Theft prevention - New biker - Fulham - Help Needed!

Hi all,

First post by me…
I’m about to get my first bike, an iron 883, but have been reading some scary articles how likely it is to get stolen.

I live in a nice area of fulham but can’t find any anchor points on the local streets. I’ve read some people write “if they want it, they’ll get it”… is this true?

Am I being foolish buying a harley to be left on the streets in fulham?

Does anyone have any experience speaking to the council about getting anchor points put on their street?

Any other advice much appreciated!

Adam

welcome to LB!

yup, very much so. you can put as much anti-theft in as you like but it can’t stop them.

in my opinion, yes. but you could be just fine. Personally I think owning anything fancy in London is asking for trouble.

to put something in on the public highway is very unlikely to be something the council would go for. you’re better off petitioning them to put a bike bay in place with a railing on the kerb to lock the bikes to.
have a look online to see if there’s any garages to rent near you.

not exactly was i hoping to hear to be honest.

There is one option which is to make a ramp up one step then down three steps which would put it in the alley down to my basement flat which i can put an anchor point and there is a security light already there.

The only issue that it would be a steep ramp and i’m worried that I could easily drop the bike.

I’m not going to be using the bike everyday, more weekends and summer roadtrips etc.

Garages around here are going for circa £200pm - bit of a stinger if there is another option that would work

I’d agree with you, it’s inevitable you slip and drop it at some point! not worth the risk.

to be fair, there’s lots of people with nice bikes in London who don’t get them stolen.

I ride my bike into my front garden every night where I have a ground anchor.
I build a wooden ramp that I store under the stairs when not in use.
Never had any issues with it but mine is only up 2 steps and about 30 degrees.
Steeper than that and it would an effort- wouldn’t want to have to do it in the rain, especially on a Harley.

What you can do is get a high quality chain (such as Almax) that you can put around a lamp post and through the back wheel of the bike.
You might struggle to find a lamp post that has a space for your bike- cars will park in front of the one closest to your house and then you have to ride about with the chain looking for one.

Thanks for your help, much appreciated.

The only other thought I had was to potentially use my car, also parked outside, as the immovable object to chain it to.

But with my work I use the car most days so it would only really be helpful at night.

Hmmmm…

Well, what you could do is use the car to ‘guard’ your favourite lamp post when you are on the bike, then when you return chain the bike to the lamppost.

This is what I did before I built the ramp- it was a bit of a pain in the ass and frequently you would find someone parked in front of the bike so that the car couldn’t be driven in and you then spend days looking for a space to park the car to guard a lamp post.

Unfortunately no matter what you do they will take it if they want it, the only thing you can do is have enough security to put off the opportunist thief, the professionals will have it regardless what you do. is there an Underground carpark (NCP etc) close to you? these are free for Bikes and have places to chain too

This really needs some qualification - ‘them’ is a small proportion of thieves. A huge number of thefts could be (and presumably are) prevented by disc locks. More by chains, yet more by chains and ground anchors, garages and the rest of the assortment of anti-theft devices. If you can park somewhere you can chain to a signpost or lampost on the pavement you’ll probably jump to the more-difficult-to-nick half of bikes in London.

The notion that “if they want it they’ll have it” is a simplification of the point that there’s no unbreakable form of security for which there exist no tools to remove. It doesn’t mean that every bike is desirable and stealable enough that it’s guaranteed that a thief will be arsed and able to nick it.

There are definitely worse places in London to lock a bike up, and I know some fairly desirable bikes that are routinely kept on the street in some of them. I don’t really know how frequently-stolen harleys are, but I suspect it’s not as bad as the raft of nakeds and sportsbikes that can be easily sold onto the track.

thanks for all your feedback, very grateful indeed. It seems the answer to keeping it on the street is to make sure its covered, chained to something solid, has a tracker and then essentially play the numbers game.

I will have a look for an NCP around, the only one I can seem to find near me is in hammersmith or over in Putney. Not idea but an option nonetheless.

I live in Fulham and wrote to the council to ask them to put some ground anchors in after bikes were stolen on our road. They said not enough demand so I wrote and asked to put one in myself to which the answer was also no. Fulham does not strike me as a very bike friendly council

has anyone mentioned Almax yet? :smiley:

EDIT: upss yeah they did, anyway, cover the bike and 2M Almax chain around a lamp post

EDIT 2: Also I think that a bike parked outside that does not get used very much, will become a piece of candy to potential thieves. On the other side not tall the bikes get stolen. Don´t worry your paranoia will go away after the first month. I:P

:ermm:

Did someone mention Almax :pinch:

try and sort something as fulham area recently had a big bike theft problem, find another person with a bike see if you can chain each others bike together etc.

Don’t mention Almax, you’ll Invoke Art :slight_smile:

Edit: Oh I see you already did! :stuck_out_tongue:

I think Big red S hit the nail on the head. Nothing will make your bike theft proof but there are precautions that you can take to make it difficult enough that they’ll try easier pickings elsewhere. The same can be said for just about any item of property you might need to keep secure.

How are hammersmith council about pavement parking? Wandsworth allow you to park on the pavement if you don’t obstruct pedestrians (don’t know if it’s the official policy by I’ve heard it from the wardens and my neighbours parked on the pavement for years without issue). Makes it easier to park near a lamppost to lock to and less likely that your regular space would be blocked when you returned.

Failing that, a good long chain (Almax are the best known, others are available - I got a squire 16mm chain from PJB security, a quick search of the forum should find loads of discussions on the subject) should be able to reach through your back wheel and round a lamppost when you’re parked against the kerb but you may have to be willing to walk a bit if there’s a car outside your nearest post and faff about carrying the chain/cover up and down the road. This may be less of an issue if it’s a weekend toy rather than a daily commuter.

I did this when I got my scooter 6 or 7 years ago and had no off street parking, I usually managed to get my regular spot as it was the end of the bay and the car that parked behind rarely moved but to be honest I sometimes didn’t bother locking it to an immoveable object as it was a pain riding round looking for a suitable space after a cold, wet commute. Any security you have needs to be convenient enough for you to actually use it.

Lastly, looking at pictures of the iron 883 online, you may struggle to get a thick chain through the spokes of the rear wheel so may need to look into an Anti-pinch pin or similar.

Hi akene,

Yest Almax chains are the best, I have five of them. You can buy them here http://www.almax-security-chains.co.uk/ and if you call them, say I referred you to them and you’ll get a discount.

A cop that specialises in vehicle crime says “If it’s a professional thief, and he wants your bike, he’ll take it.” I suppose what were doing is making it as much hard work as possible for the thief to take your bike, effectively encouraging him to steal another bike instead of yours. Most thief won’t even touch an Almax chain.

I’d suggest you get some of your motorcycle neighbours to write letters to the council, so that there is enough demand for them to install ground anchors or equivilent, for bikes.

It’s worth noting, though, when following all these “almax are teh best” comments, that Almax trade entirely on security and not at all on portability or convenience. I got an Abus lock that’s much lighter and more convenient to use than an Almax since I’d then be more inclined to use the bloody thing, on the grounds that anyone turning up with the tools to get through this Abus will also be able to get through an Almax (or whatever I’ve chained it to).

I scribbled these tips down on my blog a while ago: http://www.beginnerbiker.com/motorcycle-security-tips/
Might be worth a quick read. But yeah, nothing is completely unnickable, but Alamax or Pragmasis certainly make it a lot more hassle.