Nearly stolen

69 mustang · 10-10-2005 12:43am #1

Some people in a light blue or silver Toyota Hiace with a black back window tried to steal my brothers VFR last week at 5am in Celbridge out side his house.The alarm went off. So keep them anchored.

Armadillo · 10-10-2005 9:07pm

B@st@rds...... :mad:
Did he let the local constabulary know - might be no harm to report it - if not.

Hal1 · 10-10-2005 9:20pm

That sux to hear that, does your brother have anywhere safe he can leave it? and another thing that happened I was unlocking my bike today but the key wouldn't turn in the lock, I spent nearly 10 mins trying to unlock the dam thing and eventually the key snapped off, so I had to get the dam bus home. I work on a site so hopefully I can get somebody with a con-saw tomorrow to chop it off

murphaph · 10-10-2005 9:41pm

Definitely anchor your bikes to the ground (if the ground is solid, ie not weak concrete) with a ground anchor. They are available for £8 on ebay and take 10mins to fit and give great peace of mind coupled with a good chain & lock wrapped around the FRAME if possible.

I know of two bikes lifted into vans from outside my employer, right under a sophisticated CCTV system, they are brazen, so no precaution is OTT with these scumbags.

Kang · 10-10-2005 10:26pm

I M a foreigner,so i always can see someone trying to sell me some stolen things...i dont like that...but what can i do?i m afraid of their retaliate.once a traveller asked me do i want a bike?i said no.i have one already.he said 'nonono,your one no good,i give u a 04 R1 for 1000 euro'.
1000 euro for a 04 R1, can u guys believe it????

69 mustang · 11-10-2005 12:08am

Yea he rings the cops about every thing like that . "If you don't tell them there statistics drop on reported crime and then you lose Guards in your area"
or something like that.

He normally puts it behind his side gate where his "most expensive anchor you can buy" is.But this time he got in late and thought it would be OK.
That won't happen again!

tk123 · 11-10-2005 11:31am

murphaph wrote:

Definitely anchor your bikes to the ground (if the ground is solid, ie not weak concrete) with a ground anchor. They are available for £8 on ebay and take 10mins to fit and give great peace of mind coupled with a good chain & lock wrapped around the FRAME if possible.
.

How do you fit the anchors murphahp - are they just cemented in? After reading this post I'm all worried abt my bike!!

murphaph · 11-10-2005 12:38pm

tk123 wrote:

How do you fit the anchors murphahp - are they just cemented in? After reading this post I'm all worried abt my bike!!

No, they are usually supplied with security bolts so you have to drill some holes in the concrete path (only if it's nice deep concrete-don't chance 1 or 2 inches cos that could be just too weak and lift out under a pry bar) or solid block wall (again-be sure to drill the block/brick and not the mortar between the blocks/bricks as this will be considerably weaker and could pull free) and fix the anchor to the ground/wall with the tamper proof security bolts. Then you chain your bike to it. It means they can't easily lift or skateborad your bike around the corner to a van etc. Of course, if they have enough time they can break any lock but it's about discouraging them by increasing the risk of being caught. Do not buy an anchor from the likes of Halfords-they are attrociously expensive compared to eBay UK sellers.

tk123 · 11-10-2005 1:42pm

Thanks for that!! I already have a bracket on the wall - my dad bolted it in and then welded the bolts to the bracket so they couldn't be opened but thats just for the back - I think I might get him to do another one for the front!!

saobh_ie · 11-10-2005 7:27pm

tk. you can get anchors that you cement in. I have one of each. My bolt in job is home made but the concreted in job made by... __?__ ... its great. It's a great big D shaped lump of steel in a plastic casing. Through the flat part of the D you insert two angled steel bars and set the whole thing into the concrete, I have a cubic meter of concrete around my anchor and also drilled holes into the side of the pavement around the house so I could dowel the anchor concrete.

If somebody comes in thinking they can just dig the concrete out of the ground, they can think again.

Chains are the weak link though, they'll just cut them, I'd call it a fifteen-minute job but they'd have to deal with the dog and the alarms, probably wouldn't wake me though. But I’m sure the neighbours would run them off.

tk123 · 12-10-2005 9:18am

The last time somebody tried to break into our place(before we got an alarm) the neighbours saw them and thought it was me and my bro locked out trying to open the window....with a crowbar...so I won't be counting on them...

murphaph · 12-10-2005 2:05pm

saobh_ie wrote:

tk. you can get anchors that you cement in. I have one of each. My bolt in job is home made but the concreted in job made by... __?__ ... its great. It's a great big D shaped lump of steel in a plastic casing. Through the flat part of the D you insert two angled steel bars and set the whole thing into the concrete, I have a cubic meter of concrete around my anchor and also drilled holes into the side of the pavement around the house so I could dowel the anchor concrete.

If somebody comes in thinking they can just dig the concrete out of the ground, they can think again.

Chains are the weak link though, they'll just cut them, I'd call it a fifteen-minute job but they'd have to deal with the dog and the alarms, probably wouldn't wake me though. But I’m sure the neighbours would run them off.

Holy sh!t saobh! That's as good as it's gonna get when it comes to protecting the bike!

tk123 · 12-10-2005 2:37pm

Hey I forgot to ask earlier - is that you with the bandit on bikepics.com saobh??

KTRIC · 12-10-2005 2:48pm

Get yourself one of these http://www.yanchor.com/ . Then there is no chance of breaking the anchor. Couple that up with a good chain and your bike is going nowhere.

murphaph · 12-10-2005 3:35pm

K-TRIC wrote:

Get yourself one of these http://www.yanchor.com/ . Then there is no chance of breaking the anchor. Couple that up with a good chain and your bike is going nowhere.

Now that's an anchor! If I my bike cost more than 500 quid I'd have gone for something like that! Of course the chain is still the weak point and given enough time, it can be cut.

KTRIC · 12-10-2005 3:37pm

murphaph wrote:

Now that's an anchor! If I my bike cost more than 500 quid I'd have gone for something like that! Of course the chain is still the weak point and given enough time, it can be cut.

When I eventually buy my own house I'll be installing a couple of those around the place, one at the front, one at the back and then 2 in the garage. I personally think overkill is the way to go for bike security.

saobh_ie · 12-10-2005 6:30pm

That Y anchor is a mean looking mother. I'd be afraid of some ass hat leaflet deliver walking through the garden while the bikes away putting their foot in it and breaking their ankle. And then it fills with grass every time you mow the law, and then it rains, and dust collects in it, and you leave some chains there looped through it so inserts take shelter and eventually its just a foul horrible drain, and you need to get really long chains too...

As for as protected as a bike gets, I heard of a guy who has the same set up as me in his garage with the added bonus of one of those pressure sensitive tiles they have in jewellers and the likes under his bike wired to the house alarm.

Somebody so much as breathes on the bike and the whole place gets lit up.

And better again he has a bigger dog.

Very expensive I'd imagine though.

Tk, yup, tis me.

Also, cheapest and easiest security thing is to throw a cover over it. If thieves can't figure out what it is when they pass, they'll pass it over and look for something they know is nice.

Also, as it was said in this thread, i think it was said here, park out of sight around the back of the house if at all possible. All your neighbours know you have a bike; you don't need to let the scumbags on patrol know you have a bike.

I don't do this, the gates too narrow and can't be opened from the outside so I'd have to do storm trooper impressions through the house, bring the bike through to the back, chain it up and do the reverse, and reversing the bike through narrow gate without hitting something or dropping it would be a pain in the tits.

So its cover, chains, alarms and dog every time I park up at home. Dog loves the bike for some reason.

causal · 12-10-2005 11:47pm

saobh made some good points about the snag points with the Y anchors.
Another point to remember about any ground anchor is where you locate it and which way you feed the chain through it.
Ideally you should have it in a corner - this reduces the angles of attack (but requires a longer chain if you want to wrap it around the frame (as opposed to the back wheel).
Secondly you should have it oriented so that it is not possible to get leverage on it.
Let's say you have a corner in your garage like this:
___
|
|

You could set your anchor here:
____
|/
|
- if the open part of the anchor faces out i.e. / -this way it is easy to get leverage on the anchor.

But the following would be better:
____
|\
|
- if the open part of the anchor faces in i.e. \ -this way it is harder to get leverage on the anchor.

crappy illustrations but you get the idea,
causal

murphaph · 13-10-2005 2:49pm

Ah I'm pretty lucky. The side gate is nice and wide and I have laminate floors from the front door to the back so walking in dripping wet to open tha back gate is not a problem. My concrete paths around the back are much deeper than the usual 2" so my cheapo oxford ground anchor is fairly well secured and I drilled the screw heads off my back gate so that they have to be fully drilled out to open the gate at all (unless the padlock can be cropped or the bolt can be cut). I also cover the bike at night and as I said before-it's not worth more than €500 so that's €200 to a thief and it's not usable for parts so the only group who'd bother nicking my bike are kids looking for a spin. Too much effort for most 16 yo thieves IMO.

It's sickening that we have to go to these lengths when you see superbikes parked up in german cities with no more than the steering lock engaged! Different culture. I once asked a guy over there would he not be worried about hs bike being nicked, his reply:"but if someone wanted a bike they would buy one"

KTRIC · 13-10-2005 3:53pm

murphaph wrote:

It's sickening that we have to go to these lengths when you see superbikes parked up in german cities with no more than the steering lock engaged! Different culture. I once asked a guy over there would he not be worried about hs bike being nicked, his reply:"but if someone wanted a bike they would buy one"

People respect other's property in Germany, the concept of stealing someones bike is completly alien to them.

I once had a look in a 1950's Beetle that was parked near my friends house in Germany, the door was open , I just took a look inside (i'm quite interested in Beetles) and then closed it. Nobody cared because there was no damage done. My friend told me her neighbour wouldn't mind.
Try do that in Dublin and you'll end up in hospital.

Nearly stolen

Comments