How to Lock Your Motorcycle
The last few years have seen a rash of lock picking guides appear on the internet. Many of these guides are notable for showing just how easy it is to pick a seemingly unbreakable lock using simple household items (a bic pen, a shim made from a soda can, an electric toothbrush, or, our personal favorite, a cardboard toilet paper tube). One of these methods was so effective and spread so quickly that it actually prompted Kryptonite to re-design many of its popular locks.
The lesson from all of this? No lock is foolproof, every lock has a weakness, and any person with enough determination, time, or access to the internet will find out how to break it. The fact of the matter is, even if you have a relatively unbreakable lock, the thief doesn't need to break the lock in the place you parked your motorcycle. A couple of strong guys or a small winch can lift a locked motorcycle into a van and drive off with it, giving them all the time they need to break your lock.
So what can a person do? Simply give up? Let the bastards win? Hell no! Maybe it's just time to review the basics of how to secure your motorcycle.
The Rules
- Your ignition lock is not enough. Ever.
- Park your motorcycle in a well-lit and heavily-trafficked area. Twenty people are more likely to be suspicious than only one.
- Walk out to your bike every few minutes and check on it, especially during the first 10 – 15 minutes your motorcycle is parked. A thief has no idea how long you'll be gone, and a person that visibly checks his motorcycle every few minutes makes that motorcycle a pretty difficult target.
- When locking your motorcycle, always pick a lock point that is difficult to access. A disc lock on the front wheel can be beaten by lifting the front wheel, quickly unbolting it, bolting on a new wheel, and rolling your motorcycle off. The same lock on the rear wheel presents a much tougher challenge. Thread your cable lock through the frame of the motorcycle, not the wheels. Think like a thief.
- Use more than one lock (disc brake lock, cable lock, etc.). The more locks there are, the longer it will take the thief to crack them all.
- Use different types of locks (barrel key, flat key, combination, etc.). The more types of locks there are the more tools the thief needs to crack them.
- Install a security system on your motorcycle. A beeping, honking, flashing motorcycle draws a lot of attention … attention the thief would likely rather not have.
- Install a pager add-on to your security system. This way, even if you are away from your motorcycle, it can call you for help.
- Do not ride your motorcycle to a movie theater. Once you get off, the thief knows that he has about two hours of uninterrupted time to get your motorcycle. Given that many locks can be picked in a matter of minutes by an experienced lock-pick, two hours will be more than enough … meaning the thief can take his sweet time.
- When parking by yourself, chain your motorcycle to a relatively immovable object (a large tree, a light post, etc.).
- When parking in a group of motorcycles, chain all of the motorcycles together if you can. Link several chain or cable locks together if needed to attain the desired length.
- Install a motorcycle Lo-Jack® system. Even if all your other preparations fail, your motorcycle can still alert the authorities to its location.
Now my motorcycle is safe, right?
In a word, "no". The idea behind all of this is not to make your bike "un-steal-able" … that will never happen. The idea is to make your motorcycle a very unappealing target, one that will take too much time, require too many tools, or make too much noise to steal easily. In short, one that the thief would rather not mess with.
Got an idea to help foil motorcycle thieves? Tell us about it! If we like it we'll add it to our list.