What to do if your bike is stolen

There are certain areas in e.g Hackney that are bike theft hotspots. There should be some way of sharing this information with others online. There used to be a google maps mash up of bike thefts (i couldnt locate it now) but it was very little used. If people shared when they had bike/parts stolen you could build up a picture of the most risky places to leave a bike.

Yes, that would be a good idea. The main problem with targeting theft hotspots is that things always move on, but it could work for a while.

There are also places where its common knowledge bikes are sold on. If you can get the police to mark you bike and you happen to locate it you have no chance of getting it back unless you can prove its yours. Ive heard of many poeple buying back bikes that have been stolen.

Sadly, most attempts to control the situation have foundered. Many stolen bikes are now sold via Gumtree and other sites, and it's very difficult to cover all of them. In the past, we found that when Brick Lane Market was targeted, stolen bikes started to pop up at other markets.