Losing your bike to a scumbag thief conjures up various analogies such as losing a vital organ or appendage or feeling the emotion of a love one being kidnapped. If you’ve had your bike stolen then you must know the feeling.
To tackle the problem here are six sure fire ways to deter a thief from stealing your pride and joy and not suffer from buying someone stolen bike.
Keeping your bike safe:
- Always lock your bike up, thieves go for the easy option. A disc lock will help, but a big chain is better.
- Run your security chain through another bike’s if possible. It won’t inconvenience the other rider when they come to leave and two bikes locked together are harder to pick up and steal.
- Don’t leave your lock unattended in a garage. A thief will tamper with it when you are not around, leaving your bike unprotected when you lock it up.
Here is how to avoid buying a stolen bike:
- Do an HPI check but look carefully at the bike’s engine and frame numbers for signs of tampering. Compare the style of the numbers to a similar model bike, they should be identical. Also look at the backing the numbers are on, is it polished metal? Painted black? This should be the same between models. If in any doubt, walk, there are plenty of other bikes.
- Be cautious if a bike has changed colour in its life, this could indicate it has been either rung or crashed.
- If buying from a dealer, pay for the bike on your credit card, you are then automatically covered by your cards’ fraud insurance.
- Never buy a bike from anywhere other than the address on the logbook. And check the owner’s name is the same as on the logbook, ask for ID to prove it.
