was all fine and still there. My fault I guess, didn’t have the cover locked down, but then it was only a £20 ebay job… Just pissed off as I woke to a soaking wet bike this morning. :frowning: And more worried about bike been sussed out and return visits to nab it.

Got a 16mm Pragmasis chain, Squire lock, ground anchor in concrete and Meta T357v2 alarm. Only managed to get chain through back wheel though. Time for a pinch pin?

In a rash knee jerk reaction I did pop down Maplin and get some CCTV, which I set up yesterday. Any tips on this? Bike is right outside lounge winder, behind our car. Camera is high up near guttering, so when pointing at bike will just get the tops of peoples heads. Better to point at bike or where people approach the bike? Maybe a second camera? It does have night vision, but wondering if I should install a PIR flood light too

Bike is only a 2003 Fazer 600 (albeit a nice example), so no super expensive Ducati/Triumph, so dunno, am I over doing it a bit and getting paranoid?! I am out in 'nam though (Dagenham)…

2

Floodlights themselves are good deterrents, specially on IR sensors

3

I’d get the flood light and a sign saying something like ‘smile you’re on camera’ - should put off opportunists.

4

ensure the camera captures enough detail of you walking up your drive.

one of the cameras at my dads place covers the font but due to the angle doesnt really capture people details that well

5

I had my cover stolen a long time ago before I bought the lockable one… Someone once told me that homeless people nick them to cover up at night. Don’t know if that’s true or, of course, if that happened but if it did I consider it my good deed for the day.

6

Do you want to sit there and watch your bike getting nicked on a monitor. Whats the point of a camera? A hood will make your camera useless at the angle you have it anyway.

7

Well I don’t know if they want mine. Either the local foxes or dogs on the estate piss on my bike cover. It stinks of piss. It pisses me off :slight_smile:

8

It may have been stolen by a tramp rather than a bike thief. If possible lock the cover down to both wheels. Then it’s an absolute ball ache to get off. Someone had a go at mine but eventually gave up as it wouldnt’ shift. Not sure if that was a tramp or a traffic warden.

Apparently scrotes don’t care about CCTV unless it’s being monitored. All hoodys look alike after all.

9

I had my cover and my chain stolen sometime over the weekend when I was in Wales. My own fault as I left them both outside :frowning:

10

We’re out deep in the 'burbs, so not many homeless about TBH, so that explanation is unlikely. Could just be an opportunist scroat. But I do worry it’s someone whose cased out the bike.

Yeah, camera up high is at a bit of an awkward angle. Was thinking about extra camera’s, as the box can have upto 4 hooked up. Say, one point down at bike and another at the approach as people walk up to it. Could stick one inside the downstairs lounge window, be good angle to see folks messing with bike.

Was hoping it would be a decent deterrent and provide some evidence if worst came to worst. I can rig up alarms to trigger on motion (audible or email), which maybe handy for night, wake us so we can calls cops, drop bricks on their heads etc.

11

Cameras depend on what you want them for.

To deter theft then they need to be visible and in your face so they can be seen in the dark. One at eye level is good, but you then need one higher up to see if anyone tampers with it.

Cameras will not however stop the theft, as others have said, once the thief knows they are there, they just cover up.

If you want images as evidence for the police, you have to start spending proper money or you will not get the quality needed especially at night.

Don’t forget the more cameras you have connected the less time the system will keep a recording for.

Its always worth having at least a few days recordings, if not a week, so that if anything does happen you can check to see if they were hanging aroudn before hand when not covered up so much.

At the end of the day you are probably better off spending the money on making the bike more secure rather than on cameras.

If you are parking on your own lane, have you thought of a bike safe?

12

light with a sensor and have you a bike alarm? seeing as you say nr lounge window.

also are you sure the cover did not just blow away? bit a bit windy lately and although always good to have security anyway you may be worrying about nothing.

13

A camera is worth it. I bought one for £60 on ebay. The software takes photos when movement is detected. Had I not had a camera I would have never known the little shits tried to nick my bike. It provided clothing descriptions and I sent them to the local safer neighbourhoods team.

It provides times and dates when they have attempted to take your bike and might show a pattern if they are unsuccessful. It also provides clothing descriptions which may help identify them in the future.

With a ground anchor and decent chain they are going to struggle. When they seen mine they just fucked off an haven’t been back since.

For the price of cameras nowadays I would say it’s a worth while investment along with a floodlight.

14

Yep, will sort out floodlight, no brainer really. Would also help other wife reverse car in at night too!

The CCTV kit has a 500GB drive in it and I’ve set it to only record on motion, so it should fit a few weeks on there. Yep, will add an extra camera at eye level inside the lounge window.

Anyway, thanks for the tips, much appreciated.

15

wot cctv kit you got? got a link to it?

m8 of mine has been having trouble and was thinking of getting 1.

16

CNM Sentient N09KT.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/4-ch-network-dvr-kit-and-day-night-camera–smartphone-remote-viewing-612636

Hardware seems decent enough. Its quoted as being a 160Gb drive, but it seems to report back a 500GB drive… They were running a deal, where you could buy this and extra two cameras for £200, wish I got the extra camera’s up front now.

However the software support for connecting to it over network via PC, Mac or phone is shite. Built in software is fine, perfectly adequate, its basically a mini Linux box, has VGA out and comes with mouse.

Connecting across network is a pain. Supposed to have a web interface, but its a naff ActiveX thing, that is apparently only works with IE8! But didn’t work with my IE8 on WinXP (running under VMWare Fusion). No Safari, Firefox or Chrome support. Its supplied with a windows desktop app, that’s very rough, mostly works, but not nice and I couldn’t get it to scrub recorded video.

There’s a whole bunch of Mac apps on the App store (and unsigned ones supplied) like MEye, for iPhone and Mac desktops, but I couldn’t get any to work. All refused to connect and/or show video. There’s also supplied Android, Blackberry and WinPhone apps, but I’ve not tried them. This has all been on local LAN, not even started looking at forwarding ports etc through router for viewing video remotely away from home. I think some of it is down to confusion over exact CCTV kit models and software versions, which is compatible with what. Doesn’t help these are all sold unbranded.

All in all, it’s really let down by the crap software, that’s obviously been left to one Chinese chap done on cheap. I’m a software programmer of 15 years by trade with decades of Unix/networking experience, but have still really struggled to get all the software working. Shame, as hardware seems decent, well priced and is doddle to install.

17

Have you tried ‘Evocam’? Best software I could find.

It also allows you to set up certain areas for motion detection and triggers an alarm on my Mac. It doesn’t go off when cats or foxes go through. Only when people walk on my drive.

I’m in the 'narm as well mate and I feel your pain. To be fair I’ve only had the one attempt on my bike since July. I think the security scared them off and I have a pretty similar set up to you.