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What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?

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Re: What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?

#291

Post by zurn »

nl wrote: post #286
zurn wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> More expensive bikes are built from lighter and stronger materials (such as carbon fiber) I would recommend anyone thinking carbon fiber makes stronger bikes to visit a topical image blog at http://www.bustedcarbon.com/ :) The weight issue is addressed elsewhere in comments...

I hate, hate, hate the anti-scientific view that busted carbon promotes. Carbon fiber's failure mode is different to metal - it breaks rather than bends. In most cases crashes that destroyed carbon frames would have also destroyed metal frames - but a frame bent out of alignment doesn't look as spectacular. It is possible to build a bike from carbon fiber that fails in surprising ways (eg, clamping it in a bike carri…

How about these quotes from the first page:

"She spent a few days in the hospital over this. On a normal ride with friends and frame let go"

"This shot is of a friend’s seat post sometime after he adjusted the saddle height"

"Just 'popped' when I stood up to do a fast sprint"

"I managed to mostly avoid it but got pushed into a barricade and when I looked down my bike was in two pieces"

"I was sprinting through busy downtown San Jose traffic with a guy a fixed gear when my seatpost went "ka-RACK." Fixie kid laughed."

(well that's just the first half of the page, will stop pasting now)

Re: What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?

#292

Post by mapster »

frankus wrote: post #81

Bike theft seems like one of those quality-of-life crimes (like graffiti and coercive squeegee-monkeys) that's begging for some kind of creative enforcement strategy. - If there's an open-air bike market at 7th and Market, it seems like you could use some of the same strategies that have been used to shut down open-air drug markets. - Police in the greater Vancouver area have had a lot of success with bait cars, but…

Agreed. Further, take the PD out of the equation. There needs to be a grassroots effort. Each new bike purchase should be in tied to register and be active in an online community to police the used bike market and put the swueeze on organized bike thieves.

Re: What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?

#293

Post by tlb »

The current police policy is to not investigate thefts under some threshold, say $2000. So you can steal bikes all day long and never get caught. A better policy would be to investigate thefts of value X with probability X / $4000. It's roughly the same total work, but doesn't create a safe haven for low-value thieves.

Re: What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?

#294

Post by nl »

zurn wrote: post #291
nl wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate, hate, hate the anti-scientific view that busted carbon promotes. Carbon fiber's failure mode is different to metal - it breaks rather than bends. In most cases crashes that destroyed carbon frames would have also destroyed metal frames - but a frame bent out of alignment doesn't look as spectacular. It is possible to build a bike from carbon fiber that fails in surprising ways (eg, clamping it in a bike carri…

How about these quotes from the first page: "She spent a few days in the hospital over this. On a normal ride with friends and frame let go" "This shot is of a friend’s seat post sometime after he adjusted the saddle height" "Just 'popped' when I stood up to do a fast sprint" "I managed to mostly avoid it but got pushed into a barricade and when I looked down my bike was in two pieces" "I was sprinting through busy d…

I'm not sure what your point is?

Yes, people get injured when they have bike crashes.

Yes (as I noted), carbon can fail. Metal can too! [1] is a much better survey of random broken bikes than bustedcarbon. [2] is a good summary of the hysteria around breaking carbon frames and some of the facts.

Here's a pic of a broken titanium (!) bottom bracket: http://www.pardo.net/bike/pic/fail-001/FAIL-143.html

Assorted mostly steel and aluminium broken frame pics: http://www.pardo.net/bike/pic/fail-001/FAIL-167.html

[1] http://www.pardo.net/bike/pic/fail-001/000.html

[2] http://isolatecyclist.bostonbiker.org/2011/02/21/carbon-bicy...

Re: What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?

#295

Post by zurn »

mootothemax wrote: post #105
frankus wrote: post #81

Bike theft seems like one of those quality-of-life crimes (like graffiti and coercive squeegee-monkeys) that's begging for some kind of creative enforcement strategy. - If there's an open-air bike market at 7th and Market, it seems like you could use some of the same strategies that have been used to shut down open-air drug markets. - Police in the greater Vancouver area have had a lot of success with bait cars, but…

I think the problem is not catching the bike thieves, more that the punishment given for stealing bikes is minimal, so it's not worth the police doing much about it.

Increasing severity of penalties doesn't generally work for cutting recidivism (and you'd have to steal a lot of bikes to make the caused harm proportionate to jail time for a person, even if you subscribe to the lizard brain "revenge" school of thought on punishment).

Re: What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?

#296

Post by Blara »

alttag wrote: post #198
frankus wrote: post #81

Bike theft seems like one of those quality-of-life crimes (like graffiti and coercive squeegee-monkeys) that's begging for some kind of creative enforcement strategy. - If there's an open-air bike market at 7th and Market, it seems like you could use some of the same strategies that have been used to shut down open-air drug markets. - Police in the greater Vancouver area have had a lot of success with bait cars, but…

I've done some work with a local (university) police force that used bait bikes. They'd attach a GPS device, secure it with a poor lock, and wait a couple of days. I went with them once to track down where the stolen bike was parked. Every once in a while they'd land on a ring selling all kinds of stuff on Ebay, but that was less common. Part of their trouble was, being an underfunded public agency, their bike wasn't…

There are GPS modules you can attach to your bike, if nothing else it could at least get the police interested if you say "My bike was stolen, it has a GPS and right now it is here"

Re: What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?

#297

Post by zurn »

nl wrote: post #294
zurn wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about these quotes from the first page: "She spent a few days in the hospital over this. On a normal ride with friends and frame let go" "This shot is of a friend’s seat post sometime after he adjusted the saddle height" "Just 'popped' when I stood up to do a fast sprint" "I managed to mostly avoid it but got pushed into a barricade and when I looked down my bike was in two pieces" "I was sprinting through busy d…

I'm not sure what your point is? Yes, people get injured when they have bike crashes. Yes (as I noted), carbon can fail. Metal can too! [1] is a much better survey of random broken bikes than bustedcarbon. [2] is a good summary of the hysteria around breaking carbon frames and some of the facts. Here's a pic of a broken titanium (!) bottom bracket: http://www.pardo.net/bike/pic/fail-001/FAIL-143.html Assorted mostly…

I guess one point is that carbon fails catastrophically more often, your metal links point to breaks where the bike still stayed in one piece. Yeah, they're not unheard of with metal bikes, but much more rare.

The injury quote was about her getting injured because the carbon frame just fell apart with no warning (no crash, except after the frame failure of course).

Re: What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?

#298

Post by sliverstorm »

ricardobeat wrote: post #277
sliverstorm wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm torn over policies of targeting buyers of stolen goods. It's easy to think everyone buying stolen goods knows exactly what they are getting into. Yet, not too long ago, I purchased a vehicle for a wholly reasonable price. I got the original pink slip. I got the keys. There were absolutely no signs of breaking & entering. Yet, I take it to the DMV to get registered, and what do you know- it's stolen property. I lo…

Shouldn't you have checked the car's plate and registration at the DMV before buying? That's standard procedure here.

Yes, you can meet at the DMV and transfer ownership and registration together, in person. But, that can be a colossal pain, especially when you're busy all week and have to do this sort of thing on the weekend, when the DMV is closed.

These days I phone in to the police records department and ask them if the plate is stolen, but you just wouldn't think that would ever be necessary when you've got the keys, title, etc... Even the officers I spoke with were surprised & confused.

Re: What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?

#299

Post by troels »

evoxed wrote: post #273
ramchip wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's still how they do it in Japan. Registration is mandatory for all bicycles. From what I hear you need to bring proof when there's a transfer of ownership, etc.

Yep. The only downside is that if a policeman is in a bad mood you may get stopped and checked to make sure you aren't a thief. Only heard of it happening to foreigners (not myself though) but it's a good idea to keep a card in your wallet or a photo of your registration (which is actually a really good idea for anyone traveling/living abroad: if you can keep them in a safe/encrypted place, carrying a photo of your p…

That sounds like a very minor inconvenience. Just keep proof of ownership with you and the problem is solved? After all, the only way the system can work, is if it's actually policed.

Re: What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?

#300

Post by konstruktor »

stcredzero wrote: post #186
DannoHung wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about a pressurized U-lock that releases a neon-pink paint cloud if the cylinder or restraining bar is cut-through? I guess the trick would be making it get on the thief and all over the bicycle. The best would be if it also stank to high heaven.

You can also directly attack the economics of bike resale. Make an inexpensive bike with a combined drive shaft, shifting mechanism, and lock mechanism internal to the frame. Put it together in such a way that it's quite possible to disable the lock, but impossible to do that without rendering the bicycle inoperable. Then, instead of selling these bikes, one leases them. It would be impossible to sell such a bike wit…

I heard about thieves vandalizing apartments where there is nothing precious to steal, so you might just get your bike destroyed in anger. On the other hand, they may as well just take a less secured bike. That would really need to be tested in practice.
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