How safe is your motorcycle? And what can we do to make it more difficult for thieves to steal our motorcycles?

It's remarkable easy for thieves to steal our motorcycles, and we cannot expect much cooperation from the police, the numbers of motorcycles who find the way back to its rightful owner is remarkable low in Thailand.



So how do we prevent motorcycle theft?

There are a hundreds of ways to lower the chance your motorcycle being stolen. Sadly, no single one comes with a 100% guarantee, but if you consider the following advice, you stand a better chance of ensuring you're not standing like a fool with your ignition key at the location you left your motorcycle.

First break the routine, not always park your motorcycle at the exact same spot with exact the same locks. And second the less people know your bike is parked where it's parked the better.

The best defense against motorcycle thief's is a disc lock with alarm, and not don't cheap out for some lock with a unfamiliar name. Second level of defense should be a U-locks of hardened steel and asymmetrical chains.

Wire up a secret kill-switch, this works great if you're staying in a condominium where the thief needs to pass a guard.

And when you ride home from your work, do a few funny turns to see if somebody is following you. In a study by a European police force they found that most bike thefts happened after people where followed home...

Very good video, very scary as well. the bike is gone in less than 4 minutes.

it is impossible to keep a bike if a thieft really wants to take it. the only things to do is to ad more and more safety lock to make the guys loose time.

usually if the action takes more than 5 minutes, the thieft will give up, so i believe that the disck lock with alarm can be a good thing. after the kill switch is a very good choice, as the guy will try to start the bike , but will not proceed if there is a kill switch, he would not know where to find it.

good thread !

I own a over 1.6 million Baht motorcycle, and before a motorcycle with a similar value, when I parked at a public place I never and I really mean never locked the motorcycle with anything else the just the ignition an steering lock. Checking the insurance papers I would not even get 70% of the new value of the motorcycle as I probably did not secure it probably.

After the reality I found out it I would think twice, maybe more... before parking so easy as again...

As shark said, if they really want to take a bike (or car) they will. The trick is to make it difficult so that if they are not after that specific bike they might move on to another easier target. Best to park in an area that is well lit and has people walking by, not down some dark alley way; i know, i'm stating the bleedin' obvious!! If you are really paranoid, maybe chain it to something so it can't get picked up.

A kill switch is excellent. It saved my car from being stolen twice. The second time the car disappeared and i though it had gone. Later in the day i walked down the street around the corner and around the next corner and there it was. They had been trying to jump start it, and then pulled half the dash apart to try and find the kill switch. Make sure you put the kill switch in a difficult place to find or disguise it well. I noticed somewhere on this website that there was an easy to fit immobiliser for sale. Not sure if easy to fit means easy to un-fit too!

The Budget Motorcycle Immobilizer
http://www.nicitacorby.com.au/

Was told today that some kids tried to pinch a new motocy from the condo car park last night. My Wave is less than a week old, maybe they wanted something else or maybe they bypassed it because i had a cover over it and a padlock on the front disc. They were caught trying to wheel the bike away. But get this, they were caught by the condo night guard because he woke up!!!

Be careful with your brand name bike, the newest models are always on the wanted lists by thief's, they often upgrade there own old motorcycle with new parts to make it look like the latest model.

Well, even old bikes aren't safe... I just met a neighbor who sells food in the market last weekend, she was really sad as someone nicked her very old, beat-up Suzuki Crystal (one of the earlier models) which she uses to go to work everyday.

I use a Honda Wave for the weekly grocery run; now my wife never fails to bring a master lock and a chain that I can secure the bike with whenever we go for groceries.

I've been thinking one of the Xena locks with built in alarm might be the way to go. Anyone use them?

Panda Rider in Bkk have a selection, they all have shock/movement sensors, fit discs with thickness less than 7mm, alarm ( depending on model - 110 dB or 120 dB sound, 1xCR2 or 6xLR44 replaceable batteries). Batteries last about 8 months. Main difference is the size of the pin, the length of the slot and what the body is made from.

http://www.pandarider.com/XENA/product- ... owall.html

The XX10 (B4,000) and XN10 (B3,400) are the only ones with the Xena double locking mechanism; both have 10mm pins, Stainless steel bodies and weigh over 600grams! With the XX6 (B3,400) and the XZZ6L (B1,500, weight 418g) you can also buy a Cable and Adaptor kit (B990) which you can use to loop through your helmet.

A bike was stolen last night from the condo, obviously the guard didn't wake up this time! Maybe i can set the Xena lock up so that the bike cover flaps against it occasionally to wake him up!!! Will also buy an 8mm chain from the hardware for locking up over night, i probably can't anchor it but at least it might make 'em think twice. Not so much worried about chaining up the Wave but my other bike will probably be a target.

I've ordered a couple of the Xena XZZ6L disc alarm locks from Panda Rider, and one of the Cable and adapter kits; they are sending them out postage free.

The bike stolen from the condo has been found. The farang that owned it had said he drove it to 7Eleven and parked it at the condo at 11pm and yesterday morning it was gone. Turns out he was obviously hitting the Lao a bit hard and left the bike in town! At least he apologised to the guard and tipped him B200.

Quote by: REDDY

Well, even old bikes aren't safe... I just met a neighbor who sells food in the market last weekend, she was really sad as someone nicked her very old, beat-up Suzuki Crystal (one of the earlier models) which she uses to go to work everyday.

I use a Honda Wave for the weekly grocery run; now my wife never fails to bring a master lock and a chain that I can secure the bike with whenever we go for groceries.

Not so strange that somebody steals a old Suzuki Crystal, the engine of this old Suzuki is worth a small fortune for small bike racers. The 110cc 2-stroke engine of the Suzuki Crystal produces 12.5hp in stock form... With a few modification this little engine can be even more powerful

I use a XENA XZZ6 disc lock alarm on my Yammie Spark 135i in Thailand, i highly recommend them, I bought it off EBAY before i traveled to Bangkok, it was $50 Aus ( approx $50 us ) which is very cheap insurance.
I also use the slightly bigger model XZ10 on my 600cc Honda Hornet back in Australia, never had any troubles.
If your worried about your bike get a Xena disc lock alarm
cheers
Matt...

The video is really a Good post. normally i had a Disc lock. but this video tell us it is not safe also.
i am riding a very new bike and cost a few hundred K. which make me feel scared after seening this.
Anyone have better idea to prevent this? Pls advice us.




P.S: I saw a new post talking about fitting a GPS system on the bike. does it really Works?

The GPS things works, as long as the bike stays in Thailand. But I hear stories that many of the small sized motorcycles stolen in Thailand move over the border to Cambodia. If your bike is in Cambodia the getting it back has become a whole new dimension.