Tips and Tools to Effectively Prevent Ebike Thefts

Ebikes can be easily stolen and sold with very little risk for the crooked reseller and eventual purchaser, having no plates nor registration.

Why ebikes are so often stolen

More than 265,000 bicycles were stolen in Germany in 2022, according to the Federal Criminal Police Office. Numbers are about the same for England. Statistics don’t distinguish between eBikes and organic bicycles, nevertheless one can guess that the former entice thieves even more, since they are much pricier. They are therefore profitably resold. If we reckon that in Germany there are 10 million e-bikes, at 150,000 thefts per year, it means that an appalling 15% of German e-bikes are stolen within 10 years from their purchase.

Most used e-bikes can be sold for more than 1,000 euros. Most purchasers seldom bother to inquire whether the ebike could be stolen.

Ebikes can be easily stolen with few risks – how thieves do it

Most locks can be cut in a few seconds with a strong bolt cutter. Even heavier, more robust locks can hardly resist angle grinders. Fortunately, safest locks can resist, also because thieves must use battery-powered angle grinders, which can rotate at maximum speed only for a short time.

It should be kept in mind that e-bikes should be always attached to a sturdy post, a robust bike park or any resistant bar. Indeed, most thieves load stolen e-bikes immediately into their truck, comfortably breaking their locks afterwards.

The public will seldom help apprehend thieves

Don’t be fooled into thinking that an eBike parked in a crowded street is much safer than one parked in a desert place. Very few people would risk being aggressed by a thief just to prevent him from stealing somebody else’s ebike, and calling the police is useless, since they would intervene too late.

Also, frequently and visibly parking your ebike at the same place give thieves envy and time to organize.

Ebike antitheft systems

Locks and chains

Abus, a leading lock manufacturer, ranks its locks with a safety score going from 1 to 15, any of their locks scoring more than 10/15 being difficult to break. The Granit Extreme 2500, with a whopping 15 out of 15 safety level, made of carbide, should be practically unbreakable with portable grinders.

U-shaped locks are normally the toughest and safest, but they are relatively short, making it harder to attach your ebike to posts and bike parks.

Safely securing your eBike with a lock

Besides attaching the ebike to any kind of robust bar, be it a lampion post or a bike park, it should be tied to that bar through the frame, not through the wheels nor the luggage racks or any other part that can be easily disassembled. In cities where bikes are numerous, it’s better to lock even the front wheel and the saddle, which are sometimes stolen separately. See pictures above.

GPS tracking antitheft devices

There are many antitheft devices for electric bikes on the market. Through their smartphone applications, they let you track your electric bike via GPS. All you have to do is activate them through the application and locate your ebike even if it’s far away. Some of them have got even alarms that ring whenever your e-bike is displaced, with a loud tone, or even slightly moved, with a softer tone.

Among the most common there’s the Bosch ConnectModule, featuring a separate battery to secure your e-bike even if the main battery has been taken off.

Advantages of GPS tracking antitheft devices

• They let you trace and find your stolen ebike, which is normally impossible without them
• They can enable the police to intervene and recover your e-bikes
• They enable arresting thieves
• Some, like teh Bosch ConnectModule, block the motor in case of theft
• Their alarms can really discourage thieves.

Must have features of such devices

1. They should be hidden, for instance in the motor like Bosch’s ConnectModule, or in the handlebar like Bikefinder’s
2. Their battery should have a good autonomy, at least 30 hours
3. They should provide their own smartphone application to connect to the device itself
4. They should effectively receive GPS signal, even when it’s cloudy, rainy, very cold, or the bike is in a garage.

Weak points of GPS tracking antitheft devices

• GPS satellite connections consumes lots of energy, reducing the autonomy of GPS devices batteries to 30 hours on average, when connected to GPS, and some 80 hours in stand-by. Not only you have to locate your stolen ebike in a short time, but what if it’s moved again before you recover it? Moreover, sooner or later non-reachargeable batteries must be replaced. This weakness is avoided by the Powunity BikeTrax GPS tracker SIM card theft protection, featuring an additional battery that is recharged by the ebike battery.
• The police will not easily issue a warrant or try to recover your ebike anyway. In most countries they do very little even to recover stolen cars. If you want to recover it yourself, you risk being injured by crooks.
• It’s not easy to prove ownership of your eBike. To overcome this difficulty, France has set up a system whereby every e-bike is registered both by its vendor and its purchaser, via a dedicated government website.
• Most GPS trackers require fees after a free year, like the one from Bosch, costing €4.99 per month or €39.99 per year.
• Would you risk leaving your beloved e-bike solely protected by a connected device, without any metallic locks? If not, why not use just an unbreakable lock, or use both GPS tracker and lock?

May be you already know how easy is to steal an eBike battery

A thief just needs to stick a screwdriver into the battery lock, then turn and pull until it comes out. After all, if it were harder, what would we do when we lose the keys or need to replace the lock? That’s why this supplementary battery lock (see image) makes a lot of sense!