Beware of bike thieves at the CAMC Edinburgh site

It's pretty near some extremely rough areas, not areas of Edinburgh I'd be wandering around at night.
 
All the best locks can be bought at motorcycle dealers. Abus Granit are sold secure Gold or Platinum. Expensive? Yes. But do you wnat to keep your bikes?
A movement alarm is a good idea.
 
Staying a few nights at the Edinburgh CAMC site. Lots of signs about bike thieves and they have free lockers, so I asked at reception if we could lock the bikes in one. They advised that unless they were ebikes or very expensive they would be fine, so we left them locked on the bike rack.
This morning someone had had a go at getting the bikes, they'd cut through the cable lock but hadn't managed to get it from the rack lock. Better £30 cable lock than the bikes, but a bit annoyed that they advised that they would be ok.
So if you're staying here make sure you lock the bikes in a lockers, whatever their apparent value or advice you get.

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Sadly the problem is the same at the Mortonhall Site on the other side of Edinburgh. We stay here often as my daughter lives nearby. On a visit in October, we had two Raleigh e-bikes and a child’s bike cut off the rack, whilst we were sleeping in the van. They cut through the cables. This was at 3am. There were eight hooded youths, who were ‘tooled’ up. Seen on CCTV. The police were not really interested as it was a local issue and the bikes were low value! (£3000). They said that the thieves were not local!! We only received 50% value through our LV Insurance. Beware.
 
If you want any chance of keeping hold of your bikes anywhere. Minimum 10% of the value of the bike should be spent on locks.

Anything cable related is completely pointless and to be avoided. Solid D locks are the best option and multiples of them if required.

As mentioned by another user it then becomes about what they are locked to.
 
If you want any chance of keeping hold of your bikes anywhere. Minimum 10% of the value of the bike should be spent on locks.

Anything cable related is completely pointless and to be avoided. Solid D locks are the best option and multiples of them if required.

As mentioned by another user it then becomes about what they are locked to.
Diamond or gold secure - litelok
Thoroughly recommended :)
 
Our tow bar rack would be nigh on impossible to remove with out the locking key. To steal two bikes locked together plus the bike rack would be a mission and likely to encourage the thieves to look for easier pickings
Dependds, I know places where they would take an angle grinder to your tow ball and cut it off.
 
Dependds, I know places where they would take an angle grinder to your tow ball and cut it off.
Unfortunately this would be true. But near impossible to do without waking you or the neighbours
 
Stayed in the New Forest a couple of times in recent weeks and both sites warned that bikes had been stolen - Roundhill even gave out a preprinted flyer to write serial numbers on.

As others have said, a proper rated lock is needed, even when bikes are locked on the rear carrier. I have the standard VW 4 bike rack and whilst the locks on there will prevent an opportunistic snatch and grab, I reckon those aluminium arms wouldn’t offer any resistance to a set of bolt cutters and likely wouldn’t make any noise if cut, not enough to wake you up anyway.

Will only take my best bike if I can keep it downstairs in the van at night, which invariably means hardly ever now the wife has retired too

Sadly an ever increasing problem now that bikes are more commonplace high value targets with virtually zero chance of consequences for the scum that prey on other’s hard work.
 
Also, it’s worth registering all your bikes at - bikeregister.com
It’s completely free to do so and you can add photos too as well as the serial number - which means you have details if it ever gets stolen.
You can then tag it as stolen if the worst ever happens so if it ever turns up in a police raid etc they should in theory check this database.
Conversely if buying a secondhand bike you can check on there if it’s ever been reported stolen - currently nearly 58,000 bikes logged as stolen on there which will only be the tip of the iceberg

Suspect the success rate is tiny, but it’s a start I guess and better to be registered than not especially as it’s free.
 
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It’s so depressing to read this, unfortunately it is not a new phenomenon but it appears that thieves are targeting campsites for easy pickings.
I had a fairly exotic custom bike that had a hidden tracker, which ‘disappeared’ nearly immediately after being stolen and reappeared about two weeks later in Albania - the insurance company said that bike theft and resale is proper organised crime industry across Europe.
I find the response from the Police unacceptable.
 
Unfortunately this would be true. But near impossible to do without waking you or the neighbours
Pop to anywhere near Marseilles and they wont care, in fact if you are woken and remonstrate you will be threatened with a knife. Happened to a friend when parked up and surrounding vehicles were being robbed.
 
No 1 son while at Eduni had his chained, secured bike nicked from outside his digs. It was a smart but old Red Raleigh MTB, his next bike was an older Raleigh made of gas pipes bought for £12 on an auction site, new tyres & brake blocks. Unatractive but serviceable, left outside for the next 2 years of his studies. No issues. According to No1 bikes routinely are stolen by the vanload towards the end of the academic year taken to Ireland and resold to freshers there when they arrive.
 
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