Motorcycle Tampering

[Watcher]

So I'm pretty sure someone in my apartment complex is sabotaging my motorcycle.

Over the course of the past couple of months I've had my tires go flat a few times. The first time I was stopped by a driver who let me know, and after filling it was good for a few days so I put it out of mind.
Weeks pass, I go to a riding class and the instructor informs me the rear is flat. Now I think there's a problem.
Well, the bike has been sitting for the last couple of weeks and I've been going out every other day or so and checking the pressure.
Down a PSI or two, no big deal, it's been colder lately.
Then today I get geared up to go out and kick the rear tire. Low.
I take the cap off and I hear it leaking.
I look and I can see the shrader-valve HANGING OUT!
I go back into my tool box and can't find my shrader-valve tool. Lucky for me my valve caps are steel and have a rubber seal inside. I pumped it way up and quick as I could capped it. Didn't hear it leaking so I ran back inside to put my tools away, hopped on, and raced to the bike shop to buy a valve tool.

Shrader-valves don't just unscrew themselves. I've had bicycles all my life, several cars, several motorcycles, and NEVER had a shrader behave like that.
So if this was tampering, I think all the last times it went flat were also tampering.

My apartment doesn't have cameras, I don't know how to catch whoever is doing this.
I have an idea who it could be, there's one guy in a nearby unit who thinks my little 11 pound dog is responsible for the Labrador sized piles that end up in front of his unit and he's yelled at me while taking my dog out before.
I pick up after my dog, and just to avoid conflict I started to take my dog to a different area.
He was also on his balcony watching me screw with my bike the whole time. I'm very suspicious of him.
I do park in a space that is closest to his unit, as well.


Any advice?
I don't want to go retaliating on him in case he's not the one, and aside from staking out my bike all night every night I don't think there's a way to catch him.
I don't want this going from what is essentially harmless harassment to kicking my bike over or cutting wires or something...
Letting the air out of my tires is dangerous, but cutting my brakes is deadly. I don't need that.


When I got home today I snugged up the valves, pumped the tires up, double-checked the valves, then put the cap on with a wrench.
If someone IS messing with me, hopefully that will be enough of a deterrent if all they have is a valve-tool.
I'm going to let the building manager know tomorrow, and I'm going to park it in front of the office from now on.  It's a farther walk for me, but it's more conspicuous and the manager can keep a lazy eye on it during the day.

[ShowBizWolf]

Ugh this kind of thing makes me ill. I'm sorry to hear about this Watcher. You have every right to be concerned imo because you just don't know what kind of crazy stuff people are willing to do.

Maybe you could look into buying some kind of camera that you could mount on your bike but it's not seen? Or if you can see your bike from a window in your apartment, set up a camera to record it? I don't know much about newer technology tbh... dash cams and gopro thingies and webcams etc but it seems like everyone else in the world does lol.

Setting up a hidden cam seems like the only way to actually see what is going on and catch this bugger.

[Watcher]

I got a tip to use a wildlife camera.
They're way cheaper than video survalience.

Battery operated, infrared, motion sensing, hang on a tree and wait.

[ShowBizWolf]

YESSSSS!!!! Catch this poo-head, Watcher!

[yamahonkawazuki]

yessss catch the poohead. tbh i dont recall a valvecore ever loosening either. ive heard of them going bad but not loosening. that aside whats "labra-dookies" issue beyond apparent immaturity? the wildlife camera is an interesting idea, just where in complex could you mount one? theyre kinda bulky. ( 3x6" or larger. plus commmonly those are stolen too) where is your bike parked relative to your apartment?, anything within sight of a window?
Aaron

[qcbaker]

Get a wildlife camera or camp out by your bike and get a video of this guy doing this. You need to get proof that this person is tampering with your bike. Then call the police. Tampering with your tires is not "essentially harmless". Messing with a part of your bike that is integral to the safe operation of the machine directly puts you in danger. That's literally a crime. Criminal mischief at least, attempted murder at most. Its like cutting the brake lines. People can and do get fines/jail time for stuff like this.

I know you probably don't want to make this big of a deal about it, but if it were me, I would get proof and call the police immediately.

[mr72]

I agree, get a game camera and mount it somewhere that has a view of the bike, if not on the bike itself somewhere inconspicuous. Once you get them on camera, call the police and make a report. Police probably won't do anything but when your nosy neighbor sees the cops pull up and examine the bike and make the report, he'll probably back off.

Or, you will wind up with a flat and have no evidence of how it happened on the game camera, then you'll know you just have a leak in the tire

[pliskin]

Unless you where at full speed when the air went out you would have known the tire is flat as soon as you pulled out. I'd lean to it just getting loose. In other words the air went out while you where at speed (no way you would have not noticed a flat sitting still/moving slow).

[mr72]

Yeah I agree, I notice when my rear tire is 5 psi low. Can't imagine riding with it totally flat and not knowing. But I am not riding a Buell Almighty.

[Watcher]

I do have the suspension set to the "cushy" setting so a softer rear can not be felt sometimes.  This thing handles well regardless, the rear never really feels floaty even with the flat, apparently.

But my argument still is how can it hold for days, weeks even, then in one day let all out?
Either it leaks or it doesn't. 

[rscottlow]

But my argument still is how can it hold for days, weeks even, then in one day let all out?
Either it leaks or it doesn't.

I don't know, tires are weird. I had a slow leak in one of my truck tires, and while it would sometimes hold air for weeks, there would be some days where I could go outside and find it 10 pounds low (especially if I went a couple of days without driving it). Granted, that was a nail, rather than a valve issue, but still...

[Watcher]

Well, I'll know soon enough.

I struck paint lines on the valve cap and stem, if it's tampered with the paint will be damaged or the lines will no longer match.

[mr72]

I don't know, tires are weird. I had a slow leak in one of my truck tires, ...

Agreed. My wife's car (Lexus IS250) left rear tire pops up on the tire pressure monitor as low once every few months. Whenever it does this, the pressure is always in the teens (spec is 38 psi). But it'll go for months and be perfectly stable. I am not sure it doesn't lose a lot of air quickly when it does, sporadically. But I confess it's not consistent enough that I have not pulled the wheel off and looked for a puncture. There's probably a nail or screw in it and you just turn just the right way or go over the right bump and it stresses it and hisses out a bunch of air in a chunk. guessing...

Anyway Watcher that's a good plan with the paint, see if it's being tampered. But you'll need the game camera to catch the bad guy in the act.

[Kijona]

I would lean towards coincidence on this one. It might have been a little loose the first time and then the airing up loosened it more. There may have also been little bits of dirt/junk stuck in the valve that sealed it enough and then it came out and viola - flat tire. 

One thing worth knowing is you can actually use a tiny flatblade screwdriver to tighten the valve core. I wouldn't recommend it as a normal practice as you could damage the core, but it'll work in a pinch.

[pattman]

Wild life cameras work a treat.  A few people have caught low lives tampering with their bikes and vans with them.

I've heard stories of crazy people buttering disc brakes on motorbikes as they "hate them."  There certainly are some idiots about.

[Watcher]

Nothing conclusive yet to update.

As previous incidents were quite a bit apart I didn't expect any evidence yet, but since cranking down the caps and painting them I've had zero issues so far.

If my tires don't go flat again before I move out I might chalk it up to the supernatural.
I'm not convinced it was happenstance.

As is I'm doing major TCLOCS before every ride just to be safe.