Stolen Mercian

How much does it cost to stamp or engrave a very particular little mark (your name, nickname, initials or a number) on something here in London? If we all know stuff is probably ending up somewhere not far from here or even e-bay, it would be easy to spot parts (that otherwise would just look all the same).
Imagine a nice phil hub with your initials on it...
Luckily enough there's no big fixed gear trend in Brazil and it's actually a lot safer to leave a "striped down" fixed-gear bike anywhere, where a MTB or Road would certainly get stolen.

Is the idea of engraving initials to your most expensive bike bits too ridiculous?

You can buy electric engravers for not too much, they are hard to use well though. Imagine a vibrating pencil with a 1kg weight at the top and that kinda says it. Could be worth doing, especially in an out of sight find the parts prove they are yours kind of way.

fatboyralph VB, chris crash's stolen bike blog is not in the "Links" section. deserves a quick link

ChrisCrash, how about putting up a stat table in your blog on what locks (brand-model) were used when bikes were stolen? would be interested to see what the hit rate is on which lock

I'm trying to get his info, but people dont tend to include the exact details of broken locks when they email me, i ask for them get them some times most times I dont.

and Stolen bike london (AKA my wallet) offers a reward for any info on messengers bikes that gets them recovered.

If they are flogging them on ebay, we've got to be able to track them down. Set up a couple of fake accounts and bid them up mega high so they have some high fees to pay.

Presumably it's the chancers doing the actual thieving who are flogging them on to someone else.

Can't imagine the average skaghead creating hundreds of ebay listings

its most likely bumtree or street markets, a lot of it could be people flogging them for crack, as some people have experience with.

they are going to be selling trendy fixed stuff in trendy urban areas as that will move them fast and get good $$

They had a show on the bbc a while back where they gps tagged a bike and watched where it went after being nicked. The bikes were going into storage, presumably until the heat was off.

ads They had a show on the bbc a while back where they gps tagged a bike and watched where it went after being nicked. The bikes were going into storage, presumably until the heat was off.

"Gone In 60 Seconds" it was called. Still have it on my Sky box..

hippy could i get a copy of that from you some how?

chris crash hippy could i get a copy of that from you some how?

That's intellectual property theft

lol - yeah chris you cunt! you better buy a TV license too!

hael [quote]stelle there was a short film made as part of a 3 Minute Wonder series on bikes done by a guy who was highly annoyed having had 3 bikes stolen in the space of 2 months or something: they set up the camera across the street from a locked bike and then sent an actor in with a huge pair of boltcutters, middle of the street, middle of the day, he cuts the lock - not even subtly - not one single passerby blinks an eye. They did this about 5 times, he did not get challenged a single time. That's our society for you. Self-preserving.
lol I seen that, didnt one guy stop and give him advice on cracking D locks??? he also opens up a lamp post and plugs in an angle grinder in one of the scenes.[/quote]

that was in new york:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TNTq3nhuh0

[i couldn't figure out how to include video in the link]

ads They had a show on the bbc a while back where they gps tagged a bike and watched where it went after being nicked. The bikes were going into storage, presumably until the heat was off.

'bloomsbury watch' or something like that does this same thing around (surprise, surprise) bloomsbury. although i'm not sure how frequently. mostly it has been the bike stands outside ULU on malet street and near UCL.

chris crash hippy could i get a copy of that from you some how?

Do you know how to record shit off a Sky box? I've not even looked at the back of mine. Shit.. and I used to be into home theatre setups.. :S

i dont know what a sky box is... you will just have to have me round to watch it ;)

hippy [quote]chris crash hippy could i get a copy of that from you some how?

Do you know how to record shit off a Sky box? I've not even looked at the back of mine. Shit.. and I used to be into home theatre setups.. :S[/quote] I think it is pretty hard to get this stuff onto a computer. If you had a DVD writer then you can record it to disk, them rip it from a disk onto a computer.

chris crash hippy could i get a copy of that from you some how?

Kelvin [quote]chris crash hippy could i get a copy of that from you some how?

That's intellectual property theft[/quote]

No it's not. intellectual property doesn't exist and therefore cannot be stolen.

It's copyright violation which is a civil matter but has deprived no-one of anything, and therefore is not theft.

hael lol - yeah chris you cunt! you better buy a TV license too!

Nope, no need. The TV license is required only for consuming a live TV broadcast signal. So recordings given to you are OK, and watching via iPlayer are OK. If you made the recording though, then that would be a live TV broadcast signal and you'd need a license.

can i still steel intellectual property if im too dumb to figure it out (like a dictionary)