Mind boggling at the amount of bikes stolen.

[johnnyb47]

Hi.
After reading on here about some poor soul having his bike stolen I was curious to find out how many bikes get stolen each year here in the UK.
It was staggered to read that around 400,000 bikes are pinched each year.That works out around 1200 a day !!.
I would also hazard a guess that many more would also get stolen on top of this figure but don't get reported. These bikes are no doubt sold on for a quick profit. You could say that 1000 stolen bike a day, are sold on to innocent people who don't suspect a thing. I think it's high time new bikes should be registered on to a data base by law and micro chipped containing the details of who the owner is. If it's sold the data base is then updated by the old owner. As bikes are getting ever more popular and more expensive ,bike thefts will only increase if nothing is done. Also cyclists who are caught breaking the law can quite often escape prosecution because it,s hard to prove who the person actually is if stopped by the police. If the bike was data tagged with the owners details theirs no getting away from who you are or if the bike is stolen..The police could be equipped with some device that could read a bikes details on the spot.
Right, I,ll run for cover now with my tin hat on behind the sofa, as I know there will be some serious objections to this :-)
Either way though ,it would be interesting to know what views you good folk have and will always respect them too..

 

[vickster]

I had a bike stolen, it was insured, a little inconvenient but I wasn't especially upset...as it was too big and for sale IIRC. It was on bike register, I kept an eye on ebay for a bit,never recovered. I've probably bought half a dozen more since

I would never buy a used bike unless I knew the provenance and had a receipt from the seller

Who'd pay for your grand plan? Buyer? Seller? Other?

 

[Lozz360]

I would also hazard a guess that many more would also get stolen on top of this figure (400,000) but don't get reported.

Police figures for reported bike thefts are much lower than this and the trend is reducing. I understand that the "nearly 400,000" figure was from a survey of victims in 2015 and would have been an estimate for the UK based on the survey.

 

[mjr]

Microchip cyclists like the filthy dogs they are, huh?

It's not like a database has been "burglar's shopping list" has it? Oh wait http://m.bbc.com/news/technology-30686697

And do you think the database provider will have more incentive to keep details secure if we're all compelled to use it?

 

[Jody]

I would like to know how the theives know to target individual addresses. The amount of posts on Facebook for stolen high end MTB's is crazy and they are always taken from garages, shed, house etc.

They can't all be getting lucky when seeing someone unload their bike or return home so are they using Strava, Facebook, Insta to locate?

 

[biggs682]

I am sure a lot of these end up on e bay , gumtree and other sites for sale and more are broken down and sold of as spare parts

I agree re a database for all bikes , not quite sure how it would work and what details it would include

It wouldnt be hard for a bike to micro chipped during production and not hard for older ones to have a secure micro chip added

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I would like to know how the theives know to target individual addresses. The amount of posts on Facebook for stolen high end MTB's is crazy and they are always taken from garages, shed, house etc.

They can't all be getting lucky when seeing someone unload their bike or return home so are they using Strava, Facebook, Insta to locate?

A lot of people put details of their rides online, including route details via GPS devices like garmins, thieves can use this to locate people with high end bikes so they can steal the bikes.

 

[Jody]

It wouldnt be hard for a bike to micro chipped during production and not hard for older ones to have a secure micro chip added

Surely the frame will just be discarded and the parts sold on. A MTB is worth a good deal for parts when you consider forks, shock, wheels, dropper post, bars, brakes etc

 

[Jody]

A lot of people put details of their rides online, including route details via GPS devices like garmins, thieves can use this to locate people with high end bikes so they can steal the bikes.

Crazy if people are naive enough to think no one is watching out for this type of thing online.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Crazy if people are naive enough to think no one is watching out for this type of thing online.

I sometimes record my rides using the GPS on my phone, but I start and finish recording a couple of streets away from where I live.

 

[MichaelW2]

Security is why I never use a bike for utility trips. That and the fact that I am not averse to walking a couple of miles, and live in London and have an Oyster card so I can always hop on a bus.

When I moved to London I built up an old hack frame, hand painted, with just good enough components so I could ride and not worry about theft. It had DT shifters, bolt on wheels and 2*5 speed gearing, full mudguards and rack. The problem was that my hack bike rode really well and I got very attatched to it. My counter thieving-bastard strategy seemed to work OK because no one touched the bike.

 

[Lozz360]

I would like to know how the theives know to target individual addresses. The amount of posts on Facebook for stolen high end MTB's is crazy and they are always taken from garages, shed, house etc.

They can't all be getting lucky when seeing someone unload their bike or return home so are they using Strava, Facebook, Insta to locate?

I use the privacy feature on Strava that avoids showing, say, a half mile radius of your home. I also don't display the make and model of the bikes I have. I just refer to them as the black one or the blue one. Who really cares what type of bike you are riding? The survey I referred to earlier in the thread said that well over half of bike thefts are from or around the victims home.

A friend of mine who posts regularly and publically on FB his cycling trips and detailed Strava routes, also posted pictures and check-ins of a recent foreign holiday; came home from said holiday to find his £2k MTB stolen from his shed. I'm sure his FB activity and the theft are connected.

 

[ianrauk]

A friend of mine who posts regularly and publically on FB his cycling trips and detailed Strava routes, also posted pictures and check-ins of a recent foreign holiday; came home from said holiday to find his £2k MTB stolen from his shed. I'm sure his FB activity and the theft are connected.

I think this happen's more then people imagine.

 

[mjr]

Security is why I never use a bike for utility trips. That and the fact that I am not averse to walking a couple of miles, and live in London and have an Oyster card so I can always hop on a bus.

Well that's throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I've use a bike for most utility trips for most of my life and not had one stolen yet - current security is a D lock and an alarmed cable lock, but I do hesitate to leave a bike alone in London, so usually either take my folding bike in with me, or leave my bike parked at the train station and use London Cycle Hire.

My household have had two bikes stolen over 20ish years: one was taken from a supposedly-secure compound at a workplace - work paid for the replacement and upgraded their security; and one was a borrowed bike with a borrowed lock that turned out to be shoot (rated 3 out of 10 by the shop that sold the lock - I mean, why even bother selling that? It was far too big to be useful as a cafe lock) stolen from a shared bike shed at a block of flats.

Same here. I also use privacy zones, and make all rides private by default.

I don't use any of the cloud-based trackers, but are they still set to be completely insecure/public until you tell them otherwise by defining such privacy zones?

And making rides private seems like relying on the cloud owner's security not being breached (or simply flawed) which I don't think is a good move.

I think this happen's more then people imagine.

I think so too, but there's always the facebookers willing to tell us that we're imagining it and sites like www.pleaseRobMe.com are scaremongering.

 

[Jody]

I use the privacy feature on Strava that avoids showing, say, a half mile radius of your home. I also don't display the make and model of the bikes I have. I just refer to them as the black one or the blue one.

Same here but I have changed the privacy zone to cover the whole of my village using other peoples post codes. I have changed my name to something spurious, don't refer to my bikes other than MTB or road bike, set my profile as private etc.

Don't forget to turn flyby off also as that can help locate where you live.