Follow our simple crime prevention tips and keep your bicycle safe from theft.
With increasing numbers of us owning bicycles, it’s important to know how to keep them safe. Especially as more of us are being encouraged to take up cycling both to improve our health and as an alternative form of transport to reduce congestion and emissions. Hundreds of thousands of bikes are stolen each year in England and Wales.
Help keep your bike secure by following some simple tips.
1) Protect your possessions
- Take out insurance, either by extending your home contents insurance or through a separate policy; cycling organisations and bike shops may offer specialist cover
- Record and register your bike
- Security mark the frame
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Prevent Cycle Theft |
- More than half of all bicycle thefts take place from an owner’s property.
- Keep your bike in a secure garage or bike storage shed and keep the door locked
- Keep it out of public view
- Always lock your bicycle, even if you are just leaving it for a couple of minutes
- Avoid isolated places; leave your bike where it can be seen
- Hardened steel D-shaped locks are recommended as the minimum lock standard; check out Sold Secure (new window) for certified locks, or ask your local bike shop
- Lock your bike to an immovable object – a bike rack or ground anchors; thieves can remove drainpipes and lift bikes off signposts
- Make the lock and bike hard to manoeuvre when parked - stop thieves smashing it open by keeping the lock away from the ground; keep the gap between bike and lock small
- Secure removable parts; lock both wheels and the frame together
- Look Out For Cycle Theft
Click here to see the Cycle theft statistics for 2010 - 18,000 stolen bikes Jan – March 2010.
