What does it take to discourage a thief or at least slow his intrusion into your space?

To start with, an alarm. Yes, it’s that simple a $160 will go a long way toward keeping your bikes and tools in one place. Make sure you get an alarm with a motion sensor system. I know everyone hears alarms but very little is done about one that goes off. Actually, there is always somebody (usually a nosy person) who looks in the direction of one that goes off. Hopefully, they will let someone know that they saw someone breaking into your car or truck. At a motel with a security guard at least he will come and investigate, hopefully (again). We mentioned in issue one and two the advantage of have a night watchman around to patrol the parking lot. So, we hit the subject one more time for those of you who missed it or were just looking at the pictures.

Get together and chip in $10 each, go look for the guy who is going to be on patrol, (make sure the guy is not leaving at midnight and someone else is taking over. You want the one responsible for the lot), slip him some cash, and tell him to look after the trailers and cars. Try to park close to each other and near the front of the motel. Right outside your door is better if you have an alarm. (When making reservations at a hotel ask for a lower floor room on the parking lot side. They usually are very eager to give those out).

If your trailer is attached to the car/ truck/ van or mule, any movement is going to set the alarm off, such as someone climbing on the trailer or the hitch. To set the sensitivity just right put about 20 lbs. of weight on the trunk and see if the alarm goes off. If not set the switch up another notch. It will go off on occasion when you don’t want to hear from it, but if it keeps your bikes in the trailer, you’ll learn to live with it. I do.

For those of you who want to really do something in a big way, wire your trailer with a backup battery and hook the alarm system to it in addition to the car/truck/ van or mule. This works great and those smaller alarms are less expensive. Keep in mind where you mount the siren, you don’t want someone to just cut the wires. Most alarm installers will work with you if you want to combine it all in one system. I like the idea of two systems, since you disconnect the tow vehicle and leave the trailer at some tracks.

Why an alarm?

Let’s put this as simple as possible. It’s February, a brand new season, you just put together a sponsor for most of the season, a tire deal, new leathers, a great selection of tools and a full time mechanic that your sponsor is paying for. WOW, it’s gonna be a great year. You pull up to the motel the night before your first race, the one you have the pole for in each class, since you had the money to sign up in advance. You have a great dinner and off to bed with your honey. The team is spread out in other rooms. Life is good!

You get to bed early, wake up at the crack of dawn, have breakfast and are ready to head out to the race track. As you go through the front door of the hotel, there sits a gapping hole in the parking lot where your new truck and trailer were sitting the night before. You turn to look at your mechanic and realize his mouth is open in disbelief. It’s gone! All of it. Now what?

After cursing out everyone in sight, the reality of missing the race is setting in. The first question everyone and their brother is going to ask is: “Was it all insured?” Well, the truck was, but not the trailer, the bikes, the tools, leathers, gas cans, pit bikes, awning, helmets, etc, etc. Total expenditures, about $35,000 to $40,000. Cost of an alarm, about $160. Supplemental cost of a night watchman, $10. Get the picture? I hope so. If not let me know and I’ll have someone draw the sequence in cartoon form so you understand. Don’t get left standing at the front door of your hotel. GET AN ALARM, PERIOD......

Simple math tells you what you should be doing. So, why is it every time I go to a racetrack I hear about somebody getting ripped off. Let’s face the facts, several thousand is a whole lot more than $160 is it not? The thieves who are ripping you off also know that it is the beginning of the season and that all the bikes are either new or freshened up. They have these scooters torn apart or on their way out of the country while you are waiting for the cops. Whatever you do, don’t hold your breath, it would be considered a miracle if they stumbled over your bike, and if they did, chances are you wouldn’t know about it anyway.

I know some of you are asking why I would be so hard on the law. The truth is in the paper everyday. Example: “The law enforcement agencies were watching the thieves for three years and finally broke down the door of the garage where the stolen motorcycles were stashed. No one was arrested.” Need I say more. Criminals have more rights than you do and they are treated better too. It makes no sense to arrest someone who is only going to bail out and disappear or serve 18 months or less for stealing your motorcycle and tools.

Another example: Recently a group of thieves working in the south Florida area were spotted with stolen bikes in their garage next to a rented house. A diligent racer looking for his stolen bike went to the cops and they told him they could not go into the garage or arrest anyone for stolen property. He went to another law enforcement agency and got the same run around. He went back to the house and noticed a full sized shipping container in the front yard. Went back to the cops and told them they had to check the container before it left the yard. No way. The next day it was gone and the garage was cleaned out. The bad guys were still there, but it made no difference.

What do you do when all seems hopeless? Not a lot unless you want to do time for blowing up a house, or blowing away some real dirt bags. Like I said, they have rights, you don’t. Look at the group in Pennsylvania who were stealing bikes for years. Two arrests, that’s it. Hundreds of bikes, leathers, tools, cars, trucks, trailers the whole nine yards. Two arrests and a weak case at that.

Last year one of our racers was down in Columbia, South America,. and spotted a guy on the grid wearing a set of brand new leathers, with the original owners name still on the back. This is a good clue as to where some of the bikes are going. Customs is overloaded and can’t check every trailer, although they should. A bike that costs $6,000 here is worth over $30,000 down there. That’s a pretty good profit especially when you are getting the bikes for little or no money to start with.

Another problem... theft in the pits. It’s amazing how much gets ripped off. Leathers seem to be the first choice of most thieves. Why I don’t know. A simple solution to store bought or off the rack leathers is to have someone sew on a piece of leather that matches what you have in your design, but make it unique to your leathers. Only you will be able to detect that extra piece of leather, even at a hundred yards or more. (Ex: if you have white trim on a purple background use a piece of white leather and make a little shape near the shoulder or upper chest. Even in a photo you will be able to spot it).

Someone who is stealing your leathers is not going to know that they are marked. You can also get into the habit of marking pieces of your motorcycle in the same way. Use a punch and put three or four dots in a small line or square. Three dots, or whatever. For you folks out west, it’s just like branding a steer.

Again, only you know the marks, and on the grid or at the local hangout, you will be amazed at what you see. I had a racer spot his bike stand at Moroso last year, but again, nothing could be done. The guy who had it in his posession just played stupid.

It’s your motorcycle, your trailer and in most cases everything in life that means something to you. Don’t blow your racing career and leave yourself in deep debt. Get an alarm, Today!

In the pits, watch out for each other we are the only security we have unforutnately. Right now it’s us against them and they are winning! Let’s work at changing the trend.