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The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever

bikeindex.org

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Re: The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever

#11

Post by schrodinger »

jacquesm wrote: post #9
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #8

I see why I might register my bike - in case its lost or stolen. But why would anyone look up a bike in there? Either its not in there - time wasted. Or it is - there goes your sale. Net value: zero or negative.

Well, for a potential buyer of a bike the value is much larger than zero. After all, who would like to buy a stolen bike? Registering your bike and possibly mentioning that fact on your bike using a sticker might even help as a deterrent.

Also, even an immoral buyer would be dissuaded from buying a stolen bike if they knew it would be harder to sell it later...

Re: The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever

#12

Post by rglullis »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #8

I see why I might register my bike - in case its lost or stolen. But why would anyone look up a bike in there? Either its not in there - time wasted. Or it is - there goes your sale. Net value: zero or negative.

Think as a buyer: if you see a good used bike and the owner is not willing to tell you the serial number, you can be sure that it is not a safe purchase.

Re: The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever

#13

Post by IanDrake »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #8

I see why I might register my bike - in case its lost or stolen. But why would anyone look up a bike in there? Either its not in there - time wasted. Or it is - there goes your sale. Net value: zero or negative.

If you buy stolen property in the US, even if unaware, you must forfeit it when the owner or the police catch up with you. If you're aware, it's illegal.

Better not buy that stolen bike then, huh? Even better, to call the proper owner and relay them the details of the person selling it.

Re: The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever

#14

Post by Aqwis »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #8

I see why I might register my bike - in case its lost or stolen. But why would anyone look up a bike in there? Either its not in there - time wasted. Or it is - there goes your sale. Net value: zero or negative.

In many countries, you can be punished for buying a stolen bike (or any other item). Is this not the case in the US, or do people consider the probability of punishment so low that they don't care?

Re: The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever

#15

Post by revelation »

eplanit wrote: post #6
maaaats wrote: post #4

In my country, registering your bike gives you a huge discount on the insurance. Is it common other places, and will a bike registered through this site be eligible for a similar type of discount? I'd wish more listing sites would have mandatory fields for a bikes serial number, and that people would actually bother to check the registry when buying a bike. Unfortunately, a cheap bike makes many people blind to it pr…

I wouldn't think many people would consult a registry in order to assure themselves that the bike they're buying isn't stolen; rather, they'd use it to find a bike they already owned and that had subsequently been stolen, as a means to try and find it. I suppose a Pawn shop or similar would use it for a purpose as you suggest, though.

Why would a thief register his stolen bike online after the fact? I think you've got this mixed up, these registries only work when people consult them before buying.

Re: The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever

#16

Post by IanDrake »

Bryan Hance has been doing great work on this front for a long time. When I was making software to monitor CL, he recommended the free version to his users that needed to be alerted when their bikes went on sale. I was glad to be able to help.

Too bad CL doesn't like people using tools like that to find their stolen bikes, tools, etc...

Re: The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever

#17

Post by Someone »

pat2man wrote: post #3

Great looking site but what makes this "The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever"? There seem to be dozens of bike registries. It would be nice to see some sort of data sharing between them.

They do not give numbers, but I also doubt that "largest" claim.

The USA is a lot larger, but the Netherlands has a national register of every bicycle reported stolen to the police (https://fdr.rdw.nl; very much spartan interface). They do not give numbers, either, but at 100k+ reported bicycle thefts a year and running since 2008, there must be over half a million stolen bicycles in their database. Google tells me that newly sold bikes also end up in that database. I don't see how they would need that data, but the site reportedly _started_ with over 4 million bicycle numbers.

Re: The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever

#18

Post by berkes »

pat2man wrote: post #3

Great looking site but what makes this "The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever"? There seem to be dozens of bike registries. It would be nice to see some sort of data sharing between them.

> "The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever"

I guess an average Dutch cities municipal "registry" has more bikes than this entire Database at this moment. Though certainly not as "effective" in the sense of being userfriendly. But seeing as that in the Netherlands the police estimates just under one million stolen bikes annually, there is a great opportunity for bikeindex.org in the Netherlands.

Re: The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever

#19

Post by jmspring »

schrodinger wrote: post #11
jacquesm wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, for a potential buyer of a bike the value is much larger than zero. After all, who would like to buy a stolen bike? Registering your bike and possibly mentioning that fact on your bike using a sticker might even help as a deterrent.

Also, even an immoral buyer would be dissuaded from buying a stolen bike if they knew it would be harder to sell it later...

Here in Santa Cruz where meth and heroin are big issues, bikes are a sort of "currency". Most bikes when stolen are mostly parted out and the scrap metal sold or parts sold -- this is at the low to mid-range. For hire end bikes, they are often collected and shipped out of the city (and often times state/country).

While I do a lot to advocate for registering bikes here in town (a group of volunteers I am part of has registered about 300 bikes), the reality is registering doesn't dissuade anything. Here, it gives the cops a tool in case they do find one of the local tweakers with another persons bike.

Re: The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever

#20

Post by bndw »

ryanburk wrote: post #2

the folks at http://project529.com are getting started in the bike registry space as well. I like their push for online bike sales to list serial numbers to lower the chances of stolen bikes from being sold easily. but getting the number of registries to fewer (ideally 1) is a really good thing.

Seems like they're trying to hop on what SBR has been doing for over a decade?
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