Best motorcycle security | Protection against theft that... actually works!

Unfortunately, motorbikes are a huge draw to thieves, but many will be put off by decent motorcycle security. A disc lock, lock and chain, ground anchor and a cover will help, and a tracker could mean you get your bike back again, even if it is stolen.

Best security products at a glance

• Disc lock: Oxford XA14 Disc Lock – View now on Amazon
• Lock & chain: Oxford Nemesis Lock and Chain – View now on Sports Bike Shop
• Ground anchor: Oxford Beast Ground Anchor – View now on Sports Bike Shop
• Bike cover: Oxford Stormex Bike Cover – View now on Sports Bike Shop

Casual motorcycle thieves who simply want some fun at someone else’s expense and potentially bait the police into a chase will be the easiest to deter, but even an organised operation stealing to order or to break the bike into parts and ship them far and wide can be tackled with enough layers of good kit.

There are plenty of steps that you can take to make life harder for thieves. Ultimately, the idea is to make your bike as unattractive as you can and force them to move on completely or, at least, to the next bike. This is easier at home, but there are portable motorcycle security products to take with you, too.

Jump to:

• Disc locks
• Locks and chains
• Ground anchors
• Shelters and covers
• Other motorcycle security products to consider

We’ve gathered what we feel are the top motorcycle security products to help ensure that you keep your bike and it doesn’t disappear without a trace.

You can also check out how a product performs in our full, in-depth web reviews on security kit.

Best Deals at a Glance

• 38% off Oxford Quartz XD10 Disc Lock – was £39.99, now £24.99
• 30% off Oxford Brute Force Mini Ground Anchor – was £24.99, now £16.99
• 30% of Oxford Magnum Duo U-lock with 1.2m cable – was £59.99, £39.84
• 44% off Yale Chain & Lock 1100mm – was £58.99, now £32.91
• 24% off Master Lock Certified Garage Door Lock – was £115.35, now £87.99
• 20% off H&S Motorbike Chain with Padlock 10mm x 2m – was £32.39, now £25.99

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The best motorcycle disc locks

One of the cheapest and easiest ways to add a layer of security to your motorbike – especially when you’re out and about – is a disc lock.

Relatively inexpensive and easy to carry around, a disc lock is clipped into place on your bike’s brake disc and prevents the front wheel from turning. Some are also alarmed or can double up as padlocks for your home security chain, too.

Sadly, disc locks will only deter opportunist thieves and the smallest examples can be smashed off with a hammer. Thieves carrying angle grinders can also chop out a section of the disc itself to remove the lock. That’s not to say a disc lock isn’t a useful addition to your arsenal, especially when layered with other measures.

Find our full list of disc locks

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Best motorcycle locks and chains

The next step after a disc lock is a good quality lock and chain. These range from portable options you can carry with you to enormous units that are meant for use at home.

Many chains are available in different lengths and it’s recommended that you choose the one that means you can secure your motorbike to an immovable object without leaving the lock on the ground (to make life harder for a thief). Try to feed it through a section of frame rather than a wheel, as wheels can be removed swiftly and easily with minimal tools.

It’s also worth thinking about the practicalities of threading the chain through a substantial part of your bike. A particularly massive chain I once had would only fit through the rear alloy wheel of my ZX-10R and couldn’t be used at all on the spoked Ténéré 700 I had before that.

Find our full list of locks and chains

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Best ground anchors

A lock and chain is only as good as the thing you secure it to. If you have more than one bike then chaining them together is a good option. If not, and you don’t have anything else to use, a ground anchor is a great solution.

Typically, these are a hoop or tunnel that is either bolted to the floor or wall or cemented into place. Make sure you get the placement right first time because – for obvious reasons – they’re a pig to move afterwards.

Find our full list of ground anchors

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Best motorcycle shelters and covers

It may sound obvious, but one of the best ways to keep your bike safe from thieves is to hide it from prying eyes. If you’ve got a shed or garage then you already do this, but if not then a cover or shelter might come in handy.

The cheapest and easiest option is a cover, which start from just a few quid and range up to about £100 depending on the features included.

Find our full list of motorcycle covers and shelters

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Other motorcycle security products to consider

Keeping your bike under lock and key is a great start, but there also steps you can take to make your shed or garage more secure and tracker products that help recover your bike if it does get stolen. You might even consider forensic tagging that may not save your bike in the first instance, but helps to secure a prosecution for the thief that took it.

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Why we need security kit: how easy is it to steal a motorcycle anyway?

You might be thinking that all this motorcycle security kit seems like a lot of faff, and an extra expense that could be avoided. After all, that’s what insurance is for, and your bike has a steering lock on it already – isn’t that enough?

Well, unfortunately, motorbikes are one of the easiest vehicles to steal, beaten only by bicycles for how quickly thieves can snatch them away. A 2021 study by the Motorcycle Action Group found that motorcycles were 11 times more likely to be stolen than a car, which made them the number one target for vehicle theft by a country mile.

Although most motorcycles have steering locks, these are easily snapped off with a quick kick of the handlebars, allowing thieves with minimal experience to roll away with your ride in mere seconds. Even if steering locks were stronger, it only takes two or three burly blokes to lift a motorbike into a van and be gone just as quickly.

The fact that unsecured motorcycles are so easy to steal is only magnified by their relatively high value, which makes them the ideal gig for crooks of any calibre to quickly cash in on – at your expense. All this makes it important to keep your ride locked up safe wherever you go – especially when parking up outside your home for the night, where most bikes end up being stolen from.

Of course, no security measure is completely bullet-proof, and you can’t expect to stop the cartel from ‘donating’ your bike for their ‘charitable’ causes if they really want to. But that is what insurance is for. Motorcycle security products will help you keep your ride where it belongs, so you don’t have to worry about your bike being stolen any more than you would for your car.

What is the best way to secure a motorcycle?

The best way to secure your motorcycle depends on the security kit you have, or can afford to buy, so here’s some tips for each type of security product we’ve featured. Although it might seem obvious, there are some little tricks worth knowing to make sure you’re making the most of your security kit.

The most convenient option is the disc lock, combining good security with ease of use. Consider attaching it on rear brake disc, if your bike has one. Putting a beefy disc lock on doesn’t do much good if a thief can just take the wheel off, and the front is often the easier one to remove of the two. Some thieves even carry spare wheels with them to temporarily attach to the bike in preparation for this, so you can partially preempt this kind of attack by simply switching discs.

The tried and true method is the lock and chain, for the best you can get in raw toughness. For these, it’s best to attach it to an immovable object – lampposts and bicycle racks are your best bet in the urban jungle, but it’s worth installing a ground anchor if there’s nothing else suitable at home. Make sure to tie the chain around the frame of the bike, or the rear wheel if there isn’t enough space. The floor makes a great work surface for an angle grinder attack, or a sledgehammer, so keep the chain taut and above ground level.

If you really can’t attach it to anything, the best you can do is to tie the chain tightly around the rear wheel, then wrap it through the frame of the bike, leaving as little slack in the chain as possible. This makes it as hard as possible for an attacker to get a good angle to break the chain or lock, without also damaging the tyre, and making the bike harder to move.

Finally, bike covers work wonders for breaking line of sight, and making a bike look less attractive to thieves. Many thieves shop around for specific makes and models, stealing to order, and they often don’t want what they can’t see. Old decrepit bike covers work especially well to convince thieves your ride isn’t worth the effort – if the cover hasn’t even been looked after, the bike underneath must be in rough shape too, right?

Whatever you end up using, as long as you use something – anything – to secure your bike, you’ll be safer for it. It could be a several hundred pound chain and lock (in price and weight), or the cheapest disc lock on Amazon. Since motorcycle theft is largely opportunistic, anything is better than nothing, and any of the products on this list will reduce the likelihood of your bike being stolen. Go for something you’ll actually use, and it’ll help to make sure your bike sticks around to ride another day.

Other things to consider before you buy motorcycle security

When you’re buying security products, look for the Sold Secure logo. This is a not-for-profit scheme run by the Master Locksmiths Association that tests and rates products depending on their resistance to attack.

Look for products that have Motorcycle ratings and, ideally, Gold or Diamond for the highest levels of attack resistance.

How we test security products

At MCN, our team of expert journalists have decades of experience gained over hundreds of thousands of miles in order to provide you with opinions and evaluations you can trust, alongside news of the most significant developments in motorcycling safety gear. We want you to stay safe, enjoy your riding and hopefully look great while doing so! 

We don’t test our kit to destruction; we use it exactly how you do, in the real world and in all conditions.

That means we can deliver impartial buying advice you can rely on. To make it onto this list, security products must have been used for hundreds of miles or several months by our team of experienced testers, show no major flaws, and meet modern security standards as well as offering decent value for money. 

Each of our expert reviewers tests their security for portability, sturdiness, quality and value to ensure we advise you well. We also, where appropriate, comment on ease of installation and any other pertinent fact about the product.

If you can’t see a review against a security item on this page, it’s because we haven’t tested it yet. These locks will only be included if we think they’re important and relevant in the market, and rest assured, we will be working on bringing you a review as soon as we’ve done the miles.

Here’s a brief run-down of the star rating system we use, and what each score means:

• 1 star – Poor performance in this category or overall. A product with a single star rating has fallen below the expected standard and should be avoided.
• 2 stars – Basic performance in this area or overall. A product with a two-star rating has managed to perform to a barely acceptable level and there is room for improvement. It might be lacking safety features, be poorly built or far too expensive to recommend.
• 3 stars – An average performance in this area or overall. A product with a three-star rating has achieved a basic level of performance and is deemed adequate.
• 4 stars – A product has performed over and above the accepted averaged in this category or overall. A helmet with a four-star rating has surpassed expectation and delivered in a particularly impressive way.
• 5 stars – A product has performed at the highest possible level in a particular category or overall. A product with a five-star rating has delivered to the highest possible level, impressing the tester with its performance. We would happily spend our own money on it.

To find out more about our kit testing, head to our dedicated page explaining how we test motorcycle products.

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