Hi All,
I’ve never been a contributor to this forum but I was hoping you would help me.
Some time between 22:00 21/02/12 and 08:45 22/02/12 my bike was stolen from my car boot. I had left it in there dismantled (wheels, frame and saddle were separated) and all its parts were taken by smashing the rear windscreen.
My car was parked on Granville Road in Fallowfield, South Manchester.
Yes, it was stupid to leave my bike in the car but it certainly doesn’t justify the crime. In any case, it would probably have been almost as risky to have it in the house knowing this area.

Here are some methods of identifying it,
Frame Number: ZQ7707381
Size: Small, 16″
It doesn’t look much different from the picture above, it has a newer, cheaper saddle (though they left the seat clamp in the boot…).
It’s got a shallow, scratched dent on the left side of the top tube.
Scratched stanchions.
Worn, black V8 pedals, (they left my spd pedals and shoes)
No chain device
Non-matching shifters.
A bit muddy.

Obviously someone could change these things pretty quickly if they purchase it whether or not they know its history.

Do you have any tips or methods for recovering it?

If you have any information please email me
frasert1990@hotmail.com

bad luck mate – no suggestions other than move out the ghetto

That’s sh*t, no advice apart from keep badgering the Police to do something and keep checking eBay, Gumtree etc. And search for individual parts that were on the bike as it will no doubt be split up.

Bad luck.

http://www.stolenbristolbikes.com/p/searching-for-stolen-bike.html?m=0

Loads of good info, esp automatic Google searches and posters round all the local bike shops (they’ll be after a seat clamp after all!)

Thanks for the replies guys.
I’ve spoken to the police a couple of times, they are circulating images of the bike on their system. They are also investigating a bus stop that was smashed in at the end of the road on the same night, which should be covered by cctv.
I’ve given posters to all the bike shops and I’m about to give one to the post sorting office in case on of the postmen has seen it… you never know. Could be miles away by now though 🙁

I’ll keep an eye out as I’m around South Manchester. I get paranoid riding mine through some areas.
A scally sidled up to me at a traffic light a couple of weeks ago, looks at my bike and says “nice bike, if I see it anywhere without you on it I’m going to nick it” 🙁

Cheers.
Having my bike nicked has made me think a lot about ways that stolen bikes could be recovered. Of course having it securely locked up would be the best prevention but everyone’s a bit lazy sometimes.

With the cost of modern bikes exceeding that of cheap cars, and as they are so numerous, it seems there really ought to be similar systems in place for recovering stolen bikes as for stolen cars. I suppose the one of the issues is that it would be impractical to put a large registration number on the back of a bike, perhaps a miniature one? The size of a race number. That would be big enough for police to see. Then any bike without a registration plate would be immediately suspicious and investigated by the police, as a car without a plate would.

I don’t think such a system would have to be too expensive, it could be added on to the present DVLA database and a plate probably wouldn’t have to cost more than a tenner.

Anyway, for now can this thread be stickied? I’m not gonna lose hope for quite some time. My reign has to be out there somewhere.

I understand your arguemenst but wouldnt vote for more red tape and expense. I think people should accept responsibility for their own security. If you had home and away insurance at least your covered. Wouldnt ever leave my bike in car it was an opportunity theft I guess. Sorry if I sound harsh but I think we have enough nanny state already.

Email me a pic and the crime no and I’ll stick it up in my teams office at work. ( I’m a bobby in a neighbouring area of GMP.)

Bump (in the absense of sticky)

Bregante

Email me a pic and the crime no and I’ll stick it up in my teams office at work. ( I’m a bobby in a neighbouring area of GMP.)

Sent you an email, let me know if you didn’t receive it.

Sorry to hear mate.

Check this thread out

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/anyones-stolen-bike-here

The seller is from the Manchester area. Probably not connected but I’d be more than a little eager to set up a meeting to ‘view his eBay listing’.

Perhaps even take a few mates to ‘see what they think’ ….. Of the bike.

Tom. Got your email and will sort it this week

We are looking out for it at EBC for you. Nin’s made us aware!

Cheers Spyke. Yeah itsmygame, I’ve seen that.
Hope it doesn’t reach the stage where angry mobs have to be formed.

BUMP

I will keep bumping.
Why is it that stolen bike threads aren’t routinely stickied? Too many of them?
Or are there lots of topics that people think should be stickied routinely, so none of them get special treatment for fairness?

I found this on Gumtree about a month ago.

I got the police involved (error) and they were too slow to do anything. I should have arranged to have a look at the bike first and then told the police it was definitely mine. The bike has been sold on and whoever the phone number belonged to won’t cooperate. The police can’t force him to because there’s no evidence that that bike is actually stolen, though it most likely is.

Anyone know anything about this bike? Maybe you bought it? Maybe you know who bought it?