Yes, all the time. The factory steering lock is the single most overestimated piece of motorcycle security. It's better than nothing — it stops a casual joyrider — but to a real thief it's a speed bump measured in seconds.
Two ways it fails:
- It gets broken. The steering lock is a small pin inside the frame lock mechanism. A hard, sharp wrench on the handlebars — sometimes with a foot braced on the frame — snaps many of them outright. The bars swing free and the bike rolls away.
- It gets ignored. The lift-and-load method doesn't care where your bars point. A bike with locked steering fits in a van exactly as well as one without.
Should you still use it? Absolutely — it costs nothing, takes one second, and filters out the lowest-effort thieves. Just never let it be your only layer.
What to stack on top: a disc lock (ideally alarmed) for quick stops, a chain to a solid anchor at home, parking that puts eyes or cameras on the bike, and a hidden GPS tracker for the theft that gets through anyway. Think of the steering lock as the first of five layers, not as security.
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