
The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever - bike_index
https://bikeindex.org/blogs/providing-the-largest-and-most-effective-bicycle-registry---ever
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bguthrie
My bike was just stolen yesterday. I never wrote down the serial number, and
now I'm part of the problem.

Next time I'll be doing that, and registering with this service. Thanks for
fighting the good fight.

~~~
heatish
If you bought it from a store they should have it on file connected to your
personal info. My bike was just stolen on Friday as well and that is what I
did to register it on this site.

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domas
My week old bike was stolen from secure locked shed. Unfortunately I learned
that not every shop keeps serial numbers on the record the hard way. Now
hoping for impossible that police might find the culprit. This time around I'm
recording serial number, doing multiple customizations to the bike and just
received specialized GPS device to be hidden in the bike itself. And the
insurance of course.

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ghh
In Holland, there's a national stolen bike registry too, and an ecosystem with
bike dealers and police participating in it.

\- It's hosted by the government - the equivalent of the DMV [1]

\- It's based on RFID tags placed INSIDE the frame, so serial numbers can't be
filed or welded off. You have to physically destroy part of the frame to get
to the tag.

\- Tags are installed by bike manufacturers on the more expensive theft-prone
bikes, and registered by the bike dealer, so you yourself don't have to do any
registering.

\- Police have scanners that they use to scan public bike parking lots
randomly [2]. Try google image search for 'amsterdam centraal fietsenstalling'
for a picture of a parking lot.

[1] [https://fdr.rdw.nl/](https://fdr.rdw.nl/) [2]
[https://translate.google.nl/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&js=y&prev=...](https://translate.google.nl/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=nl&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.security.nl%2Fposting%2F28287%2FOverheid%2Bscant%2BRFID-
chips%2Bin%2Bgestolen%2Bfietsen&edit-text=)

~~~
facepalm
That sounds very cool. I think in Germany if your bike is stolen you are
simply out of look. Hope they'll take a page out of Holland's book soon.

~~~
solarexplorer
Not necessarily. I had my bike stolen in Germany and reported the serial # to
the police. A few years later they called me to return me my bike. So they
obviously have some sort of database. I don't know if it's just for the town
or country wide...

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pat2man
Great looking site but what makes this "The largest and most effective bicycle
registry ever"? There seem to be dozens of bike registries. It would be nice
to see some sort of data sharing between them.

~~~
berkes
> "The largest and most effective bicycle registry ever"

I guess an average Dutch cities municipal "registry" has more bikes than this
entire Database at this moment. Though certainly not as "effective" in the
sense of being userfriendly. But seeing as that in the Netherlands the police
estimates just under one million stolen bikes annually, there is a great
opportunity for bikeindex.org in the Netherlands.

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maaaats
In my country, registering your bike gives you a huge discount on the
insurance. Is it common other places, and will a bike registered through this
site be eligible for a similar type of discount?

I'd wish more listing sites would have mandatory fields for a bikes serial
number, and that people would actually bother to check the registry when
buying a bike. Unfortunately, a cheap bike makes many people blind to it
probably being stolen.

~~~
dublinben
It's not very common for bicycle riders in the US to explicitly carry
insurance. Your homeowner's or automobile insurance would typically cover the
value of the bike and any damage you might cause in an accident.

~~~
the_real_plyawn
If you are banking on your homeowner's policy you should check the small
print. Many (most?) have a relatively low cap (say, $1500) with a deductible
of $500+ you don't have much coverage. My insurer requires a specific extended
policy that at $3 per 100 makes it very expensive for higher-end bikes.

~~~
taude
Pay attention to this if you have really nice bike(s),. They aren't going to
be covered under your homeowners in the U.S.. Just like jewelry, expensive
camera equipment, etc, you'll have to get a specific insurance rider to
establish value, etc. and they'll charge you a nice premium for this.

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Zigurd
The police SHOULD be able to catch bike thieves like shooting fish in a
barrel. If the same person on craigslist is selling more than 5 bikes and they
are selling them off racks at colleges and train stations, they probably have
a pickup truck with out of state plates full of stolen bikes stashed nearby.
It's appalling that such a dead simple MO can't be crushed in a week.

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ryanburk
the folks at [http://project529.com](http://project529.com) are getting
started in the bike registry space as well. I like their push for online bike
sales to list serial numbers to lower the chances of stolen bikes from being
sold easily. but getting the number of registries to fewer (ideally 1) is a
really good thing.

~~~
bndw
Seems like they're trying to hop on what SBR has been doing for over a decade?

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gweinberg
I've had bikes stolen from me. I know lots of people who have had bikes stolen
from them. I have never heard of anyone who had a bike stolen and the gotten
it back. Do such things happen in the real world?

~~~
zecho
Sometimes, but mainly when the bike is recognizable and the owner is well
known in a cycling community. More than a few times I've seen stolen bikes
show up to the park or the race track.

More often than not, they're gone. This is why I ride beaters on my commute or
to the store. The good bikes in my fleet never leave my sight when they're off
my property.

~~~
bagels
I agree, they nearly never come back. When my bike is out of the house, it
stays within a few feet of me. This means it goes in to the grocery store or
restaurant with me. People stare, but that's a much smaller price than a bike.

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onenine90
The creators clearly got sick of their bikes being stolen. Good to see people
doing something about it.

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IanDrake
Bryan Hance has been doing great work on this front for a long time. When I
was making software to monitor CL, he recommended the free version to his
users that needed to be alerted when their bikes went on sale. I was glad to
be able to help.

Too bad CL doesn't like people using tools like that to find their stolen
bikes, tools, etc...

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jashmenn
What prevents someone from registering someone else's bike and then claiming
it was stolen from them?

I suppose one way would be to require a photo of the bike and only consider
photos of a bike without a lock to be valid.

~~~
oasisbob
I just signed up, and my post-registration call to actions includes "Visit
where to register to find the closest shop to register your bikes."

Looks like you can't just register a bike on your own.

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georgedrummond
This looks like a really cool project.

You can also contribute code here
[https://github.com/bikeindex/bike_index](https://github.com/bikeindex/bike_index)

~~~
bike_index
Thanks!

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laacz
I know I'm late to the comments party. Though, here in Latvia we have a
bicycle registry maintained by our local government organisation (which is
more or less like DMV in US I think). It has enough resources and will to
occasionaly promote this service and after few years of operation people here
are aware of it and actually use it.

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cujo
How do these registries pay the bills?

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wahsd
What I'm most curious about is WTF happens to the bikes that are stolen? Are
they just resold locally or is there some sort of international bike theft and
transportation ring sending high dollar bikes to Guatemala?

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JoeAltmaier
I see why I might register my bike - in case its lost or stolen. But why would
anyone look up a bike in there? Either its not in there - time wasted. Or it
is - there goes your sale. Net value: zero or negative.

~~~
jacquesm
Well, for a potential _buyer_ of a bike the value is much larger than zero.
After all, who would like to buy a stolen bike?

Registering your bike and possibly mentioning that fact on your bike using a
sticker might even help as a deterrent.

~~~
dublinben
>who would like to buy a stolen bike?

Someone looking for a good deal on a used bike? You can likely assume that
most of the bikes sold in certain venues are stolen, but that doesn't deter
the customers.

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lfuller
Price is irrelevant in the case of theft. I consider purchasing stolen goods
to be immoral.

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alixaxel
What is the purpose of a bike registry?

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outericky
Some people own bikes that have value... and would like to track them in case
they get stolen. Be it for insurance purposes, trying to recover it, or as a
buyer to not buy a stolen bike.

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bitJericho
Going home to register my bike today

