Bike insuranceStreatham recovery
Bike theft recovery that gets your stolen bike back.
Traditional insurance pays you a sum of money weeks after your bike is stolen. BackPedal sends a recovery team to actually find it and bring it home. The covert tracking kit, the agents, and the backup insurance are all bundled into one subscription — annual in year 1, monthly or annual from year 2.
- +80%Recovery rate
- ~48hTypical recovery time
- 24/7In-house ops team
Recovery with no exclusions
Even if you forgot to lock up — we still recover your bike.
Full insurance backup included
Underwritten by Sundays Insurance, FCA regulated.
Tracking kit & professional installation
Covert GSM, GPS & BLE tracking kit — expertly installed, all part of your subscription.
Watch one of our recoveries
Trusted by thousands of families, commuters, racers and delivery riders because we do more than just insure… we recover.
What happens when you report a theft
Call our 24/7 hotline. A dedicated ops handler takes over immediately, opens a case file, and begins tracking the bike in real time using the covert GSM, GPS, and BLE kit we installed. There's no claim form, no phone-tree, no 'we'll get back to you in 5 working days'.
We deploy a recovery agent based on where the bike is heading and what's happening to it. Most thefts in London are opportunistic and follow predictable patterns — we know the handover points, the chop shops, the parking spots. That experience plus live position data is how we recover over 80% of bikes we're tracking.
We handle the police report on your behalf, document everything for your records, and return the bike to your door. If the bike's damaged in transit we coordinate the repair under the insurance side.
How we recover bikes
Three things in parallel from the moment you report a theft. The bike usually comes home within 48 hours.
- 1
Live tracking
Ops team monitors the bike's position in real time using the three on-bike trackers. Coverage holds across cellular dead-zones, indoor storage, and underground spaces.
- 2
Agents deployed
Recovery agents move to intercept based on the bike's current trajectory. We don't wait for the bike to 'settle' — most successful recoveries happen during the first 24 hours.
- 3
Return and handover
Bike checked for damage, police report filed if applicable, bike returned to your door. Insurance side handles any repair costs.
Why recovery beats a payout
A payout replaces the bike but does nothing about the underlying problem — the thief profits, the bike enters the second-hand market, and your premium goes up next year to price in the rising theft rate. Traditional insurance manages bike theft; it doesn't reduce it.
Recovery flips that. The thief gets nothing. You get your actual bike back, with the kit on it you've already adjusted to your fit. There's no excess on a recovery claim. And every successful recovery makes bike theft less rewarding for the people doing it.
How BackPedal works
Three steps. Covert trackers go on your bike, you call us when it's stolen, and our agents go and get it back. We've recovered over 80% of bikes reported to us.
01
Install trackers
Our mechanics fit covert GSM, GPS & BLE trackers to your bike anywhere in London — at the time and place you choose, 8am to 8pm, every day.
UP TO £149 OF KIT8AM–8PM, DAILY
02
24/7 Recovery OpsReport a theft
When your bike goes, you call our 24/7 hotline. We deploy recovery agents the same hour and keep you updated until it's back.
24/7 HOTLINESAME-HOUR DEPLOY
03
RecoveredOn its way homeBike recovered
We track it down, check it for damage, return it to your door, and handle the police report and any insurance claim on your behalf.
+80% RECOVEREDCLAIM HANDLED
+80%
Recovery rate
~48h
Typical recovery time
24/7
In-house ops team
Real recovery footage · updated weekly
Watch us
get them back.
Every clip is real footage from a BackPedal recovery, filmed by our agents on the ground. New recoveries land every week.
Watch the recoveries
Streatham6 hours to recover1:19
Stratford22 hours to recover1:12
Brighton2 days to recover1:15
Twickenham13 hours to recover1:11
London9 days to recover1:06
Hounslow23 hours to recover1:11
Kensington10 days to recover1:03the wall
Traditional bike
insurance vs
BackPedal
A bike is stolen every 2 minutes in the UK. Fewer than 2% of thieves are ever caught. Traditional insurers don't care — they just price it into your premium. The thief profits. You start again. Nothing changes.
BackPedal is different. We track your bike, recover it, and return it to you — so the thief gets nothing. Insurance is our backup, not our business model.
What you get
RecommendedBackPedalRecovery + Insurance
Other Bike InsuranceTypical Policy
01Recovery & Protection
Get your actual bike back
Covert GPS tracking included
24/7 recovery team deployed
Bike stolen? One call and we take over
02No exclusions on recovery
Forgot to lock up? Still covered
Left outside your house? Still covered
Stolen whilst riding? Still covered
03Insurance
If we can't recover your bike, our backup insurance by Sundays kicks in — the same kind of cover you'd get from any other bike insurer. Standard terms apply and claims are subject to approval.
Financial cover for a replacement bike
Accessory cover
Theft damage cover
Excess
£50*
Varies
* No excess on recovery claims. £200 excess for battery-only insurance claims.
★ ★ ★ AS SEEN ON TV
On the hunt
with TV crews
Three film crews. Three networks. One question — what does it actually look like to recover a stolen bike? Press play and find out.
45 minFeatured · BBC One
Trace, Track, Get My Car Back
In London, bike recovery specialist Bilal hunts down an ebike's GPS signal to a block of flats — and is shocked to discover what looks like a bike chop shop inside.
Watch on BBC iPlayer Series 1 · Episode 15 · 45 min
Crime + Investigation · 60 min
Bike Theft: London's Recovery Crew
“A routine recovery spirals into public confrontations, police involvement and a chase across multiple thefts — showing how unpredictable stolen bike recoveries can be.”
Watch on YouTube
Channel 4 Dispatches · 30 min
Britain's Bike Theft Capital
“Dispatches secretly films suspected handlers and goes on the trail of stolen bikes with our team.”
Watch on YouTubeThe kit · £150 of trackers
Covert trackers,
disguised & hidden
Every bike we protect gets a covert tracking kit — hidden away within the bike itself, or tucked into one of 17 disguised casings, so no two bikes look alike and thieves never learn the hiding spots.
Depending on your bike, that's some mix of an always-on Live GPS, a no-wires Sleeper GPS that wakes the moment your bike's reported stolen, and a short-range Proximity Beacon that leads our agents to it indoors. Read more about the trackers.
Handlebar cable coverCovers any brake, gear and electrical cables whilst hiding the tracker
Browse the disguises · tap to preview
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Rated 4.7 · 35 reviews on Trustpilot
Our customers love us
July 2026
Not all heroes wear capes...
It was past midnight and I didn't have much hope of anything happening that night… Richard answered immediately… By 5pm, Edgar had delivered my bike to my home, in exactly the same condition as it was before.
I cannot recommend this service highly enough - if you care about your bike, it's a no brainer!
July 2026
Who are you gonna call?
My Canyon e-bike was stolen… they were professional, knowledgeable, reassuring and super responsive. They kept me informed throughout the process. Most importantly, they successfully recovered my bike within 10 hours of me contacting them.
…it was like a military operation and they won.
May 2026
I can't recommend backpedal enough
To my absolute amazement, they successfully recovered my bike within 2 hours. What really stood out was the customer service; they kept me updated the entire time, providing constant peace of mind during a chaotic situation.
They've earned a lifelong customer… Truly spectacular service!
November 2025
Game changer company!
Edgar from Backpedal got our bike back within an hour of reporting the theft. The whole process was caring, professional and fast - I'm so impressed. I'd highly recommend Backpedal - since police isn't going to do anything, these guys are absolute heroes! Thank you!
January 2026
A superb team. If you have a nice bike in London its a no brainer.
A superb team from start to finish. Everyone in the office was helpful, kind, and extremely supportive. Having people on your side who know what they're doing can completely change an otherwise frustrating and futile situation into a positive one. I called in the morning and had my bike back by the afternoon. Edgar is sharp, efficient, and exactly the person you want when it comes to recoveries.
June 2026
The BackPedal team is amazing
The BackPedal team is amazing! They retrieved my bike within hours of reporting it, and made the whole process look trivial and reassuring. The experience is really like their instagram videos.
These guys are clearly professionals that can be trusted and on top of that they are super nice!
See all 35 reviews on Trustpilot
Reviews shown verbatim from our public Trustpilot profile.
Recovery service FAQs
How quickly does the recovery team respond?
Once you call our 24/7 hotline, we begin live-tracking immediately and a recovery agent is typically deployed within the hour. Most successful recoveries happen within 48 hours of the theft being reported. Real-time tracker data plus our agents' experience with London theft patterns mean we often have a fix on the bike before it reaches its first handover point.
What if you can't recover my bike?
If recovery isn't possible, our backup theft insurance (underwritten by Sundays Insurance, FCA regulated) handles a claim for replacement, accessories, and theft damage — subject to standard policy terms and a £50 excess. Recovery itself has no exclusions — even if you forgot to lock up — so most subscribers never need to claim under the insurance side at all.
Do I need to report the theft to police first?
No — please call BackPedal first. We handle the police report on your behalf as part of the recovery process, which logs BackPedal as the party acting on your behalf and streamlines all subsequent coordination with police. If you've already reported the theft yourself, it can create a parallel record that complicates the handover. Time matters in the first few hours; call our 24/7 hotline and we'll start tracking immediately.
Where does the recovery service operate?
UK-wide. We already protect thousands of ebikes for nationwide fleet partners and recover their bikes from across the country — Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, rural villages. The covert tracker reports position wherever the bike ends up, our 24/7 ops team monitors, and recovery agents go and get it back. The one thing currently regional is the consumer install network: a BackPedal mechanic visits to fit the tracker, and that mobile visit is currently available in London zones 1–4 (expanding in 2026). Fleet bikes are bulk-installed at depots, which is how fleet cover already runs nationwide.
How does recovery actually work?
The covert tracker reports position via GSM, GPS, and BLE — three technologies that cover each other's blind spots. As soon as you report a theft, our ops team monitors the live feed. Recovery agents are deployed to follow the bike's location. We coordinate the handover non-violently where possible, call in police where needed, document everything, and return the bike to your door.
Get your bike back, not a payout
Covert tracker, 24/7 recovery team, and backup insurance — bundled into one subscription. See your price in 60 seconds.