wolfchild

I hope this is not a stupid question. I just want to hear different opinions and experiences about bike thefts. I have few questions.
What is it that attracts bike thieves to steal bikes ?
Is it certain components on a bike ?
Is it a brand name/company, that made the bike ? Eg: surly, trek, kona, rocky mountain... are any of these more of a thief magnet then the other ?
Is it a certan type of frame ?

Are bikes with disc brakes more likely to get stolen then bikes with rim brakes ?
And what about mtn bikes vs road bikes vs hybrids vs purpose build commuter vs utility bikes, are any of these more of a thief magnet then the other ?

Does making your bike "ugly" help to deter a thief ? Eg: of that would be gettin rid of decals, using tape and inner tubes to wrap around the frame, keeping the bike dirty etc.

Fast Cloud

I would imagine brand names have more to do with it than components. Any idiot knows he can sell a trek for more than a huffy. I would also say that making your bike ugly would help...but then you'd have to look at it every day.

lukasz

I've hard of the most decrepit pieces of crap being stolen. Probably has more to do with opportunity than anything else. If no one is around, go for it. It's not like they're paying for the thing. If they feel like it they can come back and take the bike parked next to yours after they take yours. The idea that bike thieves go around looking for boutique bikes is a bit far-fetched IMO. I'm sure such thieves do operate but the majority of theft is likely based on opportunity.

Andy_K 

Probably the number one thing a bike thief is looking for is a bike that's easy to take. I would guess that resale value is next.

The better locked your bike is, the more sophisticated the potential thief will have to be for it to be easy to steal. If it's well locked, the level of thief that can steal it easily probably knows enough to be able to judge resale value based on components and brand, but he still needs to be able to evaluate it quickly. Any time spent inspecting the quality of the bike is time he can't spend breaking the lock.

Brand and model can usually be spotted from a greater distance, so I would think that trumps components. For instance, I've got a Kona Jake with Ultegra components, but from 20 feet away, you couldn't distinguish it from a stock Jake with Tiagra components. If I gave it a bad paint job, you couldn't easily distinguish it from a Walmart road bike.

Chris_in_Miami

This is anecdotal at best, but I always see far more cheap department store bikes at pawn shops than decent ones. Of course, that's probably because the lock came from the same store...

xenologer

What about bikes that are extensively customized?

For example one of my bikes is a franken-bike, built from the naked frame up with all kinds of parts from the used parts bin, no rhyme or reason as to brand name or color match aesthetics, so long as the parts fit.

Another one is covered in retroreflective tape, which I'd imagine is a pain to remove cleanly, and the brand name is marred with spray paint that I used to fix paint chips, along with wrappings of old inner tubes used as scratch protection. And it has a milk crate on the rack, and accessories like lock and frame holders hose clamped onto the frame...

TrekJapan

Maybe not so much where I am now but a few years ago I lived at MCAS Iwakuni Japan on mainland Japan. Every Saturday and Sunday morning there were bikes laying all over the place and tossed in the ditches.

Crimes of opportunity. Nobody was stealing the bikes to steal the bikes but rather to make the stagger home quicker and more effortless. I was amazed at the sheer number of bikes that would end up on the impound lot after the weekend.

John

daxr

I've heard about the same thing here in the US, that most stolen bikes are taken for a quick ride and then dumped. Also that most stolen bikes are the cheapies that people don't bother to lock up, and that people don't bother to report or look for. Hence, far more abandoned bikes at the sheriff's lock up than there are even bikes reported stolen.

CastIron

Easy money and novel entertainment. Lock the wheels/frame properly and take the shiny widgets off.

tatfiend 

It may depend on demographics too. In this area there are a good number of illegal aliens with minimal paying jobs. A year or so ago the local police department did a raid on a cache of bikes hidden under a bridge abutment near downtown. Apparently the illegals with jobs rode their hot bikes to the bridge, stashed them, and then walked the short distance to work.

Most of the bikes were apparently thefts of opportunity and lower quality bikes.

mickey85

Exactly. Jack 5 bikes, make $100 at a scrap yard.

wahoonc

I think two main factors come into play; location and ease of theft. Around here it doesn't matter what it is, if it rolls and is poorly locked it is gone. In some parts of some larger cities it doesn't matter how you lock it, it is gone. As a general rule I don't lock my bikes out of my site. I have had bikes stolen from a locked detached garage when I lived in town. Now I lock my bikes even if they are inside a locked building at home. There is always going to be somebody that is willing to try and steal your stuff.

Aaron

CliftonGK1

What are bike thieves really looking for ??

A beatdown.

uke

lol.

No Chain

What are bike thieves really looking for?

A quick buck to spend on crack.

daaxix

I rolled up to my fiance's work the other day and saw an interesting looking commuter MTB. It looked pretty crappy from a distance, junk paint, faded handlebars and very worn grips, etc.

But when I locked up my bike next to it I got a closer look. Wowza was that thing loaded!

Rohloff Superspeed Hub ($1500 alone) XTR components with the labels stripped off, nice wheels and I couldn't tell what frame it was, but probably something really nice. But you would have to know bikes to know how much money was sitting there. It was locked with a U-lock too. It did not have disc brakes.

My bike (worth maybe $600) looked really nice next to it, and I bet a thief would go for it instead of the $2-4000 bike next door. So uglifying correctly can certainly do the job, especially if the thieves don't know what something like a rohloff is.

DallasSoxFan

I suspect it is sort of like auto theft. For auto theft, it is generally broken down in to 3 kinds of thief..

1. Theft of opportunity. Someone stealing a car for its utility: getting somewhere, using it for the getaway car in another theft, etc. Probably 80% of car theft

2. Amateur thief: May know or be part of a local chop-shop. Difficult, non-lucrative business for the most part.

3. Car theft syndicate. Steal them, drive or tow to the loading dock, send on a freight vessel overseas for sale whole, not in parts. Big business, big money.


I would guess the majority of bike thefts are to get somewhere or to replace the broken bike they own that they don't want to pay to have fixed.

Some are probably to strip and sell for parts or on craigslist.

I suspect in some large cities there are organized thieves who know the secondary market and know exactly what they are doing.

You can annoy the first and second kind of thief enough so they take someone's else. If you come across the third, there is really nothing you can do.

Andy_K 

My guesses (and I'm just guessing):

Stopped by a properly used U-lock, maybe even a thick cable lock.

Stopped by a more complicated system, like two different kinds of locks.

Stopped by staying with your bike.

relyt

They will steal anything they can sell. That means no bike is safe.

Now, that doesn't mean that a flashy racing bike is just as likely to get stolen as a crappy bike. The difference is, if they see a crappy bike locked well, they will move on to easier targets since it isn't worth the time. On the other hand, if they see a flashy racing bike locked up any way at all, it is worth so much of their time that they might even go to the hardware store and buy an angle grinder in order to get it.

Buy the best lock you can afford and use it right. Feel secure in the knowledge that even if your bike does get stolen, it would have been impossible for it to be any more secure than it was. And don't lock a bike outside which you can't afford to replace.

wolfchild

Well I have three expensive bikes, one is only for the trails ,the other two are for commuting and also easy trails. I keep them locked inside my apartement. I did make make commuters a little ugly. Spraypainted the decals, stem, seatpost ,took all the stickers off the wheels , flat bars are wrapped in black hockey tape, top tube has foam wrapped with tape (also protects the top tube when leaning the bike against something), it's also a single speed so no expensive deraileurs and shifters. It's very difficult to tell what type of brand name components are on my bike. No racks or panniers I use a mesenger bag for commuting .I have a couple of U locks and also a chain and a cable and a padlock .So far I never had to leave my bike out of sight for an extended period of time. When I go to a store I always leave my bike properly locked to a solid object and never for too long, at work I can bring my bike into my work area and that is a good thing.