If you're an addict user of Strava, MapMyRide or any other service that uses GPS data to plan/track your rides then now is a good time to consider your privacy settings on those sites.

An article in Cycling Weekly "Ride mapping sites: The bike thief's new best friend?" highlights the possibility that tech-savvy bike-thieves may use your public GPS data to locate where your bike is stored overnight and then steal it.

The theory goes that thieves can use the start/end point of your ride as a good indicator of where your bike will be. Additional juicy info that you may have posted publicly might be make, model and a list of components.  A few spot checks on Strava members (that I have no association with) showed that some members list their bike in great detail down to expensive components that they're tracking for wear & tear.

Evidence that this technique is being used is anecdotal and, on Strava at least, I couldn't work out how you might identify location accurately enough - but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't tighten-up your privacy.

When I joined Strava, I made sure that I set the "Hide your house/office" to a 1,000ft radius and I recommend that you do the same - it's under your privacy options. Also available are 500ft and a 1 mile radius option if you're feeling particularly twitchy. 

With blocking set-up, any routes to/from home that I do within the defined 'privacy' area will not be displayed publicly. I wasn't concerned about the risk of theft as such, it's just that I don't like having my home location on a public forum!  You'll need to check MapMyRide etc to see if they offer a similar privacy option or, alternatively, don't start mapping a route from your front door!

If you're on Strava (maybe a member of the Wheelsuckers Club on Strava) then head over there now and update your privacy by hiding your start/end points. I also suggest you change your bike name from "Top of the range expensive bike" to, say, "Summer bike", "Winter Bike" etc and be similarly cryptic with your component list.