A Bonus Thanks for Asking! Answer to a Question That Wasn't Asked in a Thanks for Asking! Thread

Somewhere -- and now I can't find it, so perhaps it was in a dream -- reader Thane Eichenauer (who recently had a scooter stolen) asked me what anti-theft measures I take vis a vis my 50cc scooter.

Thanks for asking, Thane!

I haven't had a lot of occasion to consider anti-theft measures, as the only time I've parked the scooter away from home has been for brief runs into stores to pay for a buck or so in gas.

The "on-bike" anti-theft devices are, so far as I can tell, two:

1. The theoretical need for a key to activate the ignition (I doubt this is much trouble to get around); and
2. A "steering lock" that holds the front wheel in a single position so that the scooter can't be scared (I also doubt this is much trouble to get around).

I live in a low-crime area, I park the scooter near my front door ( a motion-activated porch light would come on if anyone walked up to it in the night), and I don't leave the key in the ignition.

I've been thinking about additional measures, such as running a bicycle cable lock through the front wheel and around into the passenger compartment (or around a tree, bicycle parking rack, etc.), or a bicycle "U" lock through the rear wheel, possible also around some other part of the bike.

Of course it's small and only weight 200 pounds or so, so a determined thief could just throw it in a truck, haul it off, and deal with locks at his leisure unless those locks actually connected the scooter to some more permanently placed object.

One reason I've so extensively decorated the bike is to deter theft. There are a bazillion scooters in Gainesville, and I figure a thief cruising store parking lots, etc. for one to steal will tend to go with the most anonymous-looking models instead of something that will stand out on surveillance video of his truck driving down the road later. If the police cared, which seems unlikely.

It's a conundrum. More so when and if I can get the damn thing running.