Vandalism - Are Motor bikes less prone?

Clone

I have been driving a 50cc moped since 03.

In this time it has been stolen once but found within 3 hours with the disc lock still on the front wheel and an extra 3km on the clock (on the back wheel),
and vandalised 4 times.

The most recent time was last weekend; someone decided that the bike looked better on its side or they tried to take it only to realise it was chained to a lampost.
This is the second time the bike has been damaged in this area, even though it is beside a busy train station and in a residential estate in full view of at least 20 house's.

The moped isn't anything special, but it's my transport that could be cheap and reliable if it wasn't for the scum bag kids that are allowed to do this kind of damage to private property.

At this stage It's not worth my while getting parts to repair the cummulative damage as it would be worth more than I could sell the bike for.

Would I have less hassle if I had a Motorbike with an alarm or does this kind of vandalism carry across the board?

I'ts getting really annoying, So much so I would even consider some sort of vigilante retalation using the bike as bait.

What are peoples views on this?
Is there a bike that is tough enough to withstand vandalism?

Del2005

No

KTRIC

If anything bikes are more prone to vandalism. I literally couldn't park my bike outside a shop for 5 minutes without someone messing with / trying to rob it.

It got to the point where I was getting paranoid and obsessive about it.

The problem is Irish people are a bunch of f*cking begrudger's and hate seeing people with nice things, so they just wreck them instead. Bikes are an easy target for the little scumbags.

omb0wyn5ehpij9

Bikes are more prone to somebody messing with them when you are away from them than cars are!

CrazyRabbit

Clone wrote: »

I have been driving a 50cc moped since 03.

In this time it has been stolen once but found within 3 hours with the disc lock still on the front wheel and an extra 3km on the clock (on the back wheel),
and vandalised 4 times.

The most recent time was last weekend; someone decided that the bike looked better on its side or they tried to take it only to realise it was chained to a lampost.
This is the second time the bike has been damaged in this area, even though it is beside a busy train station and in a residential estate in full view of at least 20 house's.

The moped isn't anything special, but it's my transport that could be cheap and reliable if it wasn't for the scum bag kids that are allowed to do this kind of damage to private property.

At this stage It's not worth my while getting parts to repair the cummulative damage as it would be worth more than I could sell the bike for.

Would I have less hassle if I had a Motorbike with an alarm or does this kind of vandalism carry across the board?

I'ts getting really annoying, So much so I would even consider some sort of vigilante retalation using the bike as bait.

What are peoples views on this?
Is there a bike that is tough enough to withstand vandalism?

I have an alarm on my bike. Hasn't stopped scum from knocking it over twice.

The fact that your bike is so visible is probably the reason why it gets targeted so often. The best defence is to keep it hidden.

I'd suggest either spending a few quid on a dummy CCTV camera and install it pointing at the bike, or put one of those bike covers over the bike. It'll still be visible, but it'll actually get less attention because it's covered.

Oh, and going all vigilante is a really really bad idea.

lord lucan

i bought a new 50cc moped about 4 years ago and had it chained to a ground anchor outside my house. within 2 months it had been pushed over 3 times and had it's saddle slashed once. no attempt was made to rob it,it was purely divilment. i can understand the OP's frustration. my wife had to talk me out of staying up every night with a baseball bat waiting for them to have a go at it again.

as ktric says,it's begrudgery. that 50 cc eventually got stroked in january,purely for joyriding. i bought a second hand yamaha majesty 125 which has scratches all over it from the previous owner who obviously had a serious slide or 2. no-one has even looked crooked at it since i got it because it's not all shiny and new(imo.).:mad:

faceman

I would recommend an alarm. Most alarms have motion sensors on them that set the alarm off if someone moves it even the slightest amount.

It wont guarantee do deter all assholes but it will help against a fair bunch of them.

bitemybanger

On a stag night in Galway last year and a lovley Beemer GS1100 parked on the side stand in the main shopping area at the end of the street, around 1am, two drunk girls jumped on for a photo and they managed to let it fall as they were getting and i tought what gob****e would park that there.

KTRIC

bitemybanger wrote: »

On a stag night in Galway last year and a lovley Beemer GS1100 parked on the side stand in the main shopping area at the end of the street, around 1am, two drunk girls jumped on for a photo and they managed to let it fall as they were getting and i tought what gob****e would park that there.

Reminds me of a story my mum told me. She was doing some shopping in Donaghmede and seen a gold Goldwing (25th anniversary model, worth a fair few quid) in the car park. Kids from the local school (st.kevins) spotted it while walking through the car park and decided to play on it. They managed to knock it over and my mum said it was really smashed up. The weight of that thing coming down on itself would really do some damage.

I'd really hate to be the owner coming out to that.

colm_c

As the guys have said previously -- it's all about where you park it and where you keep it at night.

An underground carpark/garage and even a cover takes the machine out of sight from opportunist vandals during the night, if you have to park in a city or public place, park right in front of a camera and a busy thoroughfare, but for the love of god don't park it anywhere near a pub or dodgy looking neighbourhood overnight.

mikemac

lord lucan wrote: »

as ktric says,it's begrudgery. that 50 cc eventually got stroked in january,purely for joyriding. i bought a second hand yamaha majesty 125 which has scratches all over it from the previous owner who obviously had a serious slide or 2. no-one has even looked crooked at it since i got it because it's not all shiny and new(imo.).:mad:

Had a 50cc scooter, scratched to bits from me falling off and from the previous owner. Looked dog rough but it was solid and got me from A to B. The local scum never touched it once in two years and in fact, sometimes I left it outside overnight and it wasn't even locked at all!

Got a bright and shiny 100cc scooter this year. Within two months, someone had tried to rob it but the chains and locks held. Two weeks later they tried again and failed again so they smashed the display and scratched it out of spite :mad:

Thieves are like magpies, if it's bright and shiny............

Jonty

KTRIC wrote: »

The problem is Irish people are a bunch of f*cking begrudger's and hate seeing people with nice things, so they just wreck them instead. Bikes are an easy target for the little scumbags.

+1

Greenmachine

Had two bike robbed in the space of six years. And have had many a bike vandalised. First time around I had fully comp so I was covered the second time I only had third party but I had built up 4 years no claims so even if I had fully comp I prolly wouldn't have claimed.

I would love to give the theiving bastards a flying lesson off a bridge.

SlabMurphy

lord lucan wrote: »

i bought a new 50cc moped about 4 years ago and had it chained to a ground anchor outside my house. within 2 months it had been pushed over 3 times and had it's saddle slashed once. no attempt was made to rob it,it was purely divilment. i can understand the OP's frustration. my wife had to talk me out of staying up every night with a baseball bat waiting for them to have a go at it again.

as ktric says,it's begrudgery. that 50 cc eventually got stroked in january,purely for joyriding. i bought a second hand yamaha majesty 125 which has scratches all over it from the previous owner who obviously had a serious slide or 2. no-one has even looked crooked at it since i got it because it's not all shiny and new(imo.).:mad:

" my wife had to talk me out of staying up every night with a baseball bat waiting for them to have a go at it again. " Yeah, I know the feeling Lord Lucan. Had mine vandalised several times, attempt at theiving, pushed over, headlight kicked in etc. If I'm in town ( Dublin ) I usually chain it up outside Pearse St Guards barracks at the bicycle stand. I chain it to a bicycle stand/pole so if it's pushed it would'nt fall to the gound as the chain is attached though a part of the frame in such a manner to prevent it hitting the ground. Also have a disc lock. It's terrible that a person has to do so, and it's an 01 bike, but what can you do.

Clone

Thanks for all the replies.

The bike is fairly scratched up at this stage, I've come off it 3 times (All occasions were down to reacting to bad drivers, not down to my own reckless driving.)

I'd say the last incident I had was probably young kids playing on it or something like that. Kids love messing on bikes.

I've now calmed down and stopped giving every possible suspect evil looks.

I think I'm just going to keep this bike going mechanically till it dies of expensive part failure, then i will give it a good send off with all my respect for the great service it has provided me over the years. 35K on the clock. The time the bike has saved me getting through dublin traffic has added months of free time to my life. it turned a 1.5 hour communte into a 45 minute drive.

I almost got nostalgic this morning thinking back to the day when I first wheeled it out of the bike dealer, the days where I used to give it the occasional wash.

Now shes all scrathced up but the soul is still there. I might splash out and buy some paint to re-spray the bike.

I will be adopting some of the tips that people have reccomended and chaining it to poles so that it can't be kicked over

kowloon

My first bike, an AX100 had a mirror snapped off in Drogheda.
Shadow/Steed had the seat slashed twice.
Dragstar 1100 classic had cigarettes melted into the whitewalls, the paintwork on the tank, rear fender and front fender keyed, the seat pierced and the front brake lines cut in Tallaght.
My Road king had the chrome headlight housing engraved with some naughty language and was expensive to replace, that happened in Trinity college so it's not just "bad areas".

And yet my muck covered Buell has never been touched by anyone, could it be because it is so dirty?

If I ever catch someone at work I'll key their eyes out.

Zarbon

These rebel scumbag/chavs are like a disease. To be honest they are taking over Irelands youths, with more and more "joining their ranks" each year. Funny, but a serious issue. Out of all the groupings, they apparently are the "cool" ones. Each trying so desperately to prove that they are tough and have such bad lives, when in fact most have no reason to b*tch and have good/decent parents at home.

Tough love is the only way. Wait for them if they are regularly vandalising your bike/scooter.

Persius

Think shiny new scooters are particularly attractive to these scum. You're probably somewhat safer with an older bike, preferably one that is also tatty and heavy (but not a shiny cruiser).

skibum

kowloon wrote: »

and the front brake lines cut in Tallaght.
.

:eek: Why?? What the f7ck goes through their heads to make them cut brake lines??

kowloon

skibum wrote: »

:eek: Why?? What the f7ck goes through their heads to make them cut brake lines??

I got very paranoid that someone was out to get me!

Clone

We'll it finnally happened, the exhaust on the scooter went, so it became very very noisy.

I was ringing around to get a replacement exhaust, the general consensus was try and bandage it until it goes and then scrap it.

I tried to bandage but discovered what I thought was a hole was actually a crack all the way around the exhaust right where it meets the engine (making it very hard to bandage) I thought of exhaust filler but decided to scrap it.

Now I have a lovely brand new 125 which I'm extremely happy with.

Would it be worth investing in an alarm for a brand new bike worth 2850?

vektarman

Good to hear you got a few more months out of the scooter, and 35k up on it, you definitely got your monies worth out of it! Btw did you have any more trouble with the scooter being vandalised in the last couple of months? Were they less likely to mess with it because it had a bit of damage to it?

mikemac

35k and 5 years service out of a scooter is fantastic going.
Fair play, you certainly got good service from it.

thehomeofDob

Yupp... I had my lovely pair of mirrors stolen just last night. Parked outside Penny's on O'Connell St. I was thinking about giving it a wash... but shiney is bad, so I'll leave it.

Stupid scumbags.

brian plank

KTRIC wrote: »

The problem is Irish people are a bunch of f*cking begrudger's and hate seeing people with nice things, so they just wreck them instead. Bikes are an easy target for the little scumbags.

sad but true.

Clone

vektarman wrote: »

Good to hear you got a few more months out of the scooter, and 35k up on it, you definitely got your monies worth out of it! Btw did you have any more trouble with the scooter being vandalised in the last couple of months? Were they less likely to mess with it because it had a bit of damage to it?

I realised it was where I had been parking it was a bit of a black spot for vandalism, it was beside a dart station. I found out from one of the guys who works there that he doesn't even park his car outside within view.
He informed me that he had got his windows smashed in on 2 occsaions.
This location is under a CCTV, Garda didn't even bother looking at the footage.

Going to put some mud and fake scratchs on the bike.
Maybe there is a market for giving bikes a roughed up look.

Keith186

I have to say also I had two crappy mopeds that were never touched except for the first one being knocked over but it was parked in a dodgy area.

After that I got a bike, cleaned it up first day I got it.Third day it was nicked from outside work in city centre. Seen CCTV footage and I just missed the bastard my 3 minutes. Bought another one of the same bike. Two months later a scumbag (most likely a courier who needed a part) cut the clutch cable and robbed the clutch cable of it. ****ing knackers.

As per previous OP, nobody messedmever with the Majesty 125 though!

Red Hornet

i'd prob end up doin time if i caught someone messing with my bike. People jus don't care bout other peoples property. At the end of the day the only way to not worry bout ur bike gettin vandalised is to not own one. There is only one way to deal with people who vandalise ur property. Make it so they can't do it again.

CrazyRabbit

Left mirror broken off in a car park.
Hole punched in the seat leather not long after buying it.
It's been pushed over about 5 times.
Dropped it once. No I wasn't drunk.
Came off twice due to massive oil spill and a cage driver trying to kill me.
2 very poor attempts to steal it. Just needed new ignition barrels.

And the grand finale....A paranoid neighbour who thought I was out to get him decide to get revenge by cutting all my cables (brake cables, fuel line, speedo cable, spark plug cable etc) and puncture a hole in the carb manifold.

It's enough to make most people just give up biking. And if it wasn't for the 5-6 hours travel time per week saved due to the bike, I probably would have long ago.

Quint

Jasus Crazyrabbit, I thought Castleknock was supposed to be a nice area!?

CrazyRabbit

Quint wrote: »

Jasus Crazyrabbit, I thought Castleknock was supposed to be a nice area!?

It is. Most of this happened in Drumcondra.

Haven't had any problems at all since I moved to Castleknock. But that's probably because the bike is hidden behind a high-hedged garden

Quint

I park my bike in Drumcondra sometimes, but usually just for 2 hours at a time (football matches). But I'm worried now!
I've being doing it for years and had no problems, but suppose leaving it there all the time is a different story