Touring - Ever have your gear stolen during a tour?

Bike, bags or other things stolen? How hard was it to recover and keep moving.

Or, what do you do to prevent all the above? Horror stories welcome here.

Thank goodness, knock on wood, and all that ... it has not happened to me, and I'm hoping it never does.

I do what I can to prevent it from happening ... mainly by keeping my stuff in sight as much as possible, or locking it up when I can ... but I'm always aware that it is a possibility.

Also, aside from my bicycle himself, there's very little I carry of any value on a tour. A person would have to be really desperate to steel my smelly sleeping bags and used clothing!

Last year, I had a small short-wave radio stolen from my panniers in San Sebastian, Spain. Several other pannier side pockets were unzipped, but there was nothing worth stealing in them. From first-hand stories I've been told, as well as comments that I've read from others, it sounds like Spain has a rampant petty crime problem which is directly particularly against tourists.

I've had 3 bikes stolen, including one on a trip. Actually, it was before I had even pedaled the first kilometer. I was flying across the Atlantic to Frankfurt on the one and only charter flight I've ever taken, and the charter airline "lost" my bicycle and my sleeping bag which were both packed in the bike box. There were half a dozen other passengers who each had one piece of luggage stolen. Nothing was ever recovered. I was somewhat fortunate in that I was meeting 2 German friends in their hometown before the 3 of us had planned to tour in central & southwestern France. One of my friends had an old bike which he lent to me for the trip, but we didn't do any camping on the trip since I still had no sleeping bag. My friend whose bike I borrowed is much taller than me, and therefore his bike frame was much too big for me. I had to immediately dismount every time I stopped, or risk severe pain! Toward the end of what otherwise had been a great trip, I took a train from Perpignan, France (on the Spanish border) to Strasbourg (on the German border). The SNCF (French railroad) lost the bike I had borrowed. I started freaking out when I was stranded in Strasbourg. I couldn't believe that I had lost 2 bikes on one trip. Several days later, the borrowed bike turned up, just as I was about to leave town because I couldn't stand being there anymore. I quickly rode down the Rhine valley toward Frankfurt and shipped my friend's bike back to his hometown on the Deutsche Bahn (German railroad).

I've done a lot of touring and never had anything stolen. I carry a lock and and try to be sensible (keeping my camera, passport and valuables in a handlebar bag and bringing the bag with me when I'm away from the bike), but I never worry on tour about much of anything. So far, living this way has worked out, but of course that could all change tomorrow.

my knife was stolen, i think i left it where i was cooking and yet couldn´t find it afterward.

Some fools stole my makeup bag, and it just had some used lipstick. I was more mad that it was such a cool bag (had the swiss flag on it and was waterproof).

Koffee

Some fools stole my makeup bag, and it just had some used lipstick. I was more mad that it was such a cool bag (had the swiss flag on it and was waterproof).

Koffee

Koffee, that's terrible! and I bet that the color of the lipstick matched the floral pattern on your helmet perfectly.

I'm hard to rob. Any document of value is fastened to my body. My panniers only have my smelly clothes and are 'locked' with an invisible twist bar to the rack. My handlebar bag contains anything of value with I put a neck strap on and take with me. I lock the frame, back wheel and seat to an unmovable object with a U-lock, and the front wheel and my helmet using a plastic covered chain lock.

Oh, and my the way, my bike looks like crap no well known brands--scratched and dirty.

I remember reading an article about a guy touring Mongolia where in the middle of the night someone had tied a long rope to his bike which was secured to his tent and had a horse ride off with his bike and practically half his tent and gear in tow.

I remember reading an article about a guy touring Mongolia where in the middle of the night someone had tied a long rope to his bike which was secured to his tent and had a horse ride off with his bike and practically half his tent and gear in tow.

That article is here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/3569248.stm

Yes, keep your papers and credit cards and money with you. Or keep them in a small bag that you take everyplace with you. Wire tie, or lock your bags to the rack. But above all never leave home without a nasty old pair of undies... you know ripped, torn and stained.(They can be clean though) The pair your mother would be ashamed that you had on. And whenever you stop just drape them over your bags, this should keep 99% of people away from your stuff. I had a friend that did this, and noone ever messed with his bike. The only things I've ever lost on tour has been my tent poles and my way....

But above all never leave home without a nasty old pair of undies... you know ripped, torn and stained.(They can be clean though) The pair your mother would be ashamed that you had on. And whenever you stop just drape them over your bags, this should keep 99% of people away from your stuff. I had a friend that did this, and noone ever messed with his bike.

I do something similar to that. Because it is sometimes difficult to do laundry on a tour, I had my clothes divided into a few plastic grocery bags: clean, not bad, and dirty. I always packed the "dirty" bag right on top - and that's the one that usually had my other pair of shorts which I'd just finished wearing for 4 days straight ... people walking on the other side of the street ran when I opened that pannier! :lol:

I used to take travelers checks, a couple hundred dollars, take the cap off the end of the handle bars, roll the bills and place them in and cap the end. If I was robbed or lost my wallet, I had a back up funds. If the bike was stollen, I had the travelers check receipt and could replace them. Never had to use them, except when I ran out of cash.

Had 1 of 4 panniers stollen, guy slipped it off while my partner was watching and didn't notice. Bike was leaning on the back of a food booth at an open air market, guy working food booth slipped hand under the booth and took bag off. It was a mess, I packed one shoe in that side, tool kit, cook pot and contents. It took an hour to determine just what was missing.

I have tried many of the techniques discussed here. On my world tour I not only had people trying to steal my equipment when I was not on my bike; I even had folks come up and try and snatch things! But in the context of 720 days on the road, these events were very rare.

I always carried a loose plastic bag tucked only under each bungie cord on my rear panniers. When somone tried to grab it thats what came off, and their usual temptation was to run off with what they had gotten...a bag full of snot rags and garbage, as they found out. Other kids wanted me to throw coins, so I always had a pocketful or worthless mexican pesos to toss at them.

I had two ATM cards. One was carried in my wallet with a bunch of other things and, if i was robbed, well hell that one would be lost and I was hoping that would be enough to stop the nasty encounter. My other was was in between two pairs of socks I wore on each foot when I was in dangerous regions.

If you lean toward the kinky, you can store your atm cards and a small wad of cash inside the pouch of a jockstrap. Either way ya win: if they don't find it, you ok..if they do find it at least ya enjoy the experience.

Back on a serious note: obviously the precautions we take as cyclists are designed to deter casual, rather than serious, thievery and robbery. In a true highway robbery you probably would be left standing by the side of the road with nothing on but your skivvies. Pre-trip preparation in such areas means making sure you have proper financial arrangments back at home.

roughstuff

I used to take travelers checks, a couple hundred dollars, take the cap off the end of the handle bars, roll the bills and place them in and cap the end. If I was robbed or lost my wallet, I had a back up funds. If the bike was stolen.....

I hadn't thought of this, but when I crossed the Nicaraguan border the customs officials wrote down the ID number for my bike in my passport and stamped the visa stamp over it. Little did i know that as I was i was crossing into Chile, Peruvian customs officials would try and steal the bike themselves! They wanted to walk the bike off into some office---yeah yeah..and i'd never see it again! When I showed them the passport stamp, they relented..quickly.

There are two areas where theft runs rampant. One is in the old town centers near the bus/train stations where street urchins cooperate with local police authorities to split the goods. The other is at border crossings, where the confusion of offices, paperwork, and authorities gives rise to general mayhem. In the latter case, you MAY be better off paying some young kid (they'll be all over the place!) a small $$ fee to walk you thru the necessary steps and to keep an eye on your equipment if you can't bring it into an office. Pay them the $$ when the whole process is over.

roughstuff

My two best jerseys hanging outside my tent on a clothesline at night in Rouen, France. :mad: That was all though during a 6 week tour covering 1500 miles and camping almost every night (1 night in a youth hostel, 1 night in a convent, and another in a hospital).

Roughstuff says....

If you lean toward the kinky, you can store your atm cards and a small wad of cash inside the pouch of a jockstrap. Either way ya win: if they don't find it, you ok..if they do find it at least ya enjoy the experience.

I love this solution, I've always had a bit extra room in there anyway. :-)