Well as you all know we have had a little bad luck with some items being stolen and being broken on the trip so far. By far the worst was one of our electric bikes being stolen. So out of this what have we learnt?
Firstly, if you are living in a motorhome and are over let us say 50 and want to explore up to 20kms away an electric bike is a must have! That said they are not cheap, our two RooDog bikes cost just over £900 each and were excellent value. We would recommend RooDog, even when we had issues here with one of the bikes they did everything to get it sorted.
So you have your bike, if you are freedom camping or off grid you will need an inverter to charge the battery. Get a pure sine wave one and only charge one at a time.
Get good locks and have more than one, preferably three different types. When out and about have a minimum of two locks, and attach the bike to something immovable. When the bike is on the back of the van it would be a good idea to get an alarmed cable as well. With the three locks and alarm it is unlikely you will have them stolen, this is the advice from the police here and other Motorhomers. The need to have many tools to steal the bikes, so acts a deterrent the thief will likely move on. But if they want them they will have them.
So above is what we learned from having one stolen, but the procedure after you get is stolen is important. First make sure you report it to the police and get a copy of the crime report. If you have insurance, you should make a claim as soon as possible.
As we are away for a year like we are, we have found that it was essentially impossible to get theft insurance cover for the contents of the van. We did take a policy out with LV but it does not cover anything in a motor vehicle or away from where you are staying as we told them we would be in a motorhome, so more than a bit useless, would not recommend LV in hindsight like most insurers cover themselves more than the client . But they tell us, it will cover us should we be injured and need to be taken home after some unforeseen health emergency. As we don’t own the van we can’t take cover out with specialist Motorhome and caravan insurers, we have noticed some of these offer excellent cover.
If however you are traveling for less than three months at a time, visit www.cycleguard.co.uk they offer very good electric bike cover. We spoke to them and they are knowledgeable, helpful and seem to offer the best cover for cycles on the market.
So in conclusion it is not nice to have stuff stolen, but it happens, we are learning and have new super locks and many of them. If you are traveling for longer than 3 months you can’t get your valuables insured so the risk is all yours.
We do feel that would recommend that motorhomes should have an option to fit a secure lockable storage area, for valuable items able to take passports, laptop computer, tablets etc. ‘Just a thought’.
We are back on the road again and putting our little disasters behind us, the people here were lovely, the police sympathetic and helpful.
So until next time.
Carole says
What a bummer. You will have to give Karen a backie on your bike now. Is it not poss to get the insurance in four periods of three months?
Cx
David says
Carole no chance of backie mine is up to weight limit already. Those insurance companies are smart. First question please have proof of departure.
Paul Jackson says
Sorry to hear about the theft. We have a small safe bolted to the van floor and hidden away for passports, money, cards, documents etc, but nowhere for the gadgets. Insuring items such as bikes (I have a road bike I take with us on an outside rack) is a pain – they’re happy to take the premium but less so to pay out.
Part of the learning journey I guess, but still not fun for you.
Paul
David says
Paul, on the van we have there is a slot that could be adjusted and made into a safe. My point is that when building a van given the difficulty in getting insurance it might be an option that people would pay for.
Sylv says
Oh no, so sorry to hear about the bike. Good the police were helpful but unfortunate circumstances. You guys are having a bit of a bad luck run 🙁
Hope all goes well with your trip east.
See you sometime
David says
Silly really as we did have three locks, thought parking it outside the main tourist office would be a deterrent. Wrong! Live and learn.
David says
We really are looking forward to meeting up again.
David says
Any idea when you will be at Cabo del Gato? We are going there soon but can head back to see you both.
GlorYa says
Really sorry for you.
Just goes to show that you have to be vigilant all the time especially with foreign plates and in a foreign country. Tho,in a while you will get over it and start to enjoy your brilliant trip again. Some of us need some more Lidl stories ! I’m still chuckling and have got plenty of mileage out of it down the local ! At least you can drown your sorrows with some decent falling over water.
Keep larfin’
David says
GlorYa thanks for the support the theft could have happened anywhere any country . Yes need to be vigilant is right. As for getting on with it we are up and running again. Will not hide any embarrassing stories, but no new ones yet.
Chris/Belgian Beauty (our motorhome, not me ;-)) says
Sorry to hear about the theft! But it is good you mention it. We can all learn from eachother that way! All the best!
Paul says
Hi – we remove the pedals and saddles and batteries when the bikes are on the rack. When we leave them anywhere else we carry them saddles and pedals in a carrier bag.
David says
Have made many adjustments to attempt to keep the bikes safe. Have bought chain locks as well as an extra thick wire one. All quick remove parts have been changed to bolts. So we are hopeful. As for removing pedals I would lose them in an instant.