So, I've been following this story over the last few days ...
TLDR - the female winner (Justyna Jarczok) of the Dales Divide over the Easter weekend had her gold Kona FS bike stolen from outside a petrol station in Leeds, on her way back to her hotel after she'd got the train back from the finish of the ride, and before her flight back to Poland.
I picked up the story on Instagram, and as the petrol station in question is quite close to me, popped in to see what they had to say (basically, "we have the CCTV footage in which two guys on a (presumably) e-motorbike came past and grabbed it, but can only let the Police view it") and then emailed the local councilors to see if they could bring any influence with the Police (to be fair, they did, but the PCSO was sent round to view it at about the time Justyna announced the bike had been recovered!)
I'm not sure how it got recovered; I understand someone saw it advertised, bought it, and then the cycling community (including Restrap) reimbursed the buyer and have arranged the return to Justyna.
Anyway - the whole series of events made me wonder what happens to stolen bikes, and where do they go?
The answer usually trotted out is eBay / Gumtree / FB marketplace etc ... But in all the incidents of 'stolen bike' alerts where I've actively looked to see if they pop up for sale, I've never seen them advertised.
So, there must be a black market for this sort of stuff? Are there trading / selling platforms on the dark web? I'm sure some of it - for higher end stuff - is organised crime, and stuff potentially being shipped overseas? Are bikes stolen to order? Is there a community of keen / enthusiastic cyclists that are after fancy road bikes and MTBs, and don't care whether they have been stolen? Is there a network of traders/shops that fence this stuff?
Why don't we as a cycling community have more knowledge or intelligence collectively about what's going on? As it seems that every time someone posts up eg on here, social media etc to say their pride & joy(s) has/have been stolen, it's almost a hopeless appeal as though they're resigned to never getting it/them back?
I imagine…
high spec bikes get stripped for parts and sold on and frames get binned, as who keeps a record of the serial numbers of all the parts of their bikes.
mid range bikes end up in cash converters and dodgy pawn shops
BSOs get sold for a few quid down the pub
I think the whole ‘stolen to order and shipped abroad’ is fanciful at best. It’s a bike, not the Mona Lisa.
mid range bikes end up in cash converters and dodgy pawn shops
This. I was on an event last year where someone's bike got stolen just before the start. It had an airtag in it and was tracked to a cash converter about 20 miles away within 3 hours. The person selling it had a receipt to prove it was theirs to sell so it was "legit" .
Took blummin' ages for the police to intervene so the owner could actually get their bike back
I think the whole ‘stolen to order and shipped abroad’ is fanciful at best. It’s a bike, not the Mona Lisa.
There have been a few high profile cases of exactly that:
https://road.cc/content/news/260182-ps9000-bike-stolen-hertfordshire-recovered-poland
https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/cyclist-went-to-poland-stolen-bikes-DWzfmj_2/
(that's two separate cases, both for very high value kit).
Happens a lot with cars and mobile phones too. Phones go off to China ironically - the ones you can buy in China are all locked down for social media whereas Western ones can access everything so they're high value in China. Cars end up all over. West Africa, eastern Europe, Russia...
I'm sure some of it - for higher end stuff - is organised crime, and stuff potentially being shipped overseas? Are bikes stolen to order? Is there a community of keen / enthusiastic cyclists that are after fancy road bikes and MTBs, and don't care whether they have been stolen? Is there a network of traders/shops that fence this stuff?
I imagine there are small elements of all of those.
A few years ago there was an article in the local news about a police raid on a house in Manchester, they found 68 stolen bikes in there (plus a load of other stolen goods). Basically a "warehouse" where kit got taken until it had been forgotten about at which point it could be sold or passed up or down whatever criminal chain was in place.
There have been a few high profile cases of exactly that:
Those weren’t stolen to order though, yes they were moved abroad, but it’s not as if some Polish gangster has put the word out that he wants a cervelo TT bike and offered a bounty on the first one that arrives.
The lad who spent £6k tracking down £45k worth of bikes needs a better insurance policy.
I've love to know where our bikes have gone, the garage is looking a bit bare!
Don't actually care where they've gone would like most of them back though!
Spot any of these I'd be happy 😀
Where do stolen bikes end up?
In the possession of people who don't mind buying that sort of thing, mostly
In a crack pipe 🔥
I think the whole ‘stolen to order and shipped abroad’ is fanciful at best. It’s a bike, not the Mona Lisa.
It does happen though, I met someone a few years back who'd got their fancy TT bike stolen and recovered years later in similar circumstances.
From a criminals perspective I suspect that bikes are easy as no one will bat an eyelid if there's a couple of nice bikes being shipped out the country whereas a container load of motorbikes / cars would raise questions.
From a criminals perspective I suspect that bikes are easy as no one will bat an eyelid if there's a couple of nice bikes being shipped out the country whereas a container load of motorbikes / cars would raise questions.
I've always wondered about the "two peeople drive a van of bikes to morzine while the rest fly easyjet to geneva" group holiday approach. Does it come down to accent, or is a high spec T6 all you need?
I've always wondered about the "two peeople drive a van of bikes to morzine while the rest fly easyjet to geneva" group holiday approach. Does it come down to accent, or is a high spec T6 all you need?
Probably different post brexit, I think you'd need to do a carnet for that these days?
But when was the last time anyone checked your phone, watch, laptop, tablet, bike and whatever else is in your luggage was actually yours? I once had to go through the "anything to declare" queue at customs (broken arm so someone else was carrying my bag, which is apparently something to declare).
"what's in the bag"
"A mountain bike and 10 days unwashed riding gear"
"..... (customs officer visibly thinking whether checking my bags is worth the biohazard risk) ........ ok through you go."
I've always wondered about the "two peeople drive a van of bikes to morzine while the rest fly easyjet to geneva" group holiday approach. Does it come down to accent, or is a high spec T6 all you need?
I drove a van full of high end road bikes from the UK out to Switzerland when working on a tour once. In Switzerland we met up with the UK contingent of guests (who'd flown out from the UK) and the Zurich contingent.
Our little convoy came through the border, 3 of the guys got waved through, I got diverted off to be checked. It took a LOT of explaining. This was pre-Brexit (or at least, pre the days of anything being extra difficult) but the customs guys were really not convinced. Thankfully I had some brochures for the guiding company in the van and I knew enough of what the contents were, having packed it, that I could describe the bikes with reasonable accuracy. Naturally, the head guide in one of the other vehicles had driven off into a maze of Swiss tunnels and they couldn't get him on the phone to corroborate the story but it took 30 minutes of me sitting in the van while they checked things out.
I think now you have to Carnet everything like that.
Years ago my flatmate had his bikes nicked from the shed. Id been at my mum's and too lazy to cycle home so avoided mine being nicked.
The guy who had nicked them had 50 (all reported stolen) in his flat.
He's probably still paying my mate back at £2 a week.
There's some YouTube videos about it. The bikes were quickly moved to a local cash converter place, photographed then advertised abroad on Facebook (not sold through the store directly) with restrictions on viewing the items for local people, then bikes loaded onto HGV heading that way. Because it's cross border and involves cooperation from Facebook it's very difficult to get anything done about it irrc
Gex up here have been rumoured to buy stolen bikes
I've always wondered about the "two peeople drive a van of bikes to morzine while the rest fly easyjet to geneva" group holiday approach. Does it come down to accent, or is a high spec T6 all you need?
I've done it to Finale and back, I drove as I was making a holiday of it, five nice bikes in the back of an elderly Transit, certainly not a high spec T6. Two were mine, three for others flying to Milan just to do the race and then straight back.
Newcastle and Amsterdam were fine. Dunkirk in the way home was a pain, but not because of the bikes. Wanted me to unpack _everything_ and the van was rammed with camping gear, tools, spares, etc, whatever four guys need for a 24hr race plus my holiday. Just french customs being arseholes. Absolutely everything piled on the tarmac twenty mins before final.check in shut only just made it.
Got to Dover and they said 'we'll need to search your van'
'Really? The French guys have just done that"
"Have they? Oh, never mind then, through you go"
The answer usually trotted out is eBay / Gumtree / FB marketplace etc ... But in all the incidents of 'stolen bike' alerts where I've actively looked to see if they pop up for sale, I've never seen them advertised.
There used to be a Bikes for Sale Scotland group on facebook that always had the weirdest frankenbikes being sold in dodgy parts of Glasgow/Edinburgh. I made the assumption they were made up of parts of stolen bikes they couldn't sell on!