Having your motorbike stolen is one of the worst things that can happen to a biker.

Worse still is having the replacement bike stolen a few weeks later.

Unfortunately, it’s a fact of life that bike thieves will often retarget a location they have stolen a bike from, knowing that an insurance payout will mean another nice bike will have taken its place.

Motorbike thieves often strike twice

The second theft by the same guys is part two of what is actually a triple whammy.

As well as the pain of having first one bike stolen, then another, you’re also likely to be hit a third way, this time by a massive hike to your insurance premium as you will now be considered ultra-high risk.

So it really does pay to do everything you can to prevent that second motorbike theft.

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Get serious about security

As you will have learned by now, whatever you previously used to secure your motorbike, it wasn’t enough.

Was the motorbike stolen from your garage? 80% of all motorcycle theft is from the home address…

One reason for this is that thieves know a bike will often not have secondary security inside a garage or shed, the owner thinking that the bike just being hidden away will be enough protection. It’s not.

Even inside a building, you should consider at least one type of movement-preventing security - a disc lock or two at a minimum. Better still, use a heavy duty chain, preferably attached to a ground anchor.

More security advice:

10 WAYS TO PROTECT YOUR MOTORBIKE FROM THEFT
BIKE TRACKERS – THE TRUTH
PROTECTING YOUR MOTORBIKE WHEN IT’S PARKED ON THE STREET

If you have to park outside

If the bike wasn’t in a garage - perhaps it was in your front garden or out on the street, you should consider changing to a different location if you can, even if it’s only for a couple of weeks after the theft. Maybe a neighbour has a space you can use.

Fitting some kind of security light that can cover an outside area is a very good idea. If you can swing to a camera as well even better. Thieves hate the publicity of both.

If your bike is very high-end - an expensive sports or touring bike - and it was stolen from a public motorcycle bay or parking area near your work, consider using a different location for while.

Even better, vary your location regularly. We’ve heard of three BMW GS’s being taken in a single day a few streets from each other in London’s West End - obviously bike thieves had become aware of the bikes and deliberately targeted the area.

Given that you are leaving the bike in a vulnerable area, you should seriously consider fitting a tracker that has a remote monitoring function.

This means, if the system is activated by the bike being moved, you’ll receive an alert - a telephone call, SMS or notification to a mobile app - that lets you know the bike is being moved.

This is normally fairly instant so you may have enough to time to get to the bike’s location and catch the thieves before they get too far. This could be the best total loss prevention if you need to leave the bike in a car park, especially if the parking area is near to your place of work.

Get yourself sorted:

Whatever you do, you can no longer be complacent about your bike’s security so to prevent losing out to another theft, make some changes, starting with security devices, but also changing your habits fro a while.

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