Theft in the USA
 

Hi,

I will be riding from Canada down the Appalachians to the Southeast, and then across to California. How worried should I be about theft of my unattended baggage on the bike? I only have soft luggage, so anyone could just undo a few straps and walk away with my bags. Staying out of big cities, will it be a problem if I leave the bike and luggage unattended for fifteen minutes when I go into grocery stores? I will use a disk brake alarm that starts screeching if someone is touching the bike.

What about at campsites, if I want to leave my gear and go for a hike?

I don't think you can generalize: it's like any other country (including Canada) some areas are safe, other areas are not.

I would prepare for the worst and hope for the best, and not leave anything of value on the bike when you are not with sight of it.

Aside from the unpredictability of it all, per brclarke above, it is definitely worth paying attention to surroundings. I've only once had stuff stolen from a campsite in the USA, but in retrospect our camp was in a National Forest known for a preponderance of meth labs, visible from a gravel road, and we were gone all day climbing. Even so, the thieves just grabbed a couple of items from near the tent door--they were hurrying, and didn't want to get caught.

The above applies only to *human* theft; I've also had stuff stolen or trashed by mice, marmots, raccoons, ravens, and bears. IMO those are the real concerns while camping.

Personally, I try to leave stuff on my bike only when it's locked in hard cases. I also carry a cable lock for threading through pants, jackets and helmets when I leave them behind. I definitely wouldn't leave anything valuable such that someone could "just undo a few straps and walk away with my bags." That's why god gave us locking cables, bike covers, and Pacsafe steel mesh bags, not to mention accessory straps and rubber bungies to make theft more awkward than it might seem at first glance. I don't use an alarm because when I tried I routinely forgot and set it off myself.

The cardinal rule for traveling remains: back up all crucial information, and carry anything you can't afford to lose directly on your person--passport, license, credit and debit cards, cash, phone/camera/other devices. In the US and Canada that might mean in a daypack unless you frequent dangerous neighborhoods; elsewhere in the world it's often inside clothing in various pouches designed for this purpose.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

West of the Mississippi, if you stay out of the big city centers you will be fine during the day in grocery store parking lots and on the streets in front of a cafe or store. I have soft bags and routinely park in these places all over the west. I either cover or remove and take my GPS with me.

If I'm leaving my riding gear or helmet with the bike I do what Mark does, and thread a cable through all of it and lock it somehow to the bike. This usually only happens at hiking traiheads, mostly I wear my gear and carry my helmet. No big deal.

Night is a different story of course. I keep all my gear in liner bags and tote it inside at night, leaving only the empty panniers on the bike.
I am picky about where I park at night, preferring places that are not visible from the road or failing that, under bright lights in view of my room or the hotel front desk.

In a Campground, I often leave my tent with gear unattended, but it depends on my neighbors. Sometimes things don't feel right and I tend to go with my feelings.

........shu

I used to follow a FB Blog "In which we ride" and they had their soft bags cut open overnight in a supposedly safe hotel car park overnight in California. Everything stolen. The probable druggie culprit was apparently well known in the area but nobody thought to mention it or considered it worth paying him a visit.

Even hard boxes can be prised open, so personally I avoid leaving luggage unattended on the bike overnight if possible. I do leave some bits in the top box but never valuables. If you're camping it's a harder choice. When you're traveling, losing important stuff can be a real buzzkill.

Thank you all for your replies. It had never occurred to me to carry a bike cover on a trip. I'll see if I can find something light enough / compact enough to take along. Putting things out of sight like that would decrease the temptation to steal, I'm sure, and the ringing of the alarm while they're getting the cover off would probably attract a lot of attention. I also hadn't thought of those light cable locks for my gear, either. Will buy one of those too.

I'll keep my essentials (wallet, phone, laptop, passport) with me at all times, and take all luggage off the bike when I'm staying in a motel. When camping, I'll go with my gut, as suggested.
Thanks again!

bier

The bike cover is an essential part of my anti-theft scheme. I let them get dirty and tattered, just for effect. There are heavy duty ones (weigh more and pack less compactly), but the lighter ones serve pretty well as long as you wait for the engine and exhaust to cool before wrapping the bike.

It's worth considering that a covered bike presents a much larger profile to the wind, so think about that when storms approach. I carry a couple of rubber bungies, which sometimes see service compacting the bike cover overnight (in addition to holding water bottles and such during the day).

Oh, and be sure to get one large enough to cover your bike fully, preferably including all luggage and cable-locked riding gear. There are some wee little ones around, and some which are so short they barely cover handlebars and seat.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the tips. I just ordered an extra large lightweight cover, for huge bikes like Harleys with side cases. Amazon says that it weighs a pound and a half. I'll use it any time the bike is parked with stuff on it out of sight, along with the disk brake alarm. I've simply never used a bike cover before, so it hadn't occurred to me!

Most of my long-distance touring experience is in China, and during the daytime in villages and small towns, there wasn't much of a risk of theft. Their parking situation is usually more disorganized than here, so I could usually park right in front of wherever I wanted to go. Nighttime, the bike went into the courtyard (or even lobby) of the hotels where I stayed. And half my stuff was in hard cases, unlike this time.