Motorcycle security systems 2021

[krtw]

I did do a search on this term, and there were postings from 2016 - but maybe nothing newer. Not at lest what I could find. Also, not sure if this is the best place to post this question...but its a start.

As I get closer to having my bike ready, mods for me and spare parts etc. the question of motorcycle security begins. I have read watched and studied this topic quite a bit - its the specifics that I lack....which actual product to buy.

First off - if they REALLY want to steal your bike - they will.
Next - making it more difficult helps.
Be smart about where you leave the bike - of course.
One of the best security devices is a cover.

Now to specifics....Alarm system, GPS tracker, Disk lock, anything else?

Do you have or use an alarm system? Of course the BMW has a built in one, but its pretty meager.

Same question for GPS tracker - but which one works around the world?

Do you use disk locks, with alarms built in and if so which one would you suggest?

Anything other comments of suggestions most appreciated.

[Snakeboy]

I had a lightweight disc lock with alarm for my bike on my 5 year RTW trip. But I found the most useful measure was to have safe overnight parking. A very few times in places I couldnt find safe parking (locked area, guarded area etc) I actually paid a few dimes to guys hanging around the parking area to look after the bike.

[frameworkSpecialist]

Like Snakeboy said. I Alway go for secure parking. If that is not available I park the bike in a spot where it would be a complete pain in the ass to load it into a wehicle. (think in a backyard or a hill) Also try to park it out of sight from the road.

I have a dirty cover and a Abus Granit Victory X-Plus 68 disc lock.

It's a very light lock. It's almost unpick-able (won't be picked on the street). It's very hard to drill or cut with bolt cutters. That only leaves it open for disc cutter attacks. Most thieves don't carry disc cutters (specially in poorer countries).

Always pop the disc lock on the back wheel and cover the bike.

[Rapax]

Always going for a secure and if possible guarded parking. Always using an ugly old looking cover.

No lock is 100% secure but I use one in short as in overnight parking issues every time.

If they don`t pick or flex, then 4 guys load the bike on a pick up or truck in a minute.

GPS trackers are useless since you can buy jammers starting from 5$ at alibaba.

Do you know the lock picking lawyer?
See him working 2,5 min to open the Abus Granit Victory X-Plus 68 disc lock.

https://youtu.be/Csa01fsnCQE

[frameworkSpecialist]

Originally Posted by Rapax

Do you know the lock picking lawyer?
See him working 2,5 min to open the Abus Granit Victory X-Plus 68 disc lock.

https://youtu.be/Csa01fsnCQE

Yes. I saw his video. He says "I very much doubt this will be picked on the street". You need a special tool, that almost no one has. You need years of lockpicking experience and it will be a lot harder to pick when it's attached to a bike.

There are very few people who can pick the lock, and these people aren't motorcycle thieves

[Wheelie]

If I was to get new security now:

Cheap cover

ABUS GRANIT ™ DETECTO XPLUS 8077 Disc with alarm lock + Chain Combo. (I would not take the chain on trips - more for home, or if I knew I would park curb side 7n a crime infested city). Use the lock on the rear wheel. Statistically bikes with a disc lock reduces the chance of theft by 1/3. With the alarm, it will be higher. It could probably be defeated in a minute, but with an alarm going for that long, it gets stressful being a thief. Also, if you are close by, you or someone you've asked to keep a look after it might be able to intervene.

Monimoto GPS Tracker, so you can be informed by SMS and find it stashed down the street (thieves often hide bikes close to where they were stolen for a day or three, before taking it away for good, just in case it has a tracker).

Thin cable lock so the thieves can't simply put the bike in a van without spending a suspiciius moment on the cable with a blaring disc lock. It makes little difference to an equipped thief if the cable is thin or just slightly thick, even quite a thick chain.

Probably the worst place you can park a bike is in an indoor parking complex without a full time security guard at night. When I worked in insurance many years ago, we used to call them "parts storage". Apartment parking complexes, public parking complexes, with cameras and security only doing the odd rounds, is in general really much less safe than parking on the street.

If you need to park on a street, try to park on a well lit street that is busy at night, or in a residential area in view from surrounding homes. Preferably under a camera or a building with a night watch, like a hotel, outside a bar that is open all night, etc. Underneath motion triggered flood lights is good also.

[ridingviking]

From conversations with a very active motorcycle thief (I live around the corner from a Salavation Army soup kitchen, a great source of interesting life stories), it's clear to me that there are several different types of motorcycle thieves. Oh, and since I'm a nice guy, he has promised he will never steal my bike.

1) I need a bike now (opportunity driven)
To protect from this type of theft, you want to make it cumbersome to steal your motorcycle so they move on to the next. These thieves are less prepared, so they may be stopped by having to grind through a disk lock. They may skip the bike with a cover, as they're afraid to be seen. They want to ride away from the scene of the crime, so if you can stop them from starting the bike, they may give up. They may be scared off by alarms.

2) The planned theft
Depending on where you live, this may be the biggest threat. I know it is in Norway. These thieves have professionals with orders, so they are not stealing bikes at random. If they have an order for a 1250 GS, they'll find one and plan on how to steal it. They will look at classified ads to find the location of attractive bikes. They come with a (stolen) truck to carry the bike away. They already know where the bike is, so a cover is of no use. Parking your bike in a garage is probably not a deterrent either, most garages are easy to break into. They don't need to remove disk locks, as they can just lift the bike onto the truck. Disk lock with unbreakable chain? They just leave the wheel. They LOVE an audible alarm, as they tell them where to look for tracking devices. They're in and out in less than two minutes, which means you won't have time to get out of bed to stop them. Then they drive the bike away to a stashing location, and sell it on to someone else for parts or to be exported. You don't stop these thieves, you try to ensure that you can get your bike back, or mitigate the consequences of losing it.

So my view on security is this: If you're in an area where theft of opportunity is a big problem, make it slightly harder to identify and steal the bike and drive away. Mine is parked in the back yard of an apartment building in the middle of the city, so I use a disk lock with a thick chain, so a thief would have to leave the front wheel. If you have a bike that is attractive on the black market (some surprises here, 390 Duke is one of the most stolen models!) make sure you have a tracker installed and test that it works.

But most of all, it is good to accept that owning something means that you can lose something, and you should not own anything that you cannot accept losing. Insurance, backup plans if you travel, and emotional distance to your possessions are good things.

[backofbeyond]

Originally Posted by ridingviking

... and you should not own anything that you cannot accept losing. Insurance, backup plans if you travel, and emotional distance to your possessions are good things.

That's a mindset I've travelled with for many many years. I've always been prepared to lose stuff, or walk away from stuff - up to and including the bike. It doesn't mean I want to or that it wouldn't be inconvenient or expensive to do so but it's built into the fabric, into the nature, of travel for me. That's why, with few exceptions, I tend to travel with stuff that hasn't cost me much money and very rarely with bikes that are on finance packages. It's an approach that has come back to bite me on occasions but mostly the 'peace of mind' is worth the trouble.

Even so, a bike is a bike and I take many of the precautions you've outlined above - finding 'sensible' places to park overnight, a cover (sometimes), locks, alarms etc but I've never wanted to be in the position where I had so much invested in the bike that its loss would cause me serious problems. Quite often I've been prepared to write the bike off (financially anyway) over the course of a long trip to the point where, if it gets me back, I now consider it owes me nothing. If I can get more out of it (like the GoldWing I have in the US) and get future trips out of it that's a bonus but not part of my original calculations.

[AnTyx]

Originally Posted by krtw

Do you have or use an alarm system? Of course the BMW has a built in one, but its pretty meager.

Had an alarm system on my Fazer - previous owner installed it. Kept it turned off. No point in a loud noise maker that will just be ignored. This system even had a radio fob that theoretically would tell me that my bike was being moved... okay, and what then? By the time I get out to my bike, it will be gone.

Factory immobilizer with a radio key is good enough. For an older bike, the cost of bypassing it makes the bike uneconomical to steal.

Same question for GPS tracker - but which one works around the world?

Every single one of them is defeated by driving into a shipping container or other enclosed metal box. But yes, if anything, get one that doesn't depend on a mobile signal.

Do you use disk locks, with alarms built in and if so which one would you suggest?

I think this video lays it out pretty well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXHEbPzzDzE

TLDR: thick square-section hardened chain with a padlock with a complicated key.

[Tim Cullis]

The built-in alarm on a disk lock can be almost totally muffled by sticking your finger over the speaker hole.

[Rapax]

Originally Posted by frameworkSpecialist

Yes. I saw his video. He says "I very much doubt this will be picked on the street". You need a special tool, that almost no one has. You need years of lockpicking experience and it will be a lot harder to pick when it's attached to a bike.

There are very few people who can pick the lock, and these people aren't motorcycle thieves

You are right if you say picking the lock attached to bike is harder but if you listening and watched carefully than you recognized that he showed a way how to solve this issue.

Maybe I am frustrating you right now but I have this tool and 3 others of the same principle. The tool in the video is maschined on a very high standard and it gives you a very sensitive feedback. I bought the tool from the video from him and the others via ebay. Ebay or alibaba are full of this and other kind of tools you need for picking. Most of them are in poor quaility and need finetuning for a better functioning. But they are cheap and available for everyone who knows the search term.

I am an amateur picker but I started lock picking by following the lock picking lawyer and some others years ago. A lot I know about picking I learned from videos and by just simple trying out. The learning curve was fast and steep.
My goal is to open a lock without destroying it and as quick as possible. Also I have build some tools together with others from my lock picking community. We do competitive speed lock picking. I have been opening different kind of locks just for fun and in one case of emergency a house door of a neighbor who got lock out by his 4yrs son.

If I can learn this by video and reading blogs than other people with criminal intense can do it too and faster...

The lock picking lawyer is right when he says that lock picking of motorcycles is very rare. And I believe if you are on a trip and you avoid big cities, you will be always on the safe side.

If you scroll through his videos you see others kinds of cheap tools you can buy in a every hardware store for small money and you get an idea of tricks how to open a lock by destroying it fast and without loud noises. For this you don`t need years of experience...It`s just a question of your creativity or your criminal motivation...

In my area, a town in notherrn Germany with a basin of 5 mio people, we had the case that a motorcycle repair shop specialized on Harleys was nothing else than gang of thefts. They have stolen more than 200 motorcycles over the years and they use a truck with a special build in crane to lift the bike in 2 minutes into. Bikes got stripped down and parts were resold by the shop. Stolen parts were stored in long time rented trucks.

These type of criminal gangs are the real problem and the chance to become a victim of them will be much higher in your hometown than everywhere else on your trip through foreign countries, I believe.

[Rapax]

Originally Posted by Tim Cullis

The built-in alarm on a disk lock can be almost totally muffled by sticking your finger over the speaker hole.

Superglue works faster and you can use one finger more for stealing

[Threewheelbonnie]

Thieves don't turn up dressed as David Niven and pick locks. They spray plumbers freeze on them and use a chisel or bring a petrol powered grinder.

Noise makers are only going to make people with an interest do anything. That's basically the owner. The police in the UK certainly won't react and passers-by just find them annoying.

Immobilisers are the single biggest reason to call recovery services in the UK. Thieves can remove them in minutes, so they only inconvenience the owners.

So

Split your defence into home and away.

At home layer up. Lock the bike to the floor with a chain with a proper security rating. I will be big, 13mm links. Only use locks you can secure against tool access by metal shielding. Alarm the building not the bike. Look for weaknesses like roofing that can be removed and hinges that can be broken. Use better protected vehicles like cars to block in bikes. Keep keys behind further locks and split them up, no hooks in the hallway. CCTV linked to your phone is good. Make some of your security obvious (huge yellow door blocker on the garage, sign up warning of CCTV) and some hidden. Don't leave the bike outside the security for hours where people can start to work out where it lives.

If you are unfortunate enough to have Keyless/Wireless dross, fit a physical lock as well and keep the fob in a Faraday bag (or the microwave oven).

On the road you can only slow them down. Remove the dealers keyring that matches the dealers details on your number plate, its bad enough Honda ID lost keys with their logo. Use a disc lock with a multipart construction, not cast Chinese dross with a barrel lock. A tracker connected to your phone lets you run back when they start with the grinder. A second lock to a cable round street furniture makes them work harder. A cover helps.

You will not stop druggies and scratters breaking into aluminium boxes, nylon bags or plastic boxes. Take your stuff with you.

Make your stuff harder to steal than the next blokes.

Andy

[krtw]

All interesting and maybe what I expected....not a clear consensus as to how to move forward - but lots of great advice.

My concerns are totally for touring. I have a locked garage with motion lights around the building for storage....Not worried at home - and I live in a safe area....still make sure everything is locked etc....

I'm going RTW next year if the Covid thing allows....On the road security is my concern.

I'll be doing lots of camping - so a motion detector will be critical - but I've never head of a GPS blocker before in regards to a bike tracker....looking into this deeper. A tracker makes sense - but I rue the monthly expense.

Where to park, where to stay, GREAT advice - thank you....I listen and learn.

Still have a ways to go...Front brake locks are defeated by cutting the brake line - takes a second.

I have not found anything like this yet in my searches - is there such a thing as a lock for the axle nuts....to help keep the wheels on? My bike can't fit one of those caliper locks that cover the nuts too.

I am considering building a security system out of a Raspberry Pi that will allow me to log into my bike and see what's going on if an alarm is triggered. With a hidden camera and a battery on the Pi - this has possibilities.

Still at it!

[Snakeboy]

Dont overthink this mate.

Camping - whats the chance someones gonna try to steal your bike when youre in your tent 2-3 meters away? Thats not gonna happen!

In a hotel/hostel/guesthouse/Airbnb thing - make sure the place you choose have safe parking. And if not most cities and towns in south and central America have commercial parking areas where you park your vehicle and pay a few dimes.
Also several places in Asia and even elsewhere let you park your bike in the lobby of the guesthouse.....

I also liked what was mentioned above here - dont take any expensive fancy shining bike with half of the Touratech catalouge mounted that cost 20-30 grand €. The chances it will be a target for thiefes increases hundred if times. Take a smaller used bike worth ~ 1/10 of the above mentioned bike and keep it dirty! Nobody would ever look twice at it....