Choose a safe location to park Don't leave your bike unlocked out the front of your property. Keep it inside the house, in a locked shed or locked securely to a fixture behind locked gates. If you live in an apartment block that doesn't have secure bike parking, consider keeping your bike inside your apartment.
Switch to a high gear or drop your chain
Strategically adjusting your chain will definitely make a potential thief think twice. One option is to put your bike in the most challenging gear before you leave it. This means it will be both confusing and physically taxing for anyone who tries to steal your bike.
But bikes are of course stolen when locked outside. Or left outside briefly. Often it's inconvenient to lock a bike for a quick errand, and an opportunistic thief can take a bike in a matter of seconds. Quick moving thieves can use angle grinders to cut even the nicest u-locks.
The first and most common, is the "opportunist" thief, who is certainly carrying cable cutters, maybe some medium sized bolt cutters, maybe even a crowbar. The opportunists are looking for any bikes secured with cables, weak u-locks and puny chains and padlocks. No bike is too cheap or tatty to escape their attention.
Indeed, research by 529 Garage suggests that the number of bike stolen (rather than just reported stolen), in the US in 2019 could be closer to 2 million. Which is equivalent to one bike every 30 seconds! The cities with the highest bike crime in the US include (somewhat predictably), New York and San Francisco!
Less desirable bikes are less quick to be bought and therefore less likely to be stolen. A bad colour brown or bright pink or luminous green and purple bike might be deterrents!
It's so easy to get away with it
One major contributing factor to the increase in bike theft is that it's just so easy for criminals to get away with it. A bicycle's very nature makes it an easy target for theft: they are lightweight and simple to disassemble, making them easy to transport.
In a public place, choose a location that is busy and well-lit. Ideally covered by CCTV. Choose a sturdy immovable object to secure the bike to, ideally a fit-for-purpose cycle stand/rack parking. Lock the bike correctly to the solid immovable object.
Lock picking is another common technique used by bike thieves to steal bikes. They use specialized tools to manipulate the lock and gain access to the bike. To avoid this, invest in a high-quality lock with a complex key or combination.
Nearly every bike lock can be broken with specific tools and enough time, but that doesn't mean that some aren't very, very secure. Bicycle thieves employ everything from simple bolt cutters to angle grinders to get through locks, and given enough time they can crack even the most expensive kit.
Wheels, saddles, and accessories are the most commonly snagged items, but ultimately no part of your bicycle is safe, not even your cockpit. (Yes, I have had my cockpit stolen.) Of all your bike's parts, the wheels are the big-ticket item.
What do bike thieves do with stolen bikes? Bike thieves have the equipment to cut locks and intend to resell stolen bikes at a price close to their “fair market value.” Criminals like typically steal bikes from the streets and sell them on online markets to get the most money.
If you don't have a completely immovable object, you can lock your bike to anything that's large and cumbersome to move. You can lock your bike to itself by locking the wheel to the frame so that it can't roll. This will make it harder to move.
Bike theft is very common in the UK. Between July 2021 and June 2022, 74,421 bike thefts were reported to the police in England and Wales. That's equivalent to one bike being stolen every 7 minutes.
If the bike is locked to an insecure structure such as a small sign or tree, the thief is able to lift the bike along with its lock off of the structure. A thief may use a bolt cutter, hacksaw, or angle grinder to cut through the bicycle lock. A thief may pick a lock that has a keyhole.
The most common colour bike stolen was black by a landslide, and the most common type stolen was a mountain bike. The worst months for bike theft are in the summer. Although the specific month was different for each year in the new data, June had the most stolen bikes in 2014, July in 2015 and September in 2016.
Bike thieves are looking for a quick getaway. So will target bikes that are secured with combination locks or other cheap flimsy-looking bike locks. They will settle for any bike, it doesn't even have to be expensive-looking.
Bikes are most likely to be stolen from home, during the week in the afternoon (noon to 6 pm) or during the night (midnight to 6 am). We analysed data from the Office of National Statistics to learn more about when your bike is most at risk of theft.
Unless you've locked your bike up with a series of D-locks like a daisy chain most bikes are – as depressing as it is – pretty simple to steal within just a few minutes or even seconds. And getting your bike back is, at best, unlikely, with thieves quickly selling them on either in their entirety or as separate parts.
Making this yet another lock that's uncuttable with bolt cutters and virtually unbreakable with any hand-powered tool. Unlike some other locks in this review, the Kryptonite Fahgettaboudit is compact and portable.
Any bike is easily stolen but not all bikes are worth stealing. Thieves most want bikes that will command a decent price and/or can be easily sold. Expensive-looking road bikes and mountain bikes top the list. Roadsters and hybrids with practical features such as mudguards are less likely to be pinched.