Oh No, My Bosch e-bike battery has been stolen! What should you do to replace your battery?

E-bikes are great. They’re an awesome way to get around, and even if you want a bike to transport kids to school on. You can take a number of precautions to stop your bike being stolen, including a minimum of two good quality bike locks (we sell them in store), and ideally a motion sensor and gps tracker. If you can make the bike useless to thieves because it has a missing battery, even better! Unfortunately lately in London we are seeing quite a lot of Bosch bike batteries being stolen 🙁

Fortunately, we do sell batteries and keep them in stock, so if you’re able to get the bike to us, then great. We keep batteries for Tern bikes, but we generally have the batteries for any Bosch powered bike, and we can get Shimano batteries the next day.

So, if you’re unfortunate to be a victim of a theft like this, what should you do?

1. Take a deep breath. Look around, make sure that you’re safe. Perhaps get yourself a cup of tea. Get photos for insurance (if you have it).
2. Report it to the police. Sure, they might not find the thief, but if you don’t report it, then no-one knows that there is a problem.
3. Do not leave your bike in situ. It’s a fairly common ruse by thieves to steal a part of a bike and then come back for the rest. This may mean that you need to get a cab. Addison Lee have made great strides in recent years to be more cyclist friendly, and they have their cycle-cab product. They can even fit large bikes like Reisse and Muller or Babboe in the back of their vans, and it’s no fuss for them.
4. Give us a call. You may either need to get the bike to us, or we might just be able to sell you a battery that you can fit to your bike. Often the bike is not damaged when they steal the battery – you should absolutely get your ebike checked over though – but you may be able to get the battery on in order to ride it to us. We can advise if you’re not sure.
5. Do something to prevent your battery getting nicked in the future. There are a number of options out there, and something we’ll cover in a future blog post. Our best advice at the moment is to remove or lock your battery, if possible. The hotspots for this sort of crime seem to be Islington, Hackney and Kings Cross/Euston area.

Am I covered on Insurance if my e-bike battery has been stolen?

The usual answer is – yes. For most insurers, you’ll be covered.

Do beware trying to source bike parts online or second hand.

Buying a second hand battery is a potential ticking timebomb. We don’t recommend it at all. ebikes are safe and reliable, but a damaged or stolen battery could be unsafe bother for riding, but also just for storing your bike.

If you don’t already, now might be a good time to get some bike insurance.

Of course, the best way to stop your battery or your whole bike getting stolen, is to be riding it!

See also “What to do if your handlebars have been stolen”