here’s the list that the police use to record the details of stolen bikes. It’s either culled from the bikes they’ve had reported or one of the coppers knows a ‘bit about bikes’.

Anyway, thought you’d enjoy, I have no idea what they’re on about in the brakes section, and the saddle section seems oddly specific, couldn’t you just write down the colour??

Police bike list by pictonroad, on Flickr

that list of makes was drawn up about 20 years ago!

‘cona’ and ‘specialised’ are good 🙂

As is Cannon Dale. I never knew the make was founded by a priest. 😉

I’ve seen worse – well into the 1990s the local fuzz round here would accept “Chopper” as a type of bicycle but had yet to acknowledge the existence of “BMX” let alone “Mountain bike”.

Reminds me of a story I once read of a bloke reporting his hotrod stolen. Gave the copper all the details, about how although it had the body of a Vauxhall Viva, it had a Rover V8 in it, Jag rear axle, four inch roof chop, custom paint job, custom interior etc. etc.. Copper then asks “Has it got any distinguishing features, like a roof rack or towbar?”

If it is 20 years old I am dismayed to see no box for “black to neon link fade” which is what I was on in 1993. 😀

According to the police, they’re seeing 5 thefts a day being reported at the moment. The bikes must be being sold elsewhere because there isn’t that big a 2nd hand market in Worthing.

Worthing!!!!!

Nooooooooo, chav scum around here are getting worse 😥

the saddle section seems oddly specific, couldn’t you just write down the colour??

That’s in the case of one of those many blokes prone to glopping one out onto the saddle while the bike’s in a rack outside the station

Joking apart, it is a massive problem. GMP and many other forces did away with their stolen pedal cycle forms many years ago so now it’s very much down to accurate recording of the description of the stolen bikes. If the bobby who takes the report doesn’t record the makes and models correctly and writes “Specialised” or “Cona” they stand little chance of being found on an outstanding stolen property search when bikes are recovered later.

It’s sad to say but there are many nice bikes lying unclaimed in Police property stores due to this and I regularly try variations of searches and spellings at the ones at my station so my tip is:
If you’re unfortunate enough to have your bike stolen. Make sure the officer taking the report gets the Make and Model down properly, preferably with a recent photograph and double check they record the frame number.

It’s spectacularly sad that one of our police forces is using that form in 2013.

Chain case?! 🙄

when i had my bikes nicked, they rozzers didn’t even bother taking any details, let alone pop round, just gave me a crime number

Same experience here as rocket dog even though the guy who nicked my bikes using his company van was working for a company that has offices next door to the cop shop, repeated phone calls and emails to the local police failed to get any response – even a neighbouring cycle theft team couldn’t get a response from them. Pretty poor really but consistent with most people’s experience of dealing with them round here.

no tick wheel size of 20/26/27.5/29/32/35.5 either