Are scooters really that easy to steal?  By  bigmac (Read 17,968 times)

When I had engine falure I had to leave my scooter . I left it in front of a bank . I figured they have servalance camera's .

Not that it would help but it may have been a deturant .


John

This is why some manufactures started using Immobilizer technology on their bikes. Their bikes are almost worthless without the key with the matching chip that allows the ingnition, throttle body, ECU, dash and fuel pump to function. Loose the last key and some of the higher end Immobilizers will require everything be replaced costing you sometimes over $2,000. If you steal one of those bikes you either replace every component keyed to the Immobilizer or sell it for scrap. People buy the recovered bikes without the key thinking they got a bargain and then they find out first hand what you have to go through to get past the system.

One note on chaining up and multiple locks. If you make it look valuable or too much of a challange similar to climbing Mount Everest then you may be inviting theft instead of deterring it.

I read the replies and watched about a dozen bike theft videos involving scooters and other types of motorcycles. Not much difference between them from what I observed, aside from being easier to move and load into a getaway vehicle. By what I've read and seen, I take it that the effort needed to steal a motorbike is similar regardless of its size, experienced thieves will get past almost any security devices, most thieves know beforehand where the bike is. Knowing this, I think my scooter is pretty safe.

My scooter is garaged at my house in the countryside. It's about as close as you can get to a crime free zone. Not often do I take my scooter to stores but when I do, it's on a random weekday at around noon, and so a thief could not figure out when it will be there. Mainly old people are out at this time, also. Most of the trouble makers are either still in school or bed.

Although they're rare, I sometimes see other scooters in my area, and like mine and other motorcycles, they're usually in normal parking spots or alongside a curb. Only once I saw a scooter chained up around here. Ironically, it was outside of a police station. Maybe that one had been stolen and recovered by police. This state requires mopeds to be registered so my VIN is on record in my name. I know from experience that police here love to stop mopeds and check their registration.

My brother, father (who's in Arizona) and some other family members (who live in various places) have had motorcycles for years and never had one stolen. As far as I know, they only lock the steering when parking in public.