There are countless tales of stolen bikes on this forum but very few appear to be recovered.
Who has had a bike recovered (and how)?
Who has foiled a theft foiled by some preventative means?

I guess the gist being, other than insuring your bike, is it worth really doing anything?

got mine back after it went walk about for a year, recovered by the police some 400 miles away from where it was taken.

how and why it was recovered I don’t really want to divulge, as its an on going prosecution.

I was wondering about Bile Register – it sounds good but I wonder how often it makes a difference.

i got mine back 🙂
http://www.singletrackworld.com/2010/01/the-saga-of-jedis-stolen-bike-happy-ending/

I recovered my Emelle some 10 years ago with an aid in the form of Manitou Sx forks. In Ealing, coming back from The Townhouse with a few of my mates, I saw my old bike and a guy getting ready to ride it. I applied the fork to the rider, my mates jumped in with a few Dr Marten’s finest and the bike was recovered.

I’ve forfeited the use of my up-and-over garage door by bolting it to the concrete floor with three huge expanding bolts.

It took two thefts before I realised the door was made of tin-foil…. They’ve tried again since, as is evidenced by the burgular-bar marks at the corners, but they didn’t get in!

i got my 92 marin eldridge grade back after 6 months, due to my wife spotting it outside a shop, it had blue anodised riser bars, (a relatively new ‘thing’ back then)
shop owner stopped a guy riding off with it and phoned the rozzers.
i got it back about a week later.
dunno if its possible to stop a determined thief, best just to make sure its well insured or keep it in the house.

mine turned up on ebay about 6 months later (well the frame and forks anyway). got it back via the police. best to have lots of photographic proof it’s yours – I could identify distinctive chainsuck marks on the frame from photos – serial numbers had been removed.

Tip for up and over doors – bolt a baton of 2×1 wood across the top and bottom of the door (if possible into the lip at the edge).

A popular way of accessing these doors is to simply bend/fold them open from the corner. The wood baton makes this almost impossible.

Instead of using expanding bolts and losing use of the door fit up and over specific key operated bolts – http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GARAGE-DOOR-BOLT-HIGH-SECURITY-1-PAIR-/170544221393?pt=UK_HaG_Lock_Safes_GL&hash=item27b53a4cd1

Me and a mate mugged a load of kids who’d broken into one of the containers at Herne Hill Velodrome and nicked some of the track bikes. It was quite funny really, 2 of us (neither into any sort of fighting), about 6 of them and they were trying to ride off on fixed gear bikes with no brakes, they clearly had no clue of how to ride them. If they’d have put up a fight we’d have been properly in trouble but the one guy who did manage to put up a bit of a front just blustered that he’d set his Dad onto us.

Bikes all recovered, the policeman who turned up to take the statements actually knew my mate anyway and gave it the old “we know you mugged them but…well done sir!” 🙂

I had my DH and xc bike stolen a day after my birthday in November. both bikes were in a shed which was securely locked with Squire locks, ir security light pointing at it. and both bikes were chained to shielded ground anchors in a concrete floor.
Didn’t stop them, mains power to the light cut. squire lock chopped and the locks securing the bikes cut too.
Police arrived on scene and told me they must have known about the bikes for a while and they’d had a good look at the shed before as they had come prepared.
devastated to say the least.
3 weeks later Mr plod phones from a station 10 miles away asking me to describe my dh bike as he tells me its sitting right in front of him in the office. I race there give a statement give him photos and the serial number of the bike. 30 mins later i walk out with it!
the only thing missing from the bike was…… the dust caps! nothing else had been touched apart from the pie eating sH*t who had the bike had wound full preload on the forks and used a hammer and screw driver on the spring collar to wind a hell of amount of of preload on the shock spring. easily fixed!

To strengthen and secure garage doors, attach a piece of steel channel along the base of the door and drill a hasp into the floor.

Securing the two together gives you a completely rigid door that is bolted to the ground.

You have to reinforce the top of the door too (to stop the simply crowbarring it from the top, but be careful not to add too much weight to the door, 2/3mm steel should be sufficient.

DAVE

i have recovered a few of my bikes. Old school style though!

my brother is fairly well know around the area (made up of 3 council estates) if my bike was ever stolen i had it back with in a few days!!

i have only ever had one stolen and not recovered. But luckily Mike at dialled bikes hooked me up and i was back on the trails in no time.

I was wondering about Bile Register

I wasn’t meaning to be facetious, it was a genuine typo. Anyone got good news stories about Bike Register?

The garage door reinforcement tips are good.

My mates bike got stole from outside his house , he’d just got back from a ride and nipped indoors to find it gone. It was nothing special , Carrera frame and bits we just had lying around but thats all he had. Plus it was the second time it had happened.

A month or so later I was driving along when I caught a glimpse of a guy on a similar looking bike. I turned around drove past him and sure enough it was the same bike. I just pulled over and took it off him , dismantled and put it in the car. So yeah you can be lucky at times.