Piranhas! Five Ways to Fight the Bike Part Thieves

If you have read of my encounter with the bike part theft known as “piranha attacks” you may be glad to know that there are many ways to prevent this from happening to you. The chance nature of these attacks is what makes preventing part theft so difficult as some people may never have a problem while others (like me) hardly get to use their bike before losing a crucial component.

Sadly it seems the only hope of total security is to fork out for a Brompton but until then these tips for the casual cyclist are the best means of reducing your chances of having to ride home without a saddle.

 

 

Get a cheap bike? Wrong.

What I have learned most from my experience and some research into these attacks is that the old idea of getting a crap bike that no one would want to steal doesn`t work in London. You will lose bits of it anyway so get one you are prepared to look after by paying for some of these security measures.

That doesn’t mean getting an expensive or even middle-range bike but it does mean finding what is right for you. If you just have something you found on Gumtree for £50 while you save up for something better, or maybe you just want to see what cycling in London is like, take no risks and keep it inside.

Security nuts and skewers

There are now an array of specialist nuts on the market that require a specific type of key to unlock them rather than a universal Allen key. These range from £12 to £100 and so probably aren`t best for a knackered student bike given the number of components you need to protect. Instead the smart approach seem to be to get a bike to be proud of and invest in its security. That means you can have one unique key for all your bike’s components. What if you lose it? Brands like Pinhead allow you to register your key should you need a replacement.

Marking

Current bike marking practices don’t cover individual parts. While a covert kit from bikeregister.com will be able to mark your bike’s parts this works on the reverse basis of tracing a whole stolen bike once it has been dismantled and distributed, instead of tracing a single stolen part as its own crime.

However, the sticker that comes with the kit stating that the bike has been marked could be the deterrent that makes all the difference. Again at £29.99 for a UV Covert kit this also adds a cost that you may not want to spend on a cheap bike.

One testimonial on the register’s website reads: “My bike was stolen from my garage. Because my BikeRegister & frame IDs were listed on my online account, I was able to prove it was mine when I saw it on eBay 2 months later.”

According to the bike register website darker frames hide the marked number better which means lighter frames might be easier for a criminal to establish as unmarked.

Think where you lock it

Leaving a bike unattended outside is always risky. The bike register website shows London’s hotspots for reported bike thefts but that doesn’t cover the theft of individual parts. However, the map does give an indication of the areas where bike theft is most common, which is a pretty good indication of where part theft is likely. Most of the red zones are around central London which is unfortunately where you are most likely to need to lock up. The real risk here is leaving a bike overnight with fewer people about and less light to expose criminal activity.

If possible you should use crowded bike racks with CCTV to minimise risk of theft. And be aware that some bike racks are traps, as London Cyclist reported last year: “There are some bike racks around London which have been cut and then covered up with tape so the thieves can simply slip the bike lock off and take the bike away. Therefore, it is always worth checking the rack you are using too.” The overnight safety of bikes raises difficult questions because the human risk of cycling home in bad weather or when drunk outweighs the financial risk of leaving a bike.

Of course the main problem is storage at home as most of us lack outdoor space. While the best advice is to keep the bike as close as possible to your property and within sight of windows it might be worth the annoyance to your housemates of keeping it inside.

Take parts that are easy to remove with you

You must be joking! Actually this comes from the Transport for London website page on bike security: “For example, saddles and wheels.” None of us want to be that person who turns up at the office every morning with a bike wheel under their arm. Equally you don’t want your first hurried task of the day to be reattaching your wheel before you leave home.

But as a last resort it is logical that what you remove yourself isn’t going to be removed by someone else. This might be the best solution when you are “under the weather” in one way or another and decide to leave your bike locked for the night and get the Tube home.

Stewart Vickers @VickHellfire

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