Well I dont have a garage, can't get one unless we move home (getting tempting) the bike has an alarm but yet again it didn't stop two guys from kicking the bike over this morning at 07:30.

They wern't content in pushing & kicking it over into the car next to me they then wanted to jump on it, thankfully only minor damage & it's all sorted.

any idea's on how to protect it further. I am happily thinking of electifiying it! :0)

A good quality cover (that doesn't look too flash) can often help, especially if it has eyelets or something else you can put a lock through to stop people interfering with it. Makes the bike anonymous, more awkward to get at or move and will provide a certain amount of cushioning if the worst happens. Certainly helped me in my pre-garage days, anyhow.

Other than that, lock the bike to something very solid with a very large chain. It might be possible, if there isn't anything already handy nearby, to get the council to provide something or let you put a roadside post in yourself. Depending on the area and what your property's like, you might be able to mount a ground anchor on the outside of one of your house/garden walls and park up against that. Other than that, there's not a whole lot of choice: you can get a bike-sized security "shed" but they are pretty steep price-wise and you need something like 10' x 5' space for them. But I'd assume you don't have the space to park within your property boundaries, otherwise you'd already be doing so.

Unfortunately, land mines are not an option.

>> ex silens nox noctis <<

If the bike is parked on your property, getting a dud CCTV camera (or even a real one) pointed in the direct of your bike would be a good deterrent. My Uncle mounted one on his garage after it has been broken into and hes not had any trouble since.

Electrifying the bike does sound fun, untill you forget one morning Also the seat, grips and fairing wouldn't be affected so wouldnt be all that effective either.

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I would love to be able to secure it to something solid, I am getting tempted to block the pavement & chaing the bike to the house until the council take it seriously. (unfortunatly it's a town house in Bton so no garden or posts to chain it to currently).  

either that or I'll let the dog guard it at night, that'll put them off he loves my bike!

1. You can't fit any roadside furniture yourself, but locks attached to your property are fine.

2. It's not necessarily illegal to park on the pavement as long as a) there are no road markings (such as double yellows) which would make it an offence to park in the road and b) it's not a designated parking bay, where it's actually an offence to park outside the bay markings. The council may explicitly ban parking on a given pavement and enforce that, otherwise obstructive parking may be dealt with by the police. So if it isn't obstructive and isn't under a traffic order, you could be alright to use the pavement.

3. You can apply to the council for a motorcycle parking bay, which is likely to take some months as applications are grouped for processing. If no objections are received or upheld, you get a motorcycle-only spot and - at the very least - a roadside pole and sign that can be pressed into service as something to lock the bike to.

4. There was a bike security stand scheme in Brighton, but it largely got canned because of objections, especially in the more historic areas. If you fall within the rollout areas, it is a possibility, though.

Option 3 may be your best (if slowest) bet. I can get you some contact details if you want to try one of the official routes - if so, it would be helpful to know which road you're in as it may/may not fall into existing schemes (PM me if you want to pass that on).

As an aside, has anybody ever come across kerbstones with security bars in (rather like ground anchors)? Any pointers as to whether such things are available would be appreciated!

>> ex silens nox noctis <<

Yeah I have put in for a bike bay nearly a year ago, but they wanted to put it right outside my local The Geese (Coleman Street, Hanover) Nice pub, no problems with it & the landlords a nice bloke. But the location was complained about as being unsafe & is being looked into hence it taking so long.

I think from what you've said I can park the bike outside the house, it would be on the pavement but there are no parking restrictions & no yellow lines near my house. The bike would block the pavement no more than the binvelopes & recycling bins left out.

I'll see what the council & my local MP come up with & then see what I want to do. I've put the alarm back on the Xena disc brake lock so that will deffen any g*ts that try & shift the bike again.  

On a different note how long is everybody's batteries lasting. I've just brought a new one today as mine was dead again & I didn't have a back-up any more. The current one's about 2 yrs old. I use the bike every day & occasionaly at weekends (use hubby's car then). I do about 140 miles every two weeks. Fully charged the batts putting out 14.5V so the Gen & reg/rec seem to be working. I've also had the volt meter out & checked the Gen & rec/rec all reading are good. Which makes me think the battery is going.

Any idea's anybody?

That is quite low mileage: if it's all fairly low speed and with lights on, you might not be getting much of a charge on the battery from riding, but even so it should be enough on a regular basis to stop the battery constantly flattening. Sounds very much like you know what you're doing with the checks and everything, so I guess it isn't an actual charging problem. Normal quote for sealed battery life is 2 - 5 years, depending on general state of maintenance and care (if it lives outside in the cold a lot, that doesn't help): you could just be on the unlucky end of that. Ideally, you need to check how well the battery holds a charge off the bike - that'll tell you if you've got something that's shorting out and discharging the battery in situ.

If you haven't already, it's well worth getting an intelligent bike battery trickle charger (car battery chargers, even on low settings, will cook bike batteries rapidly) - those can even recover a deep-discharged (ie dead flat) battery. I use an old faithful Optimate III, which has done sterling work over the years. And it'll tell you what state the battery is in (if there's excess sulphation or whatever). I believe that - like rechargeables - sealed batteries do actually benefit from regular charging, as long as it's low-current.

If the old battery won't hold a trickle charge indoors for any length of time, it's shot and needs binning. If it does, you could be looking for a wiring fault - but that should be fairly obvious as the new battery will also go flat...!

>> ex silens nox noctis <<