Issue 126 : December 2002 - January 2003
	Triumph factory visit Int'l Motorcycle Show European Bike Week Anglesey Show Bulldog Bike Theft

Theft - what's MAG doing about it ?

MAG protected MAG has taken an active interest in the motorcycle theft problem for over ten years.

MAG helped set up the Theft Action Group and currently provides its secretariat
All MAG members bikes are automatically covered by a £500 reward scheme
MAG has run a reward scheme with a top reward of £10,000 for information leading to the conviction of persons involved in a motorcycle theft conspiracy
MAG Campaigns for realistic sentencing for motorcycle thieves
MAG Campaigned for secure parking installations in cities
MAG obtained discounted MAG member rates for Alpha-Dot and Datatag kits

The problem:
Determined thieves will usually succeed if they want to badly enough but you can make life hard or noisy for them, and they don't like either. The selfish but realistic route to go down is one that makes everybody else's bike a softer target. Thieves are like rivers, they take the path of least resistance.

Here's a few things you can do to reduce your chances of having your bike stolen; many owners don't even observe the most basic rules so you can easily give yourself an edge.

Don't trust steering locks, most can be broken by shoving a length of pipe on the handlebar end and wrenching.
Lock the bike to something solid. If that means parking on a pavement and you get a ticket then let us know about it and we'll take up the issue of secure parking in the neighbourhood, it'll make a good story.
Fit an alarm by all means as thieves don't like noise but don't trust it 100% - real professionals sometimes pick bikes up and pop them into insulated freezer trucks that deaden the sound.
If you can afford a tracker system please try it as we want to know how well it works with bikes, get in touch and we'll run a piece on it especially if a gang end up being nabbed. Apparently the recovery rate for cars fitted with them is incredible.
If you're using a ground anchor at home fit it close to a wall so the thief has to squeeze between the bike and a wall to attack the chain.
Remember, boobytrapping your bike as some people have done can be illegal if it puts the thieving public at risk. If you know of anyone who's done it and is being prosecuted we'd like to know again as we'd like to follow that up too.
Nothing barks like a dog.
But lions ain't bad.
Mark as many parts as you can even if it's only a scratched initials somewhere out of sight. Police pounds are full of recovered bikes that can't be matched to owners.

The fundamental problem with trying to stop motorcycle theft is that from the thief's point of view it's a high profit low risk activity. Modern bikes provide a lucrative trade with modest sentencing at the 'worst scenario' extreme of possibilities for the thieves.

The thieves know that motor crime is low on the government's priority list of must stop crimes. Violent crime and hard drug crime are way above motorcycle theft.

Motorcycle theft is not low on MAG's priority list however and for this reason MAG has explored the feasibility of directly employing covert surveillance teams in order to hand police text book packages of evidence on which to gain convictions. We can't even consider progressing with such ambitious initiatives as we don't have the funding but if bikers truly want this problem solving then the motorcycle community has got to put its hand in its own pocket. That means insurers, manufacturers, importers, retailers, and most of all RIDERS.

There is no point bleating to the government about extra policing for our issue. It isn't on the way. They are going to be more than stretched dealing with crack cocaine merchants and homicidal terrorists for the foreseeable future.

MAG has made this simple fact clear time and time again but the bulk of the motorcycle population decline to support us.

If MAG had 100,000 members we would make waves like you wouldn't believe, because we have the ideas. We should have 100,000 members - at the very least.

If you're not prepared to be one of them then, get the best lock you can, keep your fingers crossed and don't complain to us if you get unlucky.

Dedicated theft site

MAG member Pete Devine who runs the website www.ridersnews.com has launched a dedicated bike theft website connected to his own.

If you've had a bike stolen then place the registration of the bike on a new web site entitled www.ridersnews.com (don't worry, it will take you to Bike Theft)

You do not have to provide anything apart from the main bike details, reg number. Stolen when? Where From? From there it will be either added to the data base or to the main bike stolen front page, depending on the date of the post.

As part of the data protection act this site does NOT keep personnel details on file, nor does it distribute details to any third party.

Bike Theft also has the input of the Met Police, with articles and advice of how secure your bike. It's a free site, no cost to anyone, set up by MAG members.

We make absolutely NO GAIN from this Site, It's here for Bikers to help each other.

Rider News will respect the privacy of any person providing any Info to us unless you're a Bike thief in which case we hope you Rot in Hell. We are doing shed loads to get items added, we've got several branches from the Met involved, and we think it's a web site that has never been done before.

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StreetBiker is the official publication of the Motorcycle Action Group