there’s got to be a solution or network we can make to locate them nationally

Giant flags?

im serious. loads are getting nicked

There have been a few attempts at a register/database in the past hasn’t there?

Maybe if it were compulsory to include the serial number to all ebay/craigslist ads that would be a start.

Although given that I was told when i had mine nicked that the frame (merlin xlm) would likely be dumped and the parts sold separately I’m not sure how much good it would do.

Giant flags?

this method could work

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNavOb7MZqg&t=0m25s[/video]

1st tip is make it know how much a bike is worth when its nicked asap locally in the paper etc… it stops it being broken down and sold for a bag of weed

The solution isn’t a simple one.

More people have less expendable cash so the prospect of a decent cheap bike becomes more appealing = a market.
It might help if the punishment for the crime was more severe.

I agree that more can be done, but we will always be up against a whole pile of society who happily buy stuff cheap, regardless of any dodgy history.

The thing is you buy a laptop 400 quid, or a mobile phone, and you keep them nearer to you than a teenage virgin, yet you spend 1500 quid upwards on a bike and shove it in a shed, secured by a cheap padlock from the pound shop, you have hinges on the shed door that can be unscrewed easily, you have no alarm, no cctv, no outside light, and then you hang the said bike off the back or roof of your car, sometimes you advertise it for sale, and someone rings up and you tell them when youre working and where you live.

Then you wonder why it gets nicked.

Thats without the career criminal who comes equiped with crow bar, and cutters, just incase youve chained it up.

heres a cash cow for some enterprising ipad pod phone android app bod

http://www.buddi.co.uk/buddi.html assisted gps tracker packaged in a tube down the seatube.

bike gets nicked ,activate gps thingy track on ipdoid thingamibob

not sure how it would work if it needed to be active all the time or you could just activate it when stolen ,uses telephone network from what I read

Alternate idea as much semtex as you can cram into a seatpost if some tw@ nicks it activate gps buddy the rest as they say is history

This website is quite useful. It scans eBay & gum tree for all bikes currently for sale

http://bikeshd.co.uk/

So might help in tracking down a stolen bike

Ok, giant flags aside.

As long as there are bikes they will be nicked by ne’erdowells. So surely we should focus on more on prevention rather tracking down stolen bikes. I doubt a database would work let alone be enforceable.

Longer sentences 💡 What happened to the guys that nicked your bikes? slap on the wrist and home for tea I expect…

Network idea is sound but difficult. Best you’ll probably ever get is what we have here, or on similar forums. Maybe a little coordination between websites? If each site has a ‘stolen’ section that is synced with all the other sites then we get eye’s on, as long as people bother to read the section.

Personally I think a better society is the only way and that’s not going to happen anytime fast, all the bankers have stolen or lost our money, makes vermin desperate 🙄

if bikes were easily located when stolen they’d become less likey to be nicked. that in turn will help prevent it

Bike register is regularly checked by the police. Also have to make sure you note frame numbers down.

The trouble is they all go overseas now. Straight to eastern europe, from the site of the crime. No point even going down Brick Lane or wherever to see if it’s for sale. They’re nicked by gangs who have all the machinery, bike goes straight in a van and over the Channel. They won’t show up on Ebay or Gumtree.

I can see two problems with any kind of tracker.

1) The power source, needs to have power at any given moment, not checked the batteries recently. Tough.

2) If they are removable they will just be removed and dumped by the thief. Wouldn’t take long for word to get around that that these sorts of things were being used.

So given those it would need to be built into the frame, and be self powered. Gonna add weight and drag somewhere in the system.

I think a bit of vigilante justice using bait bikes would be a worth while pursuit. Just hold ’em and call the cops with good evidence.

Just hold ’em and call the cops with good evidence.

Given the propensity for violence described by most people on here I’m not sure that would end well.

[edit] See below for further details.

I think a bit of vigilante justice using bait bikes would be a worth while pursuit. Just hold ’em and call the cops with good evidence.

yes you are half right but i think just beating them half to death with a bit a scaf bar would deter crime much more..

TandemJeremy – Member

I think a bit of vigilante justice using bait bikes would be a worth while pursuit. Just hold ’em and call the cops with good evidence.

FFS. Ok. Lets me and you set this up. Seriously. I am up for some late night skull fooking of some scum bags.

HANG ON THERE! I actually have a respectful job and a family. As worthy as your cause is, this isn’t going to happen. Not by you or the majority of folk.

yes. I have an ice axe for just this sort of thing

If people stopped keeping them in bloody sheds it would reduce the problem by 80 percent…

If people stopped keeping them in bloody sheds it would reduce the problem by 80 percent…

True, but for a lot of people keeping bikes in the house is either impractical or undesirable. Not everyone has the room or wants to keep mucky bikes in their house.

Yes, buy a bloody proper storage unit. Got a proper secure unit never had a bike nicked. I have a shed and that has a roofbox and a lawnmower in. Would I be gutted if they were stolen? No.

I bought a bike I don’t mind being nicked for when I have to leave it chained up outside (specialized wankster)

I live in a £300 a week shoe-box, with electric heating only (no gas, super-expensive), and no break clause in the lease, and a dodgy landlord who doesn’t speak English and calls me “stupid! crazy!” when I ask her to arrange to fix the washing machine.

The reason? It has a little cubby hole just big enough for three bikes – an attic, effectively – but right by my front door – and is not on the ground floor either.*

Nonetheless I still had an uninsured £2,000 bike nicked a few weeks ago – I was at a house party for under an hour and left it locked to a street sign. They sawed through the sign.

Had been riding around London on it, locking it in exactly this fashion, for 6 years so my number was due to come up. My hardtail has actually cut my commute down from 22 minutes to 16 because I can bunnyhop up curbs and across traffic islands, and accordingly take more risks, but I miss my Roubaix.

*and it’s in Hampstead and I’m done with flatshares

HANG ON THERE! I actually have a respectful job and a family. As worthy as your cause is, this isn’t going to happen. Not by you or the majority of folk.

Also, as nice as some bikes are, they’re definitely not getting stabbed over. Unfortunately, for as long as there have been people with possessions, there have been people willing to steal them – the problem isn’t going to be solved anytime soon.

The trouble is they all go overseas now. Straight to eastern europe, from the site of the crime

Where on Earth d’you get that nonsense from? Do you really think criminal gangs are nicking bikes then going to all that trouble for the sake of a few quid? 😕

Given the propensity for violence described by most people on here I’m not sure that would end well.

Pft. Many folk on here woon’t have the bottle to even challenge someone nicking a bike, is the troof.

challenge someone? i have issue with that at all. violence isnt the issue. they always just grass up who ever else was involved

the local police contact me if bikes get found or they have a suspicious bike as they admit a bike is a bike to them wheter 50 quid or 5 grand

challenge someone? i have issue with that at all. violence isnt the issue.

Maybe not to you, but a lot of people on here just blow hot air when it comes to stuff like this. I doubt very much they’d dare challenge some of the nasty little gangs round my way that go round stealing bikes.

True, but for a lot of people keeping bikes in the house is either impractical or undesirable. Not everyone has the room or wants to keep mucky bikes in their house.

Bung some plastic sheet down. Store a bike under yer bed. Stick one behind the sofa. Compromise.

It is shocking how many stolen bike posts there are on here and how few get recovered.

There has to be a place for gps trackers for bikes. Problem is the size of them and the fact that putting one in a frame will reduce it’s effectiveness. There are rear light based gps tracker units for bicyles that are triggered by an sms text message and have 1 years stand by.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23863285-gone-in-9-minutes-bikes-stolen-to-order.do

One bike stolen in Hammersmith and taken on the Tube was tracked to a house in Ealing Broadway which police raided the next day. They found the decoy loaded into a van with several other suspected stolen bikes ready to be driven to the Ukraine.

Two Ukrainian nationals were cautioned. They admitted going back to their home country regularly to sell stolen bikes.

“I doubt very much they’d dare challenge some of the nasty little gangs round my way that go round stealing bikes.”

I did, and got torn a new arsehole on this board for it!

Most scrotes that nick bikes will be scrawny underfed junkies – a few of us will easily be able to control them.

as for challenging people – despite being a middleaged wuss Ihave done adn will continue to do so. I put a cheeky wee teenage ned in tears and threatening to set his dad on me the other day – and I didn’t even touch him

elf there are organised gangs stealing bikes and exporting them I believe.

I would have no isssue with setting up bait bikes and collaring the neds who try to steal them

Hi guys. My bike was stolen today, from within a block of flats that supposedly has an electronically locked security door that requires visitors to ring a doorbell and be ‘buzzed in’ by someone from within one of those flats. What I now know is that theres is also a ‘trades’ button that opens the door anyway and renders the whole system useless.

I came on here looking for advice on what to replace my beloved Kona with, after looking aimlessly at manufacturer’s sites for hours and seeing nothing that really ‘does it’ for me. I stumbled across this thread and thought I’d share my pain a little 🙁

FWIW, the bike is (was?) a Kona cromoly hardtail (originally a 1996 Fire Mountain and owned by me since new), custom painted white, rear canti bosses shaved, IS disc mount brazed on and support strut brazed between non-drive seat stay and chainstay, FOX F80 RLT forks, XT cranks, mechs and shifters, silver Hope hubs, discs (Mono M4 180mm front, Mono Mini 160mm rear), ti skewers, stem and headset, Mavic XC717 disc rims, Easton EC70 carbon flat bar, X-Lite Enduro Stubbie bar ends and USE Alien carbon seatpost. Stolen in Waterlooville at around 3.30pm on Mon 28 Nov 2011.

Hi everybody
My bike got taken by some scumbags the other week it’s the second time. First time it turned up on eBay and me and a mate recovered it. It was locked in a garage and they use a bar to rip off the lock. I don’t see in some cases what more you an do to protect your stuff if they want it they’ll take it how ever secure you think it is. Datatag is a good Idea I’ve got it on my motorbike and it marks everything making it harder to use the parts. You get transponders for in your wheels and a chip you inject into your seat. Maybe more new bikes should have somthing fitted as standard and registered to you. The problem with bikes is they have to be easy to take apart for such as punctures and other repairs and also we change parts over alot this making it hard to mark parts and if only the frame is chipped/traceable they will discard it for that very reason. The problem is bikes are to easy to strip making it easy to distribute parts for sale

How hard could it be for Singletrackworld to start off that database? free for Premier users, (Hint Hint MODS) Maybe they could tie that in with a GPS tracking company?

Its got to start somewhere.

Come on Singletrack, there’s money to be made there. Just remember who gave you the idea eh!

Had a couple of bikes nicked in the past.
My new one gets locked up to the radiator in the house on a night, sits in my office on camp when i’m at work (some idiot infantry guys find it funny to loosen the front wheel!).
It’s on Bike shed, tagged and bagged with the police and has a class 8 Kryptonite lock on it.
And yet, the one time i used it to go into town, i return to find some chav trying to pick the lock! Takes him a couple of minutes to realise i’m stood behind him, in uniform explaining to him he can’t pick the lock.
3 minutes later he’s on the floor moaning about his jaw and i’m away on my bike to the sound of clapping from shoppers.
Despite my bike being locked to the damn raditor in the house, i’ve still had 3 attempted break-ins since buying the bike 3 weeks ago.
I’ve even got anti-theft paint on the fence leading to the back garden and this hasn’t stopped them trying.
Short of laying claymores i’m at odds on how to stop the buggers.

Got a bike nicked about a year and a half ago. Wee kona stuff 2 – 4. The genius who nicked it then put it on gumtree for sale. I notified the police who then took 3 days to do anything about it and all I got back was a front brake and front mech. The guy stays one street away from me so off I went to see him. Spoke to his dad in a civil manner and returned home. About 2 hrs later I had the police at my door asking why !I had been threatening money with menace from this guy. No word about when a court date for the laddie and the father continues to ignore me and I cant approach him. Fantastic.

gunny – locking your bike to a radiator – you know whatever scumbag makes off with your bike will just saw through the radiator pipes – so not only will you lose your bike, but your house will be flooded as well. Lock it to something that doesn’t matter (or is impossible) to saw through.

I often think what would happen if I caught someone nicking my bikes – I would love to think that the chainsaw/axe/hammer would come in handy, but I doubt anyone would stand still while I got the equipment ready. And, not being a hard bloke I’d no doubt come off worse, so I’d probably be more likely to shout and scream a lot instead. Having said that, the chances of catching anyone in the act is quite small, given that I am at work all day and asleep at night.