Lock up your Bikes

You don’t have to be a masochist to own a motorbike or scooter; but there are two obvious reasons why it probably helps. First, bike and scooter owners are much likely to suffer serious accidents than car owners. Second, bikers and scooterists stand a much higher chance of joining the crime statistics when their pride and joy goes missing. Highly organised gangs of thieves see our two-wheeled friends as an easy source of tax-free income. So, it’s perhaps surprising that less than half the bikes stolen every year are covered for theft. The majority are insured third-party only.

Bike theft statistics in the UK make sobering reading for owners and insurance underwriters alike. 31,000 bikes were stolen last year. That’s a huge proportion - perhaps as much as ten per cent - of the total number of bikes in the UK. To make matters worse, 86 per cent of bikes are never recovered.

But, in reality, much of this crime could be prevented if individual owners, manufacturers, local authorities and car park managers undertook a few basic security measures to stop bikes being seen as such a soft touch by the organised gangs. Past experience suggests that bike crime can be - and has been - effectively tackled where there is a real determination to minimise the opportunities for theft. The following examples illustrate this point.

Race meetings used to be a thieves‘ paradise; but following moves by the Anti Crime Unit to stamp out theft, it is now virtually unheard of for bikes to be stolen at major events. Previously, organised gangs would always turn up at the major bike meetings and Formula 1 events knowing there would be rich pickings to be had in the deserted car parks during races. Bike owners enjoyed the spectacle, blissfully unaware of the inadequate security provisions. Over the last three years, however, the ACU has focused its efforts on monitoring race meetings, introducing more effective surveillance techniques, which have contributed to a significant reduction in bike theft.

Town centre car parks - particularly in the capital - are another Mecca for thieves. One central London car park recorded 36 thefts in a single month, primarily of scooters. However, once the car park owner introduced ground anchors, only three thefts were recorded during the following month - that total is still too high of course, but, clearly, progress is being made.

Other measures to improve bike security, such as the introduction of Thatcham-approved immobilisers, keeping bikes under lock and key in a garage, improving alarm systems, and making more effective use of the latest immobilisers and chains can all make a huge difference. The introduction of GPS technology can also have a positive impact, using satellite technology to trace the movements and whereabouts of stolen bikes. But the relatively high expense of GPS systems means this option is only really worthwhile for owners of more expensive machines.

Professional gangs have also targeted the scooter market as a lucrative source of revenue. Their methods are crude but effective. Typically, scooter thieves hire an unregistered van, tour a neighbourhood and load 20 to 25 scooters into the rear of the vehicle. As soon as the van is loaded, the scooters will be ferried to the continent and sold on to bike rental companies for £200 to £300 making a profit of five or six thousand pounds for a night’s work.

Some unscrupulous rental companies overseas will be only too happy to acquire a virtually new scooter for £300. The bike will then be ridden to death and probably thrown on the scrap heap at the end of the year. The local authorities, unfortunately, are sometimes less than rigorous in checking the credentials of these operations. One underwriter, just back from holiday, told me he had asked the owner of a Spanish bike rental company how the speedometer on the bike he had rented came to be marked in MPH. He was told that this feature had been specially laid on ‘to please the tourists!’

High performance sports bikes also get the white van treatment on far too regular a basis. They are then shipped abroad and not only sold to rental companies but also broken down into spare parts. Unfortunately the bike manufacturers don’t tag individual bike parts with an identity number so there is nothing to prevent garages purchasing stolen items and using them to refit second hand bikes.

Preventing bike and scooter theft is nine-tenths common sense. A relatively small initial outlay on one of a range of theft prevention devices can make a difference. Insurance providers have an important role to play in countering the threat of bike thieves. They can offer a value-added service to their customers by advising them on the latest risk mitigation strategies and providing useful information as to how customers can make their bike or scooter more secure.

All scooters, for example, should be fitted with Bauer locks, which work in the same way as a chain except that they are integrated into the back of the seat. Scooters fitted with Bauer locks are significantly more difficult to steal, and riders who use them can secure their bikes without having to carry a cumbersome chain around. Alarms and immobilisers are rarely fitted as standard on two-wheel vehicles. But I doubt many car buyers today would purchase even a modestly priced vehicle like a Renault Clio without an immobiliser. But a similarly priced bike is very unlikely to be offered with an immobiliser. So why should there be one rule for cars and one for bikes?

Another potentially effective risk management tool involves tagging bikes by brushing or spraying on an adhesive film containing thousands of ‘microdot’ identifiers. Invisible to the naked eye, these microscopic tags have the vehicle’s identification number encoded and are applied across as many panels and components as possible (the engine apart, for obvious reasons). Once exposed to a particular frequency of light these reveal a unique code that will help the police identify a bike in the event of a theft. All manufacturers could, and indeed, should be encouraged to place unique codes on all of their bike parts at the point of manufacture, given that over four fifths of motorbikes stolen in 2001 were produced by the four big manufacturers - Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Yamaha. If they can get together and agree to tag, we will have taken a major step forward.

As well as providing the best cover at the best price, insurance providers can also assist policyholders in material terms. If a bike or scooter owner commits to fitting an approved crime prevention system, then it is only right that they should benefit from discounted premiums and/or a reduced excess in the event of a theft.

Insurers are very strict about security on certain sports bikes and I believe that it is in all parties‘ interests (thieves excepted) to focus on this issue. At MCE we are looking to persuade as many as possible of our bike and scooter clients that it is in their interests to implement one or more of a range of simple, cheap and effective solutions now available. Thieves are often still getting away with their loot far too easily, let’s not ignore the options we have to stop them doing so.