This all began when the Chairman of the local IAM Group had his motorcycle stolen. He was only gone a few minutes.
Deciding it was time to upgrade my motorcycle security led me down a deep rabbit hole that ended with some alarming statistics and the Hiplok DX1000. You may need a mug of tea for this one…
Motorcycle Theft
It is a sad fact that over the last 12 months, a motorcycle has been stolen in the UK every 13 minutes, and it gets worse when I include Europe, where one motorcycle is stolen every 108 Seconds.
Now, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics, to quote Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). To put the figures in context, the percentage at the end of each line shows thefts relative to the number of registered motorcycles in that country.
For the UK, according to the data sources I could find, it is a staggering 36%, which seems very high, but even if that figure were wrong by 50%, that would still mean one motorcycle being stolen in the UK every 26 minutes, 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
And we wonder why our insurance keeps going up.
(Sources: WorldMetrics Motorcycle Theft Statistics Report 2025 and ACEM Motorcycle Registration Statistics)
There will also be hotspots in each country, where avoiding them reduces the risk of your motorcycle being stolen, and hopefully, you will pay less for insurance.
Looking at the table below, major cities are obvious places to avoid, but I didn’t expect to see Nottinghamshire listed.
In Ireland, Dublin accounts for 80% of motorcycle thefts, and in Austria, if you avoid Vienna, your chances of riding home on your bike improve greatly.
Why My Motorcycle
Perhaps the easiest way to prevent your motorcycle from being stolen is to have a model that no one wants.
OK, every motorcycle is desirable, and to us, our motorcycle is perfect, but reality tells us that a 16-year-old rusty Hornet isn’t as attractive as a two-year-old GS … to a thief.
Another way—and perhaps the most practical—is to make your motorcycle harder to steal than the one next to it.
Talking with my local coppers, some of the stories about motorcycle thefts would make you question reality.
For example, three people were cutting a heavy-duty chain, while a fourth, looking forlorn, paced back and forth, holding a helmet.
When challenged, the “rider” explained that he had lost his keys and his friends had arrived with a van to help him get home.
The motorcycle was freed from its chain, loaded into the van with the disk lock still in place, and away they all went. And of course, you guessed it … it wasn’t his motorcycle.
So, having established that nothing is foolproof, it is about making it as difficult as possible for the scum sucking pond life to steal your motorcycle, and encourage them to look elsewhere for easier pickings.
And all of this is where Hiplok come into my cautionary tale.
Hiplok DX1000
Every great idea starts with a problem. For Hiplok, that problem was a stolen bicycle back in 2009. Co-founders Ben Smith and John Abrahams, both designers, decided they’d build better bicycle protection — something that would be known as a real pain in the arse for a thief to deal with.
With the first model—the Hiplok ORIGINAL—launched in 2011, by 2013, design awards and industry recognition had started rolling in. It was now time to take what they had learnt and enter the motorcycle market.
Anyone can put “angle grinder” proof on the packaging. If the Hiplok DX1000 and the AX1000 wall anchors were to be taken seriously, independent testing was required.
Sold Secure
Sold Secure is a UK-based independent testing and certification body for security products. Originally started by two Police Forces, it remains a not-for-profit organisation, run today by the UK’s Master Locksmiths Association.
How it works is that you send them your security products, and they then abuse the living daylights out of them with angle grinders, bolt cutters, drills, hammers, and anything else thieves use or Sold Secure have to hand.
They don’t do it once; they have several attempts with a variety of tools, just to see if the locks are as good as their respective marketing departments have claimed.
After Sold Secure completes its abuse testing, products are given one of four ratings.
♦ Diamond: This is perhaps the only rating that really matters. If you are investing in motorcycle protection, why look for anything less? Your bike costs a lot more than the lock will.
♦ Gold: A good level of protection that should last around five minutes. As low as you may want to go if you are leaving your motorcycle unattended and out of sight.
♦ Silver: These locks are a balance between costs and protection. They won’t last long against a skilled thief, but you will be paying less for them.
♦ Bronze: Better than nothing, but it only gives protection against opportunistic theft. This isn’t going to deter someone who wants your bike.
The Hiplok DX1000 passed with a Sold Secure Diamond rating.
ART Foundation
Next up comes the Dutch ART Foundation certification system, which insurers and security experts in Europe recognise.
ART’s rating system is a little different. Five-star ratings can only be obtained by security devices designed for motorcycles stored at home.
The Hiplok DX1000, therefore, as it is portable, can’t achieve five stars, but it comfortably met the requirements for a 4-star rating, beating off sustained attacks from an assortment of lock-picking attempts, angle grinders, bolt cutters, drills, and saws.
Other Makes and Models
I think it would be safe to say (in the UK, anyway) that you would have had to be living under a rock not to have seen the Litelok X3 marketing campaign, and why shouldn’t they shout about their product? The Litelok X3 is an excellent security device.
But I’m not sure it has really done anything that hasn’t already been achieved – other than perhaps more aggressive marketing.
I took a long look at four different portable security devices, and here is what I came up with when I read the various independent testing reports, thumbed through the specifications and took a look at the prices.
| Lock Model | Weight | Shackle Thickness | Angle Grinder Resistance | Portability | Price Range | Warranty |
| Hiplok DX1000 | 2.6 kg | 32 mm (square profile) | Extremely high – destroys grinder disks | Good but heavy | £299 | 10 years |
| Litelok X3 | 2.1 kg | 16 mm (circular profile) | Very high – tested to resist up to 8 mins | Half a kilo lighter than a DX1000 | £250 | 3 years |
| Abus Granit Extreme 59 Lock and Chain | 2.7 kg | 16 mm | High – solid resistance, but not grinder-proof | Moderate | £150–£200 | 2 years |
| Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboudit Mini D Lock | 2.06 kg | 18 mm | Moderate – can be cut with a grinder in under 1 min | Compact but heavy | £100–£130 | Lifetime |
Disk Locks
If weight and size are a concern, then a disk lock is a viable alternative. Not as secure as a D lock through the wheel, as a thief can always cut through the brake disk, but this makes the bike unridable.
Not surprisingly, Hiplok has taken its angle-grinder-proof technology and created a new disk lock, the MD1000.
I did a similar comparison of the Hiplok MD1000 to a few other popular disk locks (there are a lot available), and from those I looked at:
The Hiplok MD1000 was the only disk lock manufactured with anti-angle-grinder composite materials, and the only one I could find that was Sold Secure Diamond and ART 4 Star-rated.
Oxford Beast and Squire locks feature hardened steel and armouring, which slow angle grinders but do not destroy the grinding disks quickly enough to make them a serious problem.
The Artago 69X and Kryptonite Evolution are two other excellent disk locks, but are only Sold Secure Gold Star rated.
Bottom Line
The Litelok X3 is ideal for riders who want a D lock that is angle-grinder proof and prioritise weight, albeit just half a kilo.
Abus Granit and the Kryptonite are “plastic muscles” – they might look good, but when put to the test, don’t deliver, but are better than nothing.
Hiplok have a well-established reputation to protect, and the DX1000 (not to be confused with the D1000) is tougher than a coffin nail. It weighs more than the rest, but with that heft comes peace of mind.
And if you want a lock that is angle-grinder proof, compact, and lightweight, the MD1000 disk lock is well worth a look.
Sadly, nothing can guarantee that your motorcycle will not come to the attention of the scum sucking pond life that steal motorcycles, but I’m going to give them a – deleted – hard time if they try to take mine.
