What to do if your bike is stolen

I know one good method that gives you good chances of getting your bike back.
Write down your name, address, tel number on a piece of paper, laminate it and put in the bottom bracket shell or head tube of your bike.
After it gets stolen, there is a chance it will end up in a workshop one day and the mechanic working on the bike will find your details and give you a call.

Better yet - never leave your bicycle anywhere for a long time(I do that, and I can assure that it works better than any Kryptonite chain)

Cry.

Hello Forum people:

Sad news, I was waiting just round the corner from st marys church near stoke newington when a dodgy as fuck ginger Irish man confronted me whilst I was waiting for the lad who was going to buy my bike.

After him asking if my bike was for sale and if he could take it for a spin he decided to quite rudely say; 'give me the bike or I'm going to punch your fucking face in'

It was at this point that the £150 Raleigh compared to my health/iphone/wallet/keys that he might have decided to take from me I swiftly made an exit to call 999.

Whilst on the phone a kid (who'd just had his bag robbed off him by the same bloke) came up to me and we both ended up in cop cars doing laps of Stokey.

If anyone see's the bike (picture above), please feel free to call 999.

James.

James, you should post this in the 'Stolen Bikes' thread, not here. Sorry to hear about this incident.

That's horrific JIMMEH.Definitely did the right thing though.

this world is officialy messd up

Hi all - I am new here!

I found a reasonable condition Saracen Venturer 2 dumped on my road a few weeks ago. I watched it from the window for awhile to see if the owner had left it unlocked for abit. No one came so I decided to take it home before it got nicked and reported it to the Police but they couldn't be arsed to pick it up. No one has claimed it but I haven't got room for it either. Is there anything else I can do to trace the owner or would it be wrong to sell it?

I assume that you have a reasonable suspicion that it was dumped there by a thief. You'd most likely have to take the bike to the police yourself. They won't have time/resources to pick it up themselves. I'm not sure if they have a form on which you can report the find, but they should do. It's obviously not your property, and you shouldn't sell it on.

I appreciate that this saddles you with some work, but I think it's the correct way for you to resolve the situation. I'd be happy to stand corrected if that's wrong--IANAL.

Yeah I think you're right Oliver. Problem is the tyres are zapped and the station isn't close. I'll have to carry it but if the owner gets it back it'll be worth it. Cheers!

Bike now at the Police station. Sweat buckets carrying it there but hope it finds it's way home!

Good wokr, camel thief.

first of all Oliver thank you for your excellent list of "dos" and "don'ts" re bike security
sadly my situation refers to the post theft part of the list ;-(
as my 9 weeks old Fahrrad Manufaktur DR31 has just been stolen from outside my front door this lunch time
i am in the process of browsing ebay and gumtree and bikeshd
will try stolen bikes thread too
best
kubunio

Hi All,

Thanks for the advice - will definitely change some of my habits but sadly have been stung already.

Please could everyone keep their eyes open for my MB DRONFIELD green fade to white single speed. Stolen from Cannon Street. White deep V rims, leather brown seat and tape.

07951 88 03 11 if you spot it. £100 reward. Or alternatively please call the police.

Thanks very much.

Thanks for the reports--if I could just remind people of the 'Stolen bikes' thread, which is the correct place to post them (as, indeed, kubunio and joemet did). You don't have to post them here, too.

Another way to look for your stolen bike online is to set up a Google Alert with the key phrases your bike might be sold under.

So, if you've lost a green fixed-gear Raleigh with chrome handlebars, you might set up Google Alerts for:

Green + Raleigh + fixed gear

Green + fixed gear + chrome

Raleigh + fixed gear + chrome handlebars

It's worth creating two or three Alerts, including one quite generic, because the thief might not know the correct terms, or he might deliberately write vague descriptions.

Google Alerts will ping all the links to your email, you just need to sort through them.

If your bike is individual enough, you've set the right Alert up, and the thief tries to sell it online (even after months), Google will find it.

It's not fool-proof, but it'll save more time than trawling through all the sites one by one. It also helps if you're outside London and don't have Bikeshd.co.uk to look through (which is a brilliant site).

Hope this helps - if it's old advice then please ignore it. I only found this site (and the "Locks that work" thread) after I had my bike stolen. It was a generic Black Subway Carrera from Halfords, so although I found lots of matches, it's been impossible to work out if any were my bike.

Still, I like my new cheap second-hand bike more.

Would be interested to know if anyone has any success using this method?

I've had 5 bikes stolen and each time I just get my parents to call the insurance company.

I know that in my area the police did a day where you could go down to your local bike shop and have your bike fitted with a tracker, you could always see if theres something similar in your area

I am not getting how can you track a stolen bike online ?

too sad

I've had 5 bikes stolen and each time I just get my parents to call the insurance company.

how much is the insurance?

I've had 5 bikes stolen and each time I just get my parents to call the insurance company.
Out of curiousity, what locks did you use ?

hey im new to the forum so i need to post 3 times before starting a thread to this may not be the best place to post this. my esb was stolen on friday and i got a call from a friend saying its being sold in brick lane. by the time i got there the bike had been sold but i found the fucking cuntish thief. i called the police and told them to come down but they didnt. it was a raw metal tig welded esb. it had a white 14 bike co concor sadle, white grips, profile cranks and black chucker rims. someone has bought my beloved bike for £250. if anyone hears of anyone buying it please get in contact and i will buy the bike back of them. any information would be amazing as im so desperate to get it back.

I had the pleasure of catching one twat that that tried to nick my bike. He jumped on my bike and started accelerating, i was running after him and just managed to catch up to him at full sprint and kicked him into a garden wall. He fell heavily

Thanks, Ill try Google alerts; my all black aluminium TT bike, survived Liverpool, stolen within an hour of London while I got interviewed at UCL! Kill, is all I can think - welcome to London eh!