Beware – June starts the busiest time for bike theft

June starts the busiest time for bike theft and as a recent experiment by MORE TH>N shows, depending on where you live, it could take only 17 minues to get your bike stolen.

It seems London is the worst of the places tested for bike theft with it only taking 17 minutes for a shiny new bike left unattended at London Bridge to be stolen.

In contrast, Liverpool people seem to be the most honest and trustworthy as it took nearly 4 hours for the bike to be stolen – nearly twice the national average of just over 2 hours.

It’s estimated that a bike is stolen every 105 seconds, meaning 300,000 bikes are stolen each year.

With a new bike now costing on average £218 and only 5% ever being recovered by the owner, it’s clear that taking steps to prevent bike theft is critical, as is making sure you have suitable insurance cover.

MORE TH>N tips for preventing bike theft include

• Make sure your bike has clearly visible security markings  such as a serial number to deter thieves
• Use a heavy duty lock to secure your bike and secure it through the frames and wheels to an immovable object
• Secure the bike to something in a busy location, not somewhere isolated where it can be stolen without notice
• consider leaving the bike in a different location each day
• point the lock downwards to make it more difficult to pick.

You can get home insurance which will provide cover for bikes but you need to check exactly what is provided and up to what value the insurance is.

To help you get the best home insurance for your needs, one option is to use an insurance comparison website, such as Gocompare.com or Confused.com.

These sites help you to quickly compare insurance quotes from different providers so that you can then easily choose the one that best suits your requirements.