Some of you will have seen my post from a couple of weeks ago about being woken up by alarm on my Street Triple going off at 5am one morning to find two scrotes trying to nick it. They did a runner and the bike was not damaged. However, since then I’ve kept it in the garage and been using my Vespa. At the time I spoke to a couple of coppers who responded to my call and they told me that there have been a spate of thefts or attempted thefts of Street Triple in our area over the last few months.
Then muzikboy’s Triple got stolen, less then a mile away from where I live, and stripped for parts…Now I’m put off using the bike because I just keep thinking that if I leave my bike outside of my house it’ll get bundled up into a van and stolen regardless of any security devices I have attached (have an alarm/immobiliser and a disk lock at the moment) and I have no way of attaching it to something solid and my front garden is too small to fit the bike there. My garage is 20 minutes away so any benefit of commuting by bike would be lost if I added 40 minutes to my commute.
So I’m feeling borderline depressed that we live in the world where you can not enjoy using your own bike and have to worry that some c*** will steal it regardless of what you do. The bike is insured and I’m not really worried about the financial loss - as I’ve earned the cash to buy this bike and I’ll earn some more to buy a new one - but what’s getting me down is this sense of powerlessness!
There does not seem to be anything I can do short of getting a shotgun and shooting the f****** next time they come but as tempting as that sounds, we all know it is not going to happen!
Now I’m just thinking - F*** this! The scrotes have won. I’ll sell the Triumph and just stick to Vespa that no one wants to steal.
It’s crap isn’t it,ive been really pee’d of that I cant own the bike I want because insurance is to high after my XJ6 got stolen so I have gone back to a 125 that hopefully wont get nicked.I would say just buy an older tattier bike that still has the speed but without the threat of getting nicked.What world do we live in when we cant own what we want out of fear of losing it.
You could just save it for weekends, fortify the garage and use a hack or your scooter for commuting. I’m paranoid about mine. It hardly ever comes out I don’t use it for any practical reasons as I’d just be worried about leaving it parked up.
@ XJPaul - I thought of that but it still goes back to the fact that you end up riding what you want but what is least attractive to the thieving scrotes - it’s breaching my basic freedom
@ Joby - Ditto! I should be able to use the bike that I bought, with the money I earned, whenever I want to
Stick to a Vespa? ffs, things must be bad for you. :w00t:
Is there nowhere you can stick a ground anchor? Or put a chain round a lampost? Or even through a drain cover? Must be some alternative to riding a scooter!
there are a couple of lamp posts but almost always blocked by cars. I have only a token front garden that’s not big enough to get the bike in…so no chance of ground anchors.
Put your problem to your local council, MP and the local police and papers. Talk about it at local meetings. Ask for ideas and suggestions from these people. We should all be doing this. All the time. We’re not allowed to take the law into our own hands. So we should be somehow forcing the ones who have been designated to do something; to do something.
This wont solve your problem now, but might in the very long run. So you’ll be 80, but think how you may be helping the next generation… :doze:
Oh another option? Move to a country that doesn’t have these issues - is there one? Hey maybe we all should!
By the time someone whips out an angle grinder and starts cutting at 3am I’m sure someone would have heard and (hopefully) phoned the police.
It is a **** World we live in where you can’t have anything nice without the fear of it being nicked. I had my old car broken into twice at work (Newham) and £1000 worth of sound system nicked. Two weeks later it got nicked off my driveway and stripped!! My Beemer has been keyed on my driveway. Brothers car got broken into on driveway.
I now have CCTV running every night and the bike secured to a ground anchor with an Almax series 3 chain.
Get a nice vicious dog… Chain the bike to the dog. set a wire from the bike to your bed that wakes you if its moved and just make sure the dog only moves if someone approaches it.
I don’t know a lot about cameras but the one I have doesn’t offer a very good viewing angle. It looks too zoomed in if you know what I mean. If you can, try to get one with an adjustable zoom or with a wide viewing angle. I can see the top end of my driveway but not the bike itself. It’s more of a deterrent then anything else.
Also as mentioned above, I bought a cheap waterproof cover off ebay with pre cut holes in it so I can run my chain through it locking it to the bike. Would be a right pain in the arse for anyone thinking of taking it off. They would have to cut it off.
I would take it out and have a blast on the lanes on a Saturday / Sunday and really enjoy all it can do outside of the city. Any bike can be used for a commute - so if you have an old hack, or scoot - use that and save the Street for after work summer rides and weekends. An Almax (or even two if you can afford it) will stop all but the most determined - so maybe invest in that and a ground anchor. I used to commute on my Street, but now do not, as there is no secure parking near my new work. But I would NEVER sell it as I love riding it at weekends and after work.
Stick with the little Street and don’t jack in the dream If you up the security - then that will help. Also get a cover for it, so the make is not immediately obvious.
If you up the security - then that will help. Also get a cover for it, so the make is not immediately obvious.