One thing confused me about this. In major American cities bike theft is incredibly common, to the point that the police won't help at all.
I've had bikes repeatedly stolen out of locked garages at home!
I'd never buy a bike that was worth any reasonable amount of money, my commute pre-covid was a good candidate for an electric bike, but no way would I spend more than a 2 or 3 hundred dollars on something that will get stolen within 3 years.
What I've learned while I lived in Amsterdam is that you want to invest ~30% of the value of your bike to purchase a bike lock. Basically make it not worth the effort to break the lock.
Also second-hand and rusty ones are better than new ones. Some Dutch cities have a free-of-charge engraving mechanism where you basically engrave a serial number on a bike to make it easier to track down stolen bikes, as well as to know that you're not actually buying a stolen bike.
Also, you'll be responsible if you're caught with a stolen bike, which is a nice deterrent to actually use a reliable source when purchasing a bike. Shops act as a middlemen between you and the person selling the bike, and they're responsible for making sure that the bike you're purchasing from them isn't stolen. On the downside, that drives the cost up a bit, but on the bright side, you usually get some months of warranty period in which they'll repair your bike free of charge in case anything happens to it.
> What I've learned while I lived in Amsterdam is that you want to invest ~30% of the value of your bike to purchase a bike lock.
That advice predates the battery-powered angle grinder, which many bike thieves in Western Europe now use. Even the toughest, most expensive U-lock can be broken in about a minute with an angle grinder.
Having two locks can also be a good tactic, especially two locks in a different style e.g. a d-lock and a cable lock. The theory being that a thief would need to have two tools to steal your bike which means it's likely more hassle than other bikes that'll only have been secured with a single lock.
Founder of a bicycle insurer here and I can tell you that the only way to deter people is by parking in secure private or public spaces (never, ever semi-public) and by making your bike less attractive than the one next to it.
2 locks is indeed the standard in big cities. Also make sure they are sold secure gold rated or Art 3. Anything else is a waste of money. There are a few new lock types which are supposed to work better against angle grinders like Tex-lock or LitLok.
Because the average bike price is going up it also becomes interesting to steal parts. A decent handlebar + shifters are easy to sell individually. Companys like Hexlox or Pinheads are working on locks to tackle that.
Where would you install them on the bike where they couldn't be removed easily? I've thought you could place one in the frame, but that would be difficult to do aftermarket and the GPS and WWAN antennas would need to exit it somewhere.
Shaft were the seat affixes, maybe use the frame as the antenna - dunno, was more interested in what is out there already in a way that is respected enough for insurance companies to make a difference. That's the true test of a security product - how much of a discount does your insurance get for having it ;).
A cable lock can be cut with a dozen pocket-sized tools. They're not worth the money if you think theft is remotely an issue; D-locks are far more secure.
I challenged a guy I saw fiddling with one of the locks on a motorbike with its alarm sounding, by asking if he'd mind unlocking one of the other locks to show it was his bike. Which he promptly did - his alarmed disc brake lock had jammed.
Of course, my confidence to do so was buoyed by the fact there were two other bikers parking at the same time as me, it was in a busy public area, and I was wearing a bunch of leather and kevlar.
I’m from America, but I visited Copenhagen a few years ago and was amazed by how many bikes there were. On top of it, most bikes were parked with only a wheel lock and not chained to anything.
You need a bike friendly road network. Where I am at in suburban Illinois, I have a 45 - 55 mph lane with no shoulder and no continuous sidewalk. There is no way I'm risking life and limb to commute on that with my bike.
On the other hand there are multiple trails which I can and will use now that spring/summer is here.
I think the reluctance to use bikes for basic transport is more to do with lack of space on the road rather than theft.
Theft plays a major role when you're thinking of buying an e-bike... When you're shelling 2+kEUR and you must put the fscking lock eeeeverytime you go somewhere, pause to buy bread, or whatever, and it's the same one or 2 minutes circus (first lock, then second lock, then don't forget the computer...). It gets tiring and discouraging.
Man visiting Copenhagen truly was a cultural shock, I walked past a street at midnight that may have had like 30 bikes in it without a lock. Those wouldn't last an hour without getting stolen where I'm from
I was in a suburban ward in Tokyo two years ago and it didn't look like any bikes had locks on them. They were all identical bikes with large kickstands.
Yeah. I think it's more likely to stop someone accidentally taking the wrong bike. Since they aren't secured to anything and the locks aren't beefy, defeating it would be pretty trivial.
I have a number of friends with anecdotes about forgetting items on a bus/train and the lengths to which individuals or companies will go to return them is pretty impressive.
I've been commuting by bike my whole adult life and I get a bike stolen once every 3 years on average. I typically spend around $1000 on my bikes, and the cost is still dick-all compared to transit or driving.
I'm from Sweden and biked NY to SF a few years ago. During the two months it took I never locked my bike (didn't brought a lock at all). Just a related a anecdote ;)
Did you pass through many major cities? In suburban and rural america, you can absolutely leave a bicycle unlocked and expect it to be there when you return.
I’ve have used bicycles as my main mean of transportation most of my 43 years of life in Sweden. I’ve had exactly one bicycle stolen during all those years. But I’ve always been very careful to lock my bike to something with a good lock.
Exactly why I have a pawn shop beater with some minor upgrades for cycling to work and my well it was super cool when I bought it road bike that never gets left locked up anywhere.
> no way would I spend more than a 2 or 3 hundred dollars on something that will get stolen within 3 years.
I'd neither, but a friend of mine did. He got his bike insured (replacement value), for a pretty reasonable amount, considering. And AFAIK most people with expensive bikes do, which is probably also the reason police is not too keen on acting.
Yes! Bike insurance is the way to go once you have a nice bike. I don't and carry a big lock. But I have friends with quality bikes (~1500 EUR) and they park at the train station with laughable locks because it's insured.
It’s certainly a massive problem in the UK. Stealing bikes is almost decriminalized by the fact that it’s too minor a crime for the police to take seriously. And there’s a complete lack of secure bike ‘parking’ space.
Seems to be common in many countries, more so city sized area's as statistically, you will get a larger spectrum of humanity and the odds of having more bike thieves will be higher. Let alone, drunken students taking the wrong bike or the like.
Which is one of the reasons I don't have one, that and the types of drivers make it more dangerous, got better from my observations, but still, I'll walk more as unlike the country - not as far to go for most things.
That and if I'd endured a few thefts, I'd just end up getting angry and knocking up a bobytrapped bike and probably go too far and that's probably another reason for me to not own a bycicle. Though I did checkly suggest upon twitter once to the local police that they should have a bait bike, maybe has a spike in the seat that raises up. They liked the idea with supportive comment. But I'm sure it would not playout well legally. Besides, imagine some poor person, drunk for the first time, gets on the wrong bike by mistake.
Though I'd probably build some form of electric shock into it, though again, I'd know I'd go too far.
Reminds me of an initiative in Amsterdam many decades back, 90's era iirc. The city had put a a large number of bikes in town for people to use, park up, free for all to use - early bike hire, ride and drop thing without any paying - just free use bikes. Coz what happened was people stole many of them, not everybody lived in Amsterdam and with that, maybe a good initiative, but needs to be done on a large scale to work.
Until then, i'd not buy anything new, second hand end-user type of affair as locks are just not that good and anything close to good would be more than the cost of a use and abuse bike.
The bike-locks are enough, the bike-locks are normally integrated with the bike themselve ( normal bikes), i've noticed a lot of foreign people are suprised by this.
Racing bikes don't need locks, since you stall them at your garage or a private place during the night.
Bike theft is usually common in student cities, were cheap bikes have cheap locks and one "steals" from another. The more expensive ones (> 400 €) are normally not stolen, since they also have more decent locks.
Also, bikes can be engraved ( eg. like a serial number).
Fyi: My bike is parked at a "big" train station at night (in Bruges) and it never got stolen in 2 years.
Here in the UK, there are bike thieves who will drive a van up to a bicycle park, load the van with as many bikes as they can get with some bolt cutters in a few minutes, then drive off. It would be surprising to see someone using a lock that allowed a bike to be carried away for this reason!
Of course it's mostly a problem at universities and train stations at night, where you can find big bike racks and no-one around. Lesser locks might be fine away from crime hotspots.
I've had bikes repeatedly stolen out of locked garages at home!
I'd never buy a bike that was worth any reasonable amount of money, my commute pre-covid was a good candidate for an electric bike, but no way would I spend more than a 2 or 3 hundred dollars on something that will get stolen within 3 years.
Is bike theft just less of a problem in Belgium?