Classic & Vintage - How to not buy a stolen bike?

So, how do you make sure your not buying a stolen bike?

all of my bikes have been purchased from craigslist and I always try to ask a lot of questions and interact with the person in order to get a sense of who they are, obviously if they have a lot of stories about riding the bike and lot's of knowledge about it and are the first owner, it's pretty easy to know things are on the up and up, but I was looking at a frame that has had all the paint stripped and the owner reportedly bought it at a swap meet and he seams to be asking a pretty low price for it, and suddenly I found myself wondering if it had been stolen, if not by the current owner at least at some point.

does checking stolen bike registries really work? it seams like probably most bikes don't get reported

There's never any guaranty that a craigslist bike doesn't have a dubious past. I wonder about that myself sometimes.

just go with your gut feeling, but remember-a lot of CL sellers are just plain dumb, not necessarily thiefs.

amen to that :rolleyes:

So you guys are saying that I shouldn't question why someone is selling what is reportedly a stripped Pinarello Treviso frame with Columbus SLX for 150 bones?

just go with your gut feeling, but remember-a lot of CL sellers are just plain dumb, not necessarily thiefs.

That about says it all. If in doubt print out the CL ad and save it.

So you guys are saying that I shouldn't question why someone is selling what is reportedly a stripped Pinarello Treviso frame with Columbus SLX for 150 bones?

Nope....it may not be worth much more than that. Besides, in this economy some peeps may be 'liquidating'.

Lets see...I bought a full SLX bike with a Chris King headset for $100 and a full Reynolds 531 with some Campy Super Record stuff for $75

Can I just say that you have the finest Forum Pic, I have ever seen, my wife and I go around the house all day saying SHeeeeeeeeeeiitt, I actually captured your image and sent it to her and it is her AIM icon now.

Def. a lot of folks parting ways with good stuff around here, I should buy this frame though right? sounds like a good deal, I'm looking for a good steel frame to hang a campy chorus 9 speed group on, I'm also looking at a nickel plated Simoncini with SLX for a little more but it's pretty good shape

could have had full Campy component set that the guy wanted, put onto the frame that fits and then sells the frame alone at a price he knows it will move at so he doesn;t spend months selling it.

your not the guy selling the bike are you?

A neighbor up the street's kid was running a stolen-bike stockyard. Namely the backyard of the house was packed with stolen bicycles. They even stole them from this very neighborhood, and the yard is plainly visible from the street and sidewalk! The cops managed to bust 'em. Gosh! Good work....uh....

"a lot of CL sellers are just plain dumb, not necessarily thiefs." Well - some dumb people ARE thieves! :roflmao2: :eek: :roflmao2:

So you guys are saying that I shouldn't question why someone is selling what is reportedly a stripped Pinarello Treviso frame with Columbus SLX for 150 bones?

I saw that ad as well and thought about contacting him for a minute. The frame is my size.

As mentioned, in this economy it's not really too low of a price. I bought an almost identical frame a year ago that was in very good shape except for the paint. Came with Campy head set, BB and crank with chain rings for $250, before the economy tanked.

Turned out it was a leeetle small for me.

I bought it! super nice guy, bought it at a swap meet rode it around for a while, but was a little too big for him, def. passed the gut check. Now to decide how to refinish it.....

http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq12/KBPFISTER/The%20Italian/IMG_3350.jpg

There's only one sure sign of a stolen bicycle. If the serial numbers have been filed off, I avoid the bicycle. Last year, I had a guy bring me a bicycle for a tune-up with the serial number filed off. Didn't even touch up the paint, left it bare metal. Reportedly, he had bought it from a reputable dealer. I told him to take it back to the reputable dealer for the work. I wasn't touching it. The guy insisted I do the work, but I told him that the moment I had his name and phone number, I'd be obliged to notify the police. Needless, to say, he high-tailed it out the door.

serial number is clear on the bottom of the BB, I guess i can't vouch for the bikes entire lineage, but at least the guy I bought it from didn't steal it.

Did it come with the everything pictured?

Alot of times people with money just want things gone. They'd rather sell something for a few bucks versus haggling and hustling on CL. As I mentioned earlier, when in doubt, print out the CL ad and keep it tucked away 'just in case'.

My avatar? 'My names Clay Davis'. He comes into his own during season 3 of 'The wire' an HBO series. If you ever get a chance to watch it do so.

Did it come with the everything pictured?


yeah it did, pretty good deal all in all, I can probably make 1/3 of my money back selling the extra parts




My avatar? 'My names Clay Davis'. He comes into his own during season 3 of 'The wire' an HBO series. If you ever get a chance to watch it do so.

We have the whole run on DVD, huge fans. I just started rewatching season 2 after hearing that the writers had a contest to see who could slip the most number of lines from "The Wild Bunch" in to an episode, one of my favorite movies.

I think the only bad karma would be if you knew that the bike deffinately was hot, but bought it any way. If you are reasonably sure it's ok, it probably is. DO NOT BUY ANY BIKE YOU "THINK" might be stolen.

[QUOTE]There's only one sure sign of a stolen bicycle. If the serial numbers have been filed off, I avoid the bicycle. Last year, I had a guy bring me a bicycle for a tune-up with the serial number filed of/QUOTE]

As for serial numbers there's a decent chance, if a frame was stripped for paint, that they were previously damaged by rust. My Ironman is like this and after I wire-wheeled and sanded the BB the serial # was all but unreadable. The same is true for my room mate's bianchi.

The big hitch to all this theft talk is that the kind of people who rip bikes off on the street aren't usually the type to put hours and hours of work into a bike, take photos, and post it on a public forum full of theft concerned worriers (craigslist not CV). Much less want to pay other people to do work on an item thats hardly worth anything to begin with. I've had a couple of nice bikes stolen on the street, and later saw them both locked up in the same neighborhood they were taken from. Likely drug users or petty criminals with hand tools who flipped them on the street for next to nothing. Sure there are pros who'll cut your New York lock and truck your bike across country but they're a minority. Keep in mind how you'd feel if some stranger came to your home and called you a thief while you were trying to indulge in your favorite hobby.