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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

#51

Post by bagels »

zecho wrote: post #49
gweinberg wrote: post #47

I've had bikes stolen from me. I know lots of people who have had bikes stolen from them. I have never heard of anyone who had a bike stolen and the gotten it back. Do such things happen in the real world?

Sometimes, but mainly when the bike is recognizable and the owner is well known in a cycling community. More than a few times I've seen stolen bikes show up to the park or the race track. More often than not, they're gone. This is why I ride beaters on my commute or to the store. The good bikes in my fleet never leave my sight when they're off my property.

I agree, they nearly never come back. When my bike is out of the house, it stays within a few feet of me. This means it goes in to the grocery store or restaurant with me. People stare, but that's a much smaller price than a bike.

Re: The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever

#52

Post by ghh »

In Holland, there's a national stolen bike registry too, and an ecosystem with bike dealers and police participating in it.

- It's hosted by the government - the equivalent of the DMV [1]

- It's based on RFID tags placed INSIDE the frame, so serial numbers can't be filed or welded off. You have to physically destroy part of the frame to get to the tag.

- Tags are installed by bike manufacturers on the more expensive theft-prone bikes, and registered by the bike dealer, so you yourself don't have to do any registering.

- Police have scanners that they use to scan public bike parking lots randomly [2]. Try google image search for 'amsterdam centraal fietsenstalling' for a picture of a parking lot.

[1] https://fdr.rdw.nl/ [2] https://translate.google.nl/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&js=y&prev=...

Re: The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever

#53

Post by facepalm »

ghh wrote: post #52

In Holland, there's a national stolen bike registry too, and an ecosystem with bike dealers and police participating in it. - It's hosted by the government - the equivalent of the DMV [1] - It's based on RFID tags placed INSIDE the frame, so serial numbers can't be filed or welded off. You have to physically destroy part of the frame to get to the tag. - Tags are installed by bike manufacturers on the more expensive…

That sounds very cool. I think in Germany if your bike is stolen you are simply out of look. Hope they'll take a page out of Holland's book soon.

Re: The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever

#54

Post by minikomi »

Someone wrote: post #17
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…

The Japanese registry claims to have 70,000,000 bikes on record in 2007[1].

[1] 自転車産業振興会によると2007年(平成19年)度で全国で7000万台を超えており http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%98%B2%E7%8A%AF%E7%99%BB%E9%...

(looking for a better source than Wikipedia but it eludes me at the moment!)

Re: The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever

#55

Post by domas »

heatish wrote: post #29
bguthrie wrote: post #25

My bike was just stolen yesterday. I never wrote down the serial number, and now I'm part of the problem. Next time I'll be doing that, and registering with this service. Thanks for fighting the good fight.

If you bought it from a store they should have it on file connected to your personal info. My bike was just stolen on Friday as well and that is what I did to register it on this site.

My week old bike was stolen from secure locked shed. Unfortunately I learned that not every shop keeps serial numbers on the record the hard way. Now hoping for impossible that police might find the culprit. This time around I'm recording serial number, doing multiple customizations to the bike and just received specialized GPS device to be hidden in the bike itself. And the insurance of course.

Re: The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever

#56

Post by solarexplorer »

facepalm wrote: post #53
ghh wrote: post #52

In Holland, there's a national stolen bike registry too, and an ecosystem with bike dealers and police participating in it. - It's hosted by the government - the equivalent of the DMV [1] - It's based on RFID tags placed INSIDE the frame, so serial numbers can't be filed or welded off. You have to physically destroy part of the frame to get to the tag. - Tags are installed by bike manufacturers on the more expensive…

That sounds very cool. I think in Germany if your bike is stolen you are simply out of look. Hope they'll take a page out of Holland's book soon.

Not necessarily. I had my bike stolen in Germany and reported the serial # to the police. A few years later they called me to return me my bike. So they obviously have some sort of database. I don't know if it's just for the town or country wide...

Re: The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever

#57

Post by taude »

the_real_plyawn wrote: post #48
dublinben wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not very common for bicycle riders in the US to explicitly carry insurance. Your homeowner's or automobile insurance would typically cover the value of the bike and any damage you might cause in an accident.

If you are banking on your homeowner's policy you should check the small print. Many (most?) have a relatively low cap (say, $1500) with a deductible of $500+ you don't have much coverage. My insurer requires a specific extended policy that at $3 per 100 makes it very expensive for higher-end bikes.

Pay attention to this if you have really nice bike(s),. They aren't going to be covered under your homeowners in the U.S.. Just like jewelry, expensive camera equipment, etc, you'll have to get a specific insurance rider to establish value, etc. and they'll charge you a nice premium for this.

Re: The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever

#58

Post by laacz »

I know I'm late to the comments party. Though, here in Latvia we have a bicycle registry maintained by our local government organisation (which is more or less like DMV in US I think). It has enough resources and will to occasionaly promote this service and after few years of operation people here are aware of it and actually use it.

Re: The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever

#60

Post by schrodinger »

mhewett wrote: post #42
schrodinger wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Craigslist/eBay force you to include a serial number when listed, then it might dry up the market for stolen bikes.

Only exceptionally stupid thieves would use the actual serial number from the bike.

You could require that the serial number was in the picture
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