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Crackheads breaking/stealing sparkplugs

Broken/stolen sparkplug(s)?

  • Yep, but only once

    Votes: 10 13.0%
  • Of course, I live in SF, it happens to me semi-frequently

    Votes: 2 2.6%
  • It happens so often I carry spares in my pocket every day

    Votes: 4 5.2%
  • Never

    Votes: 61 79.2%

  • Total voters
    77

PatrickLedwith

New member
Joined
Jun 6, 2007
Location
Portland (Formerly in SF)
Moto(s)
Nighthawk 650, Ninja 250, DR-Z400SM
So, has it happened to you? Happened to me twice in two weeks (and I live in a very quiet neighborhood, at the top of a rather big hill, far away from the Tendernob).

Yes, yes, I park on the street (sidewalk, actually). If my landlord didn't want $200 a month for the garage, it probably wouldn't have happened, but alas...
 
Despite the fact that the heads of my bike's engine stick out to the sides, you can't get to the spark plugs without a deep well socket and ratchet. And if you do, I've got spare spark plugs waiting inside :p It's the price you pay for parking outside in SF.
 
strange as it seems, spark plugs are often stolen from motorcycles away from crackhead infested neighborhoods...

seems more common in the marina, pacific heights, russian/nob hill areas rather than the inner tenderloin, mission, hunter's point area...probably cuz the gangbangers will kill them...

I've even talked to a customer that's a cop that is stationed in the Tenderloin and he said he's never confiscated spark plugs from any of the multitude of crack heads in the area...
 
Yep, it the TL. You DO need a socket tool, but try telling that to crackheads who only have pliers.
 
Johndicezx9 said:
If they can carry pliers, why can't they carry a crack pipe?

People don't steal sparkplugs to smoke crack, they steal them to use the ceramic to break car windows.

Car windows are actually fairly difficult to break, but ceramic is extremely dense and generally shatters them into a zillion pieces in one try.

Crackheads generally use rose tubes or similar cheap pieces of glass tubing to smoke crack.
 
dunno if it's really the crack heads causing the turmoil with motorcycles...they're often too lazy to steal...

meth heads...now those bastards are annoying...don't see them during the day but at night, they come out like cockroaches and you flash the light on them, they scurry off ....

I love San Francisco...not only do we have a mix of different cultures but a mix of different types of junkies....:laughing
 
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Johndicezx9 said:
If they can carry pliers, why can't they carry a crack pipe?

Maybe because a crack pipe is more incriminating should you encounter a LEO?

You don't need anything special to break my plugs... just something slim and rigid. I'm tempted to see if I can break a plug with one of those metal Sharpies (the kind that gives high school kids a cheap high).

What sucks is that my bike is now a target for a potential repeat offender.

EDIT--

Okay, okay, smoking crack, smoking meth, breaking into cars... whatever. It's criminal regardless.

I admit that I'm no angel, but I don't go out of my way to violate people to indulge in my habits.
 
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as a 2 time victim of sparkplug thievery, i say to them now... good luck fuckers! :finger good luck even fidning the sparkplug wires leading to the sparkplugs! :devil
 
you were offered a garage in sf for only $200, and you turned it down.

what was it that ren would say to stimpy.


at least get a good cover, lock it on and get a motion disc alarm or cover alarm.. costs about 150 for this sort of set up. if one tries to lift the cover, which they can't, they set off the alarm they cannot see and they cannot see if your spark plugs are the type that are easy to access and break.
 
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Maybe you should consider investing a little money on a motorcycle cover.

It could help prevent spark plug theft, maybe not.
 
supertireguy said:
Maybe you should consider investing a little money on a motorcycle cover.

It could help prevent spark plug theft, maybe not.

I gave up on covers after having two stolen (in different parts of the city). A few people in my neighborhood have had theirs stolen, too.

As for turning down a $200/mo garage, shoot, if the bike was worth it, I'd consider it. $200 will keep my flush in extra plugs.

Time to go BBQ something for lunch.
 
sometimes they damage the engine case when they break them.. they need the plug to be held in some how while they break it with some unknown object i doubt is of any precision.

my cover has three places to lock it and extra heavy material and rings there. they have locks at scuderia for covers.. this is the only place i know of that carries them. you can also get one at rei or make your own extra heavy one with a custom cut length of chain. i use chain and a good size lock with mine. i had one stolen but none since locking them. no one i know of who locks them has had any problems with that.

3 - 6 bikes will fit in a garage, you could co-op it with your neighbors if you do not want the whole thing to yourself.
 
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PatrickLedwith said:
$200 will keep my flush in extra plugs.


ya, wait til they break the plugs off, and you cant screw them out. youll wish it was only $200 then.
 
ntula said:
sometimes they damage the engine case when they break them.. they need the plug to be held in some how while they break it with some unknown object i doubt is of any precision.

my cover has three places to lock it and extra heavy material and rings there. they have locks at scuderia for covers.. this is the only place i know of that carries them. you can also get one at rei or make your own extra heavy one with a custom cut length of chain. i use chain and a good size lock with mine. i had one stolen but none since locking them. no one i know of who locks them has had any problems with that.

3 - 6 bikes will fit in a garage, you could co-op it with your neighbors if you do not want the whole thing to yourself.

Both covers were cut off.

I can't share the garage. Either I get it, or the upstairs neighbor gets it, no exceptions.
 
get a sling shot and some glass marbles.. Lie in wait.. You'll need to muster LOTS of conviction and a bad attitude...

Sometime I'll tell you tales of when I lived in a bad part of town of Tampa, Fl..
The SWAT team setup a CP(command post) in my front yard twice in 6months.. but none of them crack head/gangsta/drunk redneck bastards ever messed with me.

I get a little berziko when it comes to this shit.

Scare em off already.. (always easier said than done though.. )




Originally posted by PatrickLedwith
Um... done it, twice in two weeks, as I initially posted.
 
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