Recent Bike theft issue

KTRIC

Unless you've been asleep for the past week you might have noticed the HUGE increase in bike theft around the Dublin area. Every day over the past week I have heard about another bike being stolen, always in different area's.

Does anyone know if there are gangs operating in the Dublin area robbing bikes to order ? are they targeting certain types of bike ? and have you yourself had a bike stolen and under what circumstances (ie , where was it , was it locked etc)

The Doktor

I dunno, I have noticed a few threads around some forums talkin bout stolen bikes.. but has thefts actually increased. Id love to see some stats on stolen bikes. Like what bikes have been stolen, and where. Would be interesting.

Ive never had a bike stolen but I have never owned bikes that I would expect to be targets (AS1, Viragos, Dragstar, Pan Europeans).
Then again if a bike is stolen to order, to break for parts, no bike is not a target. Might just mean ur bike wont be stolen to do robberies or for shootin scumbags on .
For me I have always been hearin about bikes bein robbed.. somtimes you just happen to hear it more, cos of the people you happen to be talkin to.

Garibaldi

As far as I know, bike thefts have *always* been big business here. I've had three bikes stolen (a TDR, F650GS, R1150GS - all trailies, as it happens) with only one of them being recovered intact (thanks to some absolutely incredible detective work by the decent lads at ukgser).

I haven't noticed any particular upsurge in thefts, so I must've been asleep. Then again, this is pretty much the only bike forum I bother with these days, so if it ain't here, I don't hear. Might drop the Garda press office a line and see if they've any info on the subject (stop laughing, down the back).

(edit:mail sent to the Press Office - now we play the waiting game......aww hell with this, let's play Hungry Hungry Hippos!)

kmick

Had a bike nicked in December from Harcourt Street. It was my own fault - I bought a cheap lock when my other one died. Where I parked it in a sheltered parking area with bike stand i thought it was safe. However I since found out bikes are stolen from thee all the time.

I reported it to the Gardai. If you dont report it to the Gardai this problem will never go away. The Gardai are aware of the problem but without pressure from statistics they will do nothing. It seems two Gardai in an unmarked car staking out the most likely theft spots in Dublin could make a dent in this problem in 12 months.

I park it in a different spot now and have two locks. Its working for now.

Garibaldi

kmick wrote:

bikes are stolen from thee all the time.

Yea, verrily, thou art correct.:D

Garibaldi

And the response of the Garda Press Office is that they're unaware of any upsurge in bike thefts, nor do they keep any detailed statistics on them. Best they could do was send me a link to their annual report that shows the overall number of thefts. Of course, this report ain't exactly relevant either...

http://www.garda.ie/angarda/statistics/report2005/annreport2005b.pdf

Steffano2002

What I recommend is:

- Parking in as safe a spot as possible (we all know what that means - look for high pedestrian traffic areas etc)
- Disc Lock at the front
- Big "f*ck off" chain and lock at the back wheel attached to something!
- Proper Alarm (I have a Datatool Red - delighted with it!) and pager!

That's what I do and so far so good. I actually avoid the city centre like the plague. My bike is either parked in my garage (safe enough, off the street and well within "beeper range") or in my work car park (enclosed Business Park, safe enough also). I avoid going anywhere else with it.

sutty

Heres an other idea for safe keeping of your bike.


Dont wash it!

No one gives two craps about a dirty messy bike. Its the clean shiny ones they really want

(ok so maybe thats the excuse I am using for not washing the bike in 3 months:eek: )

KTRIC

sutty wrote:

Dont wash it!

Not going to happen

Going home to clean it now, second time this week :eek:

sutty

Wish I could get some time during the day to do it. No time at the weekends sadly

Pigeon Reaper

BMW's where being robbed to order last summer as where alot of larger touring bikes. Sports bikes get robbed by joyriders or armed gangs. Normally if you have an older bike which looks a bit tatty they won't try too hard to rob it.

Paparazzo

Smaller scrambler type bikes are scumbag magnets for messing around the fields on. When I'm in town i park at the top of Grafton Street, where they put the big christmas tree. Anyone know of any problems here?

faceman

Steffano2002 wrote:

- Proper Alarm (I have a Datatool Red - delighted with it!) and pager!

i have a datatool too, but not pager. Tell me more!

Pigeon Reaper

I've heard of a few bikes going missing from the top of Grafton St. I normally park outside the tourist office on Suffolk St. I chain the bike to the posts and there's normally a few Gardai around. Also the office cameras cover the area.

diarmuidmac

the gf interrupted a scummer trying to steal my bike last Sunday evening from outside the frontdoor

She was going to put stuff in the car and there was a dude stading next to my bike

She called me but not in a tone that i would leave the couch immediately which gave time for the lad to hop in his mates car and take off

only noticed slight damage to the ignition caused by screwdriver but was less damage than he would have got from my golf driver which i leave beside the front door

never bothered to report this as it was too dark and gf didn't have any useful clues as to make model reg of car
:mad: