NEWS

Recently the Home Office showed that motorcycle theft has increased in Greater London by 44% in the last 2 years. This said 50% of the 22,000+ motorcycle thefts are from within London, meaning 50% are from around the rest of the country (11,000+)

Increases are being reported in thefts in many towns and cities with pockets appearing around the country. There are several markets for stolen bikes,

1) some are stolen to order; having legitimate paperwork to a specific type of bike that they can clone the stolen bike to.

2) others are stripped for parts, after all if you drop your bike in the garage and want to replace the fairing, don't want to pay the manufactures price, don't want a Chinese copy, then second hand auction sites are the next choice, but ask yourself ... that second hand fairing in perfect condition .... how did it end up being removed from the bike?

3) some bikes are whisked away outside the EU, eg. the Ukraine, where websites are openly advertising bikes from the UK.

4) lastly bikes are stolen just to be ridden and abused. Once called "joy riding", which is a contradiction in terms as often there is no joy to be had by anyone.

In many cases of bike theft criminals will be looking for "easy pickings". Bikes that are secured to an object can be a deterrent to all but the most committed thief. At one time it was accepted that 3 burly blokes and a white van was the "tool of choice". They would literally pull the van beside a chosen bike and two of the three would lift it into the van, no ramps just brute force.

Now however there is a new breed of criminal, their mode of transport is two-up on an automatic scooter. They pull up beside the target, break the steering lock again with brute force, cut any locks/disk locks with a battery operated grinder. They don't bother starting the bike they just push it away using the scooter alongside as propulsion. They often go to incredible lengths to keep the stolen motorcycle moving, riding on pavements, cycle paths, across parks and scrub land, wrong way on one-way streets, jumping red lights ... anything to get the bike away.

All too often motorcycles end up parked somewhere quiet after theft, somewhere they won't attract attention. The last thing a thief wants to do is take a bike that has a tracker and lead the authorities back to their den of ill-gotten gains. The Police call this "pinch and park". If after a week the bike is still there, then it won't have a tracker and they can be re-assured that it is safe to do whatever they want this it.