What to do if your bike is stolen

Thanks for this helpful first post & thread.

If I may make a suggestion for an addition to the OP, in the section about theft of components, it might be worth mentioning an old trick I was taught by one of the people who used to run the Reading Bike Kitchen.

Once you have your stem/bars/post/saddle/etc set up how you want it to be, get a ball bearing the right size to fit in the hex socket of the bolt that secures it, put some Araldite in the socket and push the ball in. Once the epoxy hardens it will be very very hard to release the bearing and it will not be possible for a thief with a hex key to undo the bolt.

For a slightly less "permanent" version, grease or wax can be used instead of Araldite/superglue.

I can confirm from my own experience that this is a very difficult (as in fiddly, time-consuming, non-standard-tool-requiring) thing to undo, and in my limited experience I have not suffered from opportunistic component theft from any of the bikes I've used the trick on.