After finding my stolen bike for sale on various sites, including Facebook,
What was suprising was the small number of mountain bikers goading each other to purchase this ‘bargain’
It was clear these people knew the value of a good bike.

Would you suspect a bargain to be Potentially stolen property?
A quick search would find ‘stolen bike’ adverts for my bike,
seems some either aren’t bothered or are totally oblivious.

seems some either aren’t bothered or are totally oblivious.

The first one sadly.

So it would seem 🙁

I can see why – there was a mint, £1400 ht on Gumtree last week in my lads size. For £185…..
I wouldn’t, but I see why some do.

Bloke I knew took a bike in for a service at a LBS that he’d recently picked up for a good price – turned out it had been stolen off a customer who’d bought it from that shop – they ‘held’ him in store whilst the police came … Personally you could offer we a 10 grand bike for £50 and I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole – your wrecking people’s life’s going down that road …

Personally, I’d only consider buying second hand bikes from people I know – and who I know had been riding the bike themselves. Just can’t trust the provenence otherwise, and I don’t want to be fuelling bike theft.

What was suprising was the small number of mountain bikers goading each other to purchase this

Odd. You’re surprised that from a relatively large population of potential buyers a small number have dubious morals. This strikes me as perfectly expected: if there wasn’t a market there wouldn’t be as many thefts; its not like riding a mountain bike means you have stronger moral fibre than everyone else.

So how confident are all you that you’ve never bought something dodgy? The £1400 bike for £185 is easy to spot but price parts on the just the right side of bargain and they’ll get snapped up with no questions asked.

I always wonder just how “legit” some of the parts / component sellers on eBay are.

What was suprising was the small number of mountain bikers goading each other to purchase this ‘bargain’

Example?

The guy selling my stolen Pitch had obviously done his research, he had it advertised at pretty much a spot on price, fortunately for me his terrible spelling and dubious marketing skills gave him away…

‘honestly, if u by this bike you will never get anywhere because of so many people stopping you to ask about your awesome bike, it’s a real headturner’

…this was my old, brown Pitch Pro with some even older Marzocchi Junior Ts fitted to it.

There is a thread over on Weight Weenies about stolen bikes in Ukraine and this was the reply from some POS who doesn’t seems to care who buys them!

Im still waiting for him to reply to my post.