Direct Line Home Insurance student bike theft warning

Bike thieves are leaving university students with a whopping £18.7million bill for stolen bikes according to research from Direct Line home insurance.

The findings reveal that 106 bicycles are stolen each day from university students across the UK. With the average bike costing £160 to replace, careless students are leaving opportunist thieves with rich pickings.

Despite the number of bikes that are stolen, many students are failing to protect themselves. Only a third of the students who owned a bike had cover in place either protecting themselves on their own home insurance or their parents. 32 per cent of those who owned bikes had no cover in place, leaving almost 80,000 bikes at risk of not being insured.

Andrew Lowe, Direct Line’s Head of Home Insurance comments: “In recent years, the number of claims for stolen bicycles has risen as much as 34 per cent in September – just when new and returning students are wheeling out their bicycles to campus and bringing them back to their halls of residence for the new academic year. A student bike may seem like rich picking for bike thieves, but for just a few pounds, students should ensure they have a good quality lock on their bike.

“With so many students at risk of having their bike stolen, we would strongly advise them to either take out their own insurance or check to see if their parents’ policy covers them.”

The research also found that men’s bikes are double the cost to replace (£187.93) compared to women (£98.34). However, it seems men are happier to carry the risk and pay out for any losses (39%) compared to women (23%).

Ex-bike thief Bob Turney’s top tips to protect your bike

Make sure you lock your bike up in plain sight of others. A good tip is to choose an area monitored by CCTV, as criminals never want to be caught on camera

Don’t scrimp on a lock – a cheap lock will be removable in an instant

Make sure both your wheels and frame are locked together. With ‘quick-release’ latches common, a thief can make off with a wheel in seconds

Don’t take the risk of locking your bike up in a public place overnight, it’s a thief’s dream come true, as it will be rarely monitored – a virtually risk free steal

Don’t leave your bike for longer than necessary, and if possible, come back to it and move it to a different location.

These tips will help, but the only way to properly protect yourself is to ensure your home insurance is extended to cover a bike locked up outside the home.