3 ms·
I have insurance with a tracker. It costs about 10 Euro per month. If the bike is stolen, they first try to find it with the tracker. Bikes with trackers are us
by microtonal 3y ago
I have insurance with a tracker. It costs about 10 Euro per month. If the bike is stolen, they first try to find it with the tracker. Bikes with trackers are usually put temporarily in public space close to where it's stolen during a cool-off period to check if the tracker is still operational/followed. Usually the insurance will just recover the bike from this cool-off spot. If the insurance company cannot find the bike through the tracker, they'll buy you a new bike.
Besides that, the rule is to always make your bike the least attractive to steal. Use two locks eg. a ring lock through the rear wheel and a chain lock through the front wheel, frame, and attached to something stationary (so they can't through the bike in a van and break the locks later). In general it's also good to put it in places where someone would notice if anyone tries to steal the bike, but not so busy that no one would notice and feels responsibility. Bonus points (remember the 'least attractive' rule), put it in some place where there are bikes that are much easier to steal (eg. not attached to a fixed object).
But expensive and heavy locks suck and the ever present thought in your head planning a good parking spot etc. kills the joy of it.
It's also a cultural/facilities thing. Eg. in The Netherlands many cities have bike parking with supervision and nobody minds if you attach your bike to eg. a lamp post. And most cities have plenty of lamp posts, so no real planning necessary :).
- tjoff 3y agoI haven't seen such insurance, looks favorable. Bikes here are pretty much uninsurable (my opinion) and while I happily get a tracker I have zero hope of it being useful. If you don't want a crappy bike you are going to stand out, guaranteed, and double locks won't deter. Lamp posts is exactly what I had in mind, you can only have one to two bikes per lamp post. So depending on your destination you have your goto and a few backups ready planned. Yes, double locks and a lamp-post in a public place will probably be good enough during the day, it is still such a hassle.
- microtonal 3y agoThat kind of insurance is easy to get here in The Netherlands, of course it may be more difficult elsewhere. Eg.: https://www.anwb.nl/verzekeringen/fietsverzekering https://www.anwb.nl/verzekeringen/fietsverzekering
- dieselgate 3y agoWhere is “here” for you? I’m a wa state resident and have rental insurance cover bikes no problem
- ohwellhere 3y agoI had a coworker have his bike stolen on 5th Ave in New York City while thoroughly chained and U-locked to scaffolding at 9am with hundreds of pedestrian passersby in the time it took him to go up the passenger elevator and down the freight elevator.
- swader999 3y agoPortable angle grinders and certain kinds of jacks. A nail clipper with a bic lighter can get through a cable in less than a minute.
- tacticalturtle 3y agoNowadays if you’re willing to spend $300 dollars on a Hiplok D3000 or Litelok x3, you can have a lock that takes 10 minutes to cut with an angle grinder. So that’s progress at least.