Prevalence (if any) of Motorcycle Theft in Cape Town

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Joined
Jun 26, 2019
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Location
Fish Hoek
Bike
Honda XR650L
I was wondering what the general consensus is as to bike theft in Cape Town, particularly around the city of cape town and surrounding suburbs. Is there much of it? Do I need to be concerned about leaving my bike in plain view on, say Long street, for the whole day?

I lived in London, UK for a long time, and bike theft there was insane. I had 3 different theft attempts (all of which failed thank God), and most of my biker buddies had either had a theft or attempted theft. It left me extremely paranoid so much so that sometimes I'd ride round the block before riding into my unsecured car park where I parked it at night if there was another bike behind me. I'm sure most of us have seen the vids of those moped thieves brazenly angle grinding chains/disc locks off in broad daylight etc.

When I came back to SA the paranoia stuck with me. But I regularly see some nice bikes parked in plain view for long periods around where I work in town. A Ducati (I think hypermotard), a Husky 701, some crotch-rocket-R1-looking things, a GS1200, etc. Not ONCE did I see a disc lock or any obvious form of security.

I suppose I will invest in a decent disc lock either way, but is bike theft just not a big thing here? I guess the market for bikes in the UK is MUCH bigger than here, so maybe that plays a part?
 
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