The specialist cycling insurer Bikmo has today unveiled a brand new bike theft tracking tool for public use.

Available to all for free, riders across the country can now view reported thefts on an interactive heatmap. Showing incident rates across England and Wales - taken from publicly available police data - London's financial centre, the City of London, came out on top as the worst area for bike theft.

Figures for the whole of 2020 also showed a dip in thefts compared to previous years, despite reports of huge spikes in the first half of the year.

Bikmo's new heatmap shows bike thefts in England and Wales for the whole of 2020. Overlaying this with population data, areas are then given a rate of theft per 100,000 residents. Showing a live table of the worst and safest areas for bike theft, cyclists can now view theft trends in their local areas and identify hotspots of reported incidents.

According to the aggregated data, 74,573 bikes were reported stolen in England and Wales in 2020.

When grouped and split into the UK's 12 regions, the South West ranked as the sixth worst region for bike theft last year with a rate of 84 reported thefts per 100,000 residents. Whilst some way below Greater London which topped the table with a rate of 492, the South West's rate was still some way over that of the safest region - the North West (55).

Bristol was shown to be the worst area for bike theft within the South West with a rate of 391 thefts per 100,000 residents. This was then followed by Bournemouth (352) and Cheltenham (261).

When looking back over the previous four years, incidents within the South West appear to be moving in the right direction. With a rate of 119 in 2017, the number of reported thefts had steadily fallen year-on-year showing a marked improvement for riders.

As well as showing the worst areas for bike theft in England in 2020, Bikmo were also able to determine the safest areas to park your bike. Notably, West Devon had the lowest rate of bike thefts within the South West - and the whole of England and Wales - with just 15 thefts per 100,000 residents.

Looking beyond the South West and across the whole of England and Wales, the City of London was by far the worst single area for bike theft with a rate of 6,345 thefts per 100,000 residents. Behind this was the historic city of Cambridge with a rate of 1,531, and the borough of Hackney in East London with 943.

Despite a number of statistics showing dramatic rises in bike theft towards the start of the year, the full 2020 data showed that the total number of bikes reported stolen to Police in England and Wales was actually lower than the previous three years. In England and Wales in 2020, a total of 74,573 bike thefts were reported, down 11% from 83,536 in 2019. The rate of bike thefts per 100,000 people also fell; dropping 13% from 46,918 in 2019 to 53,737 in 2020.

CEO of Bikmo David George said: "As more and more people begin to realise the many benefits of cycling during the pandemic, it is only natural that fears around bike theft will rise. We are proud to today unveil a brand new public tool, allowing riders across the country to view annual bike theft rates in their local area and identity hotspots where crimes are being reported. The new tool will be regularly updated to provide an ongoing resource to members of the public. We hope this will be useful to the fast growing number of riders, and help increase awareness in high-risk areas."

For more information on Bikmo's bike theft tracker, and its range of insurance cover for cyclists, click HERE : the Bikmo site