An acquaintance from work bought a used Harley for the usual reasons; middle age funk and more money than sense. He had the bike for a couple of weeks before he discovered that he was no longer a motorcycle owner, he is now a motorcycle theft victim.
As a brand, Harley's are no longer the most popular motorcycle among thieves. Honda has taken the top shelf, followed by Yamaha, Suzuki, and Kawasaki. (More detail about motorcycle thefts in 2011 can be found on the National Insurance Crime Bureau's analysis of their data.) Minnesota is ranked 35th among the states in number of bikes stolen (329 in 2011). One piece of depressing news is that 63% of stolen bikes are not recovered. While thefts were down 6% from 2010, the 47,000 motorcycles lifted in 2011 means a bike was stolen somewhere in the US every 11 minutes.
There is probably a moral here, somewhere. I've sort of given up on looking for morals in the state of decay where our collapsing empire current resides.Based on popular opinion and current politics, I suspect they are overrated and under appreciated.
4 comments:
Wow, every 11 minutes. That is just kind of sad isn't it?
While I have never been the victim of motorcycle theft, both my Mom and brother have each had a Harley stolen when living in Alberta. Neither were recovered. In fact my brother's was stolen from the parking lot of the Harley shop before he even took delivery from the shop. Sadly my mom gave up and never bought another bike.
We got to keep our rides locked up really good!
I would have never guessed that the theft rate would be so high. Are there any stats on how the bikes were stolen? In other words, are locks effective at all?
There isn't much fine detail in the report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (follow the link in the Geezer article). The folks I know who have had their bikes stolen all had them locked on the street. Cable locks are worthless. Wheel locks are good for large bikes, but don't do much for a bike than two people can easily pick up.
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