Re: Mechanic has suggested welding a metal to my bike as secondary lock, need your opinion on it

Topic Approved & moved to Help section.

I think its not a good idea. Better go for frame locking, if you have a bike like KTM or so. (You didn't mention which bike you have)

The basic rule is that in case of severe impact or theft attempt, the weakest thing will break first. If your lock & frame are both strong enough, your welding may break first. If the welding is too strong, obviously the bike part will suffer impact.
Plus, without extensive testing, nothing can be recommended.

Its therefore better to lock in an existing component first, like the leg guard's sub frame or grab rails or so.

Pratically, a lot of people have modified their vehicles, and this may result in a rejected claim in case of an accident, if its discovered that the cause of accident was the modification. However, not too much of an issue otherwise.
However, the claim is almost sure to be rejected if you tried to hide this welding from the surveyor who examins your vehicle. There should be clear pics of the same with the surveyor, then this makes your claim stronger...
I suggest you not to do it.

Re: Mechanic has suggested welding a metal to my bike as secondary lock, need your opinion on it

I don't think that mechanic will take you to a skilled plasma welding shop, most likely he will get the welding done at a roadside iron welder and they will Definitely screw up the chassis! Nobody should weld or unweld anything on the chassis of a vehicle UNLESS it becomes absolutely necessary due to some accident or rusting. Tell him to keep his low IQ ideas to himself.

I have bought a bike disc lock for both my and my brother's bikes, they are easy to use and you can store it below the seat, no need to carry it in a bag. You just snap it on the disc's holes and leave it there. The thieves won't be able to move your bike from there without using a crane or truck. When I get paranoid about safety, I put disc locks on both my front and rear discs (karizma ZMR). Don't buy the cheap chinese ones which are sold for rs. 250 or such. I bought this one:



It's costly but worth it, nobody will be able to break or cut it.

Re: Mechanic has suggested welding a metal to my bike as secondary lock, need your opinion on it

Another idea if you want to go thewelding way without playing with the chasis is to take a piece of metal and weld it around some part for the frame, you can make a lock mechanism on that instead of playing with he frame.

Re: Mechanic has suggested welding a metal to my bike as secondary lock, need your opinion on it

Thanks for all your suggestions!!

I don't want to undermine the options you have considered for anti-theft but the reason i considered this welded metal was because after reading anti theft related posts here as well as enquiring with others, it seems to me that a thick chain lock or something similar is more effective deterrent than anti theft alarm, disc lock or throttle lock. I understand even a chain lock will not stop a thief from shoving the bike into a truck & driving away unless chained to ground but my only hope from adding a secondary protection is to increase the time it takes for a thief to unlock my bike which will hopefully make him forget my bike & go for another one. I have heard that disc lock, throttle lock, anti theft alarm can also be bypassed relatively easily (unless you have xena lock kind of thing) using a tool by a determined thief (even within 30 secs-1 min). A thick chain lock is supposed to be more difficult to bypass easily though not foolproof.

There is adequate security in my home & office, so i will only need secondary protection when parking near beach, open ground, new places, etc. Since i don't want to carry around a clunky chain lock, so i considered this option suggested by mechanic. But thanks for letting me know not to mess with chassis as i was not aware of this. As suggested by zapps, i will try to weld in some other place.

Re: Mechanic has suggested welding a metal to my bike as secondary lock, need your opinion on it

Do pay heed to the fact that if not done properly, the clamp around frame might vibrate and ring at speeds. You might require something to act as cushion between the frame and the welded metal. It would keep it in place and stop m take clanking noise.