It seems like thieves are targeting the Yamaha TMAX in certain parts of the UK. Despite not being a huge seller in Great Britain 12 of the £8999 scooters have been reported stolen IN THE LAST WEEK. That\’s an alarming amount of highly-priced scooters in such a short space of time, but there\’s little surprise. As an easy-to-ride get-away vehicle capable of carrying two-people and tools at high speed, we can\’t think of anything better.
Two of the stolen Yamahas were fitted with a Datatool TrakKING unit, one of them was recovered by the police in less than an hour last night and another has been recovered this afternoon. That one had been stolen and recovered twice in a fortnight. The other owners haven\’t been quite so lucky though.
Maybe the new trend will mean Vespa GTS owners in the capital can relax a little. The Vespa has been the number one stolen scooter in London, it\’s become very popular with light-fingered toe rags in the last two years, countless Vespas have been stolen and used in all manner of crimes.
The video (above) was taken from a bus CCTV camera last week in Sutton, South West London. It shows two lads on a silver Vespa GTS, the passenger hops off and tries to steal a motorbike, he sits astride it and is pushed away by the GTS rider. On this occasion police later arrested a 20-year old male.
We\’ve also seen footage recently (see video above) of a cordless angle grinder being used to cut through a disc lock on a Ducati Panigale (again in London), the thieves arrive on a pair of TMAX\’s and film themselves cutting through the lock in a shower of sparks, amidst the sound of a blaring bike alarm and two twin-cylinder scooters, before pushing the bike away. They later stop and check under the seat for signs of a tracking device. The shocking thing about this video is just how much noise they\’re making in the dead of night in a suburban street.
SLUK advice
Our advice is to lock your scooters up as well as you can – preferably with a combination of disc lock and chain, fit a tracking device, and park them somewhere safe.
If you feel like you are being followed by another bike or scooter as you approach your destination, carry on and ride around the block until you know that nobody is tracking you. This is better than revealing where your scooter is usually parked.
