Having been on here for a while it seems that alot of STW members have reported bikes nicked. Seemingly more often than forum posts on other bike websites I look at. Now I realise that if you ride an expensive bike someone will notice it, but is it possible for someone to track you down from the posts on here?
There were posts recently about classified scammers and peeps managed to get all sorts of info including the wifes bank account details 
So how likley is it that the scrotes will be doing the same in return?
Bike Forum
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Bike theft - general ponderings
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Posted 1 year ago #
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Unlikely.
In London at least it's mainly teenage scrotes wandering round with boltcroppers to see what they can find.Posted 1 year ago # -
Granted, but with some of the bikes being worth 3-5K and taken from peoples houses/ work shirley that means a bit of 'homework' has been done?
Maybe I'm just being paranoid or maybe I'm giving far more credit to the tea-leafs than is due
Posted 1 year ago # -
Even the really expensive bikes don't get sold on for much more. I think "doing homework" is a bit too much like effort for most of them.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I've never got more than one bike at home at any one time, unless I'm here with them.
It's a bit of an inconvenience having to ride or drive to my secret island hideaway to swap bikes, but they are far more secure there than they would be at home.Posted 1 year ago # -
Lots of people (certainly in the south east) drive round in their bmw/audi with £5-8K worth of bikes stuck on top. If I was going to nick a bike I'd just wait at well known parking areas and follow them home then pop round in the week when they're out.
The rest pf the time it's scrotes with boltcutters.Posted 1 year ago # -
I think "doing homework" is a bit too much like effort for most of them.
Really?
The revenue from a £3-5k bike is gonna be a good few hundred quid in bike parts alone. The frames can be sold off at a later stage, when the 'heat' has died down. Bike forums/Ebay etc are perfect places to shift bits. I think it highly likely that STW is being used to fence stolen goods.
Think about it, someone who's regularly on here, often has decent bits for sale at good prices, you'd probbly trust them fairly well, right? How do you know they're not involved in bike-crime? The forum is the perfect place to gain people's trust.
Anyone who thinks that it's just 'scrotes' who have no real idea about bikes is naive and foolish. Scrotes tend to be opportunists. People who specifically target the homes of people who have loads of nice bikes know exactly what they're doing. And may very well be cyclists themselves; I know loads of people who ride nice bikes, where they live, their security arrangements, even their movements during the day.
Think about it.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Whether homework is being done or not I've no honest idea about but it is generally fairly easy to track someone down from there internet posts. After I had a one very expensive bike stolen from a shed of several less expensive bikes a few years ago I wondered whether it could have been targeted after showing it off online. So did a quick exercise to see how easy it was to track peoples addresses from forum posts.
I picked a few names at random and in about 75% of cases could get to a address within 10 - 15 minutes and in a small number of cases even a description of where bikes were kept and how they were secured. Needless to say I was a lot more careful about what details I posted after that.
One of the things that made it easier to track people was that they often used the same name on different forums so information stacked up pretty quickly. As I said I've no idea whether targeting actually happens but I'd rather not take the chance. Certainly would not contribute to the "where do you live" or "show us your sheds" threads.
Posted 1 year ago # -
This is why I don't reply to 'show me your ******* bike'
The last thing I want is to advertise what I've got.
For the record, my storage facility does resemble something like fort knox & isn't even on my property.Posted 1 year ago # -
i ride a carrera... i'm safe
Posted 1 year ago # -
Forgot to mention that is anyone is currently riding around on a merlin xlm frame no. 19037 I hope you get an everlasting boil on your arse.
I am still bitter.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Thing is, the person selling or on the website doesn't even have to be the guy 'stealing' the goods, there could be a long line of people involved before it ends at the seller. If you get a £3-4k bike for less than a grand and then sell it on for 2k+ you've made a grand for a bit of ebay and homework.
Someone with a bit of sense can do the homework and then pay the scrote off to get the bike for them!
Posted 1 year ago # -
What's depressing is watching an auction online for an expensive bike from a non feedback seller with the full on dodgy 'hydrolic' style listing go for peanuts as most people are decent and wouldn't touch it
Then you see it being resold here
Posted 1 year ago # -
The police mentioned the scrote who had my bike had a fully equiped shed with loads of bike tools etc. They thought he was a biking enthusiast who stupidly/accidentally bought a stolen frame.
I think he probably is a real biking enthusiast, but I also think he targets bikes and strips either selling or keeping the parts for his fleet.
I'm sure there's bikers out there who don't mind funding their hobby by taking from others.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Im sure the scum do use these forums to aid their stealing. I know a few people from my local bike club who had bikes stolen from their property. They did the normal stolen bike post on here to no avail but stupidly after a few weeks couldnt resist mentioning their shiny new insurance replacement - sure enougth the following week the theives broke in again and got the new ones.
I dont think they do much homework but it doesnt take a second to notice which users on here have had their bikes knicked. I expect they then watch that persons posts and pounce again.
summerise - dont go on about your new bike and change user names regularly !
Posted 1 year ago # -
Put the frame number on the bike in several places (prominent ones like the head tube, top tube/down tube and seat tube) as well as the underside of the BB. Make sure it's somewhere where it can be clearly seen. Everyone get in the habit of asking what the frame number is when they buy something secondhand. Ideally the manufacturers need to make these marks so they're consistent and clear and are only struck once.
A scrote can make excuses for the number under the BB being scrapped off / damaged / illegible but in two or more separate places on the same frame? Unlikley I reckon.
Bikes are generally hard to identify. You might know your pride and joy but I suspect few riders could probably pick it out from a description and even fewer "non-bikers". At least then they're much easier to identify and so (possibly) a bit harder to sell on.
I hope the **** that got my 5 Spot, Alpine and Kobe Ti all end up sitting on the seatposts without a saddle. Theiving scum.
All I know / hear around north Leeds is that this summer seems to have been the worst for bike theft that several shops can remember.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I think it probably does happen, but I'd imagine the vast, vast majority is pure luck that they pick a house with a nice bike, or someone local knows you've got a nice bike.
Trawling through posts on here to find someones details, traveling to wherever it is they live, probably on more than one occasion to find the best time to strike, doing the actual burglery, getting past most people's enhanced security, and then finding a way to sell the bike/parts and make enough to make it worthwile is a lot more hardwork than just making into sheds at random and nicking £100 halfords specials.
Posted 1 year ago # -
They did the normal stolen bike post on here to no avail but stupidly after a few weeks couldnt resist mentioning their shiny new insurance replacement - sure enougth the following week the theives broke in again and got the new ones.
Which probably would have happened even without the posts, while not necessarily bright scrotes do understand that people with expensive bikes have insurance that they'll use to replace what's stolen.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Whilst anecdotal I got burgled in the same week that the local bike shop got broken into (a 1 minute, in and out job) and a week before someone in Rawdon was hit (for three decent bikes). Talking to the guys in the shop they'd had several people in over the week before and after reporting thefts.
I think there is an element of thought and planning to quite a bit of it. There's different levels of thieves with different degrees of organisation and planning. IMO. Whether it's all researched off STW I really couldn't say
We'd got burgled the previous year (house) so I suspect they probably identified there was good pickings to be had and just lefet it for a while before coming back. Sadly the increased security I fitted after the first time still wasn't enough. Obviously went too cheap on my cost / benefit there 
It puzzles me that the scrotes who burgled me clearly didn't come with many tools. They burgled my neighbour's shed (sash lock into timber frame d'oh!) and got chisels and a long handled screwdriver from there. This they used to get through the side door. Then they magiced up a set of 42" bolt croppers (I think they were Irwin Records, certainly they were full on pieces of kit, cast handles and very heavy) to cut through the security chain. Ironically my little 18" croppers that they'd found in the garage weren't up to the job (they'd clearly tried with them).
On the one hand it seems opportunist (nicking tools to do the door), on the other it seems organised (bringing / being able to get huge bolt croppers). They must have had some brass neck to spend the time they did cocking around with all the doors and croppers (not to mention they only bashed in the top half of the stable door so it wasn't like they could get out too easily and quickly). All within a couple of metres of the house and sometime around 3 or 4 am.
Whatever, I hope they get what they deserve. I won't be so melodramatic as to wish death and dismemberment but it'd be nice is something they really liked and valued was taken from them, and preferably forced back up their arses! Still, even if I'd known they were there there was toss all I was going to do about what with three of them with long spikey things to force doors and jab at people
Posted 1 year ago #
Topic Closed
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