e-Bike Theft On The Rise?

[Cyclezee]

More people are reporting the theft of electric bikes as can be seen in this section with another one reported today http://pedelecs.co.uk/forum/forums/stolen-electric-bikes-equipment.23/

Is electric bike theft on the increase?

Are electric bikes being targeted or are these simply part of bike crime in general, stolen randomly without the thief really knowing what they have got?

 

[flecc]

I think lack of knowledge leads to them being just part of the general bike theft scene. A knowledgeable thief will be aware of the difficulties of not having a charger and battery access keys, and in some cases even more missing as with the HMI removed on SRS's stolen KTM, and batteries removed in some other instances.

If ever there are enough e-bikes around to make certain makes and models common and customers for them numerous, it will be possible for more capable thieves to target those for which they have known access to the missing items. Until then I think e-bikes will just be a part of general bike theft, but perhaps out of ignorance of the problems thought to be potentially more lucrative.

That said, there may also be the occasional targeted theft of a particular e-bike by an unscrupulous enthusiast.

 

[KTM Bike Industries UK]

agreed, I don't think its anyone specifically targeting eBikes.

However we do think we've got an opportunity to do something about it.

We're starting something that we hope others in the industry will also support.

We're going to supply all KTMs ordered from now, with DataTag systems fitted. This means simply that if you ever see a KTM eBike for sale, you can ask for the DataTag details. If the seller doesn't have them, you can start asking questions about why.

The idea being that if we educate and promote this enough, we'll not only help get a few stolen bikes back, we'll also hopefully prevent a few thefts.

Every little helps, but if the eBike industry adopted this across the board like the motorcycle industry is now doing, we really do believe it will be a step in the right direction.

 

[SRS]

I think lack of knowledge leads to them being just part of the general bike theft scene. A knowledgeable thief will be aware of the difficulties of not having a charger and battery access keys, and in some cases even more missing as with the HMI removed on SRS's stolen KTM, and batteries removed in some other instances.

If ever there are enough e-bikes around to make certain makes and models common and customers for them numerous, it will be possible for more capable thieves to target those for which they have known access to the missing items. Until then I think e-bikes will just be a part of general bike theft, but perhaps out of ignorance of the problems thought to be potentially more lucrative.

That said, there may also be the occasional targeted theft of a particular e-bike by an unscrupulous enthusiast.

Flecc, I tend to agree, in my case, two bikes side by side. Different locking arrangements on each bike. They took the easiest one, just happened to be the electric one.

Probably didn't even notice it was electric at the time. Without a battery and HMI, makes it impossible to get rid of a whole unit but individual parts, forks, wheel/s, hub gears, hydraulics etc worth bit.

They are looking for any bike with a decent spec. Parts sell.

On the night of my theft there were numerous bikes locked up in the area with flimsy cables, not one touched. Reason, very low spec and tatty bikes.

My security measures have now been amended.