hey, anyone on here ever lived on campus w/ a motorcycle? Thinking about bringing the sv650 to campus but have had a horrible experience with shit getting stolen(fox shox fork$ from a BICYCLE, front valence BUMPER from car, euro license plates, gps, etc..). my car is killing me on the mpg and would love to bring the bike...anyone here had bad experiences with parking their bikes on campus?

12/17/2009 3:12:10 AM

There are NO threads in this section dealing with motorcycles on campus, especially on the first page, and of none of those threads deal with parking on campus at all.

12/17/2009 6:04:29 AM

That thing will disappear with the quickness. If you've got a car on campus I wouldn't bring it unless you have a buddy close by who will let you store it somewhere semi-secure like a locked garage.

12/17/2009 9:44:52 AM

Bring the bike to campus, and get lojack on it

http://www.lojack.com/motorcycle/pages/motorcycle-recovery.aspx

Done deal.

12/17/2009 5:22:32 PM

Igor, is it fun being an ass? yeah prob just leave at someones garage. lojack looks goood though..

[Edited on December 17, 2009 at 5:30 PM. Reason : ]

12/17/2009 5:29:23 PM

Lojack? Your bike will be in pieces in that white van by the time it gets across town. If you do find that lojack, it'll be thrown in the woods somewhere.

Bigass chain + theft insurance.

12/17/2009 5:45:45 PM

WTF are you people talking about? I parked on campus for 1.5 years, albeit with a nighthawk. Nonetheless, there were much nicer, more expensive bikes nearby all year long that never got touched. There were even Ducs that Harleys, which are probably the two most frequently stolen brands. Get real. If you were going to steal some shit, would you steal it from right out in the open in an area where 1000s of people reside?

Thought a big ass chain plus theft insurance is a smart level of protection. All in all, I don't think it's so much of a risk. There are much more appealing bikes to steal than mid displacement japanese naked bikes.

[Edited on December 17, 2009 at 6:32 PM. Reason : .]

12/17/2009 6:29:48 PM

^ The most stolen bikes are the most desirable bikes. That means Jap sport bikes or semi-sport such as the SV650. They're easy to unload or part out because there are tens of thousands of people looking for them at any given time.

Do you know how many posts have been made on local forums including TWW about bikes being stolen in highly visible spaces? It happens around here all the time. It happened to theDuke866 back in the day with his GSXR. They always start with something like "three guys loaded my bike in a white van or pickup truck." Sure, people witness it; but nobody is going to put their neck on the line to stop them, especially when they don't really know that they aren't the rightful owner.

Think about it like this...Isn't the Honda Civic or Accord the most stolen car in America? They're not rare and they're certainly not exotic. They're just easy as fuck to get money for whether in parts or whole. Keep that in mind.

[Edited on December 17, 2009 at 11:25 PM. Reason : l]

[Edited on December 17, 2009 at 11:25 PM. Reason : l]

12/17/2009 11:23:56 PM

my GSX-R got stolen from Wolf Creek, though, and what's weird is they stole it with most of the bodywork removed for repainting. I don't know why they didn't just steal one in perfect shape with everything on it.

I lived on Fraternity Court for a couple of years with motorcycles, then right behind Wachovia on Hillsborough Street with my GSX-R...never had problems with theft there.

My take is that you are an idiot to have a motorcycle without theft insurance, unless maybe if you always keep it garaged and then only ride it recreationally (i.e., don't leave it parked unattended much--you just take it out for fun rides on the weekends). I don't have comp/collision on my SV (I did on my new GSX-R, of course), but I do carry theft coverage.

If you don't have theft insurance, get it. What's it gonna cost you? A few bucks per month? It's worth that much to keep your bike on campus, even if it wouldn't be otherwise. If you have theft insurance, park that thing on campus, ride it all you want, and if it gets stolen, go get another one...and insure that one for theft, too.

12/18/2009 2:40:07 AM

This isn't a claim, just a question, but I was always under the impression that 80% of bike thefts were by professionals who want to chop them up and sell(the remaining being joy riders, I suppose). With that in mind, it'd be much more profitable to sell Duc parts on ebay than to part out a 10 year old sv. Plus, I don't think the car analogy is accurate because to steal a car you drive it away. Thus, exotics won't blend in. A ninja 250 and Ducati1198 are equally visible in the back of a van--not at all, so why wouldn't you take the more expensive one? Ease of dumping the parts is the only thing I can think of, but even that isn't worth it to me. I mean, you're still stealing, and perhaps selling exotic parts makes you somewhat more likely to get caught, but there is a least 2x the money to be made off a harley or italian bike. I just don't see it. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, or that this dude shouldn't insure his bike for theft, but it just seems really unlikely for them to jack an sv when there is almost certainly more expensive bikes sitting 2 feet away.

12/18/2009 11:24:41 AM

You have to consider what there's more of. The 1198 isn't exactly a common bike. I can go out and steal 10 R6s and get them stripped & sold before I find one 1198. The sheer number of R6/GSXR/CBR etc. means that I can throw the parts up on ebay or craigslist and have them sold in a day while the tank from that 1198 is going to sit in my garage for a month until an 1198 owner needs a tank. That all means that while I can sell that 1198 tank for $500, I'll make a lot more money selling the much cheaper, easier to find, and more "needed" tank from a CBR for $100. You also have to consider that someone selling parts for a Duc is going to be a lot more noticeable than someone selling parts off a ujm.

12/18/2009 10:29:29 PM

That makes sense. I guess I was just thinking about the more $/bike so you didn't have to risk getting caught so frequently, but that reduced risk is probably negated by having more noticeable parts to get rid of.

12/18/2009 11:00:46 PM