Soma Roark

So is signing up for NBR worth it? They give you a "permanent" sticker but what's their actual success stat on average?

Any development on affordable GPS trackers yet? That seems more realistic to me...

Yours,
Jaded

dougmc

Affordable is relative.

A bigger problem with the trackers is probably keeping the battery charged until the one time you actually need it to work. That, and depending on how they work, paying the monthly access fee (either to the company that made it or the cellular company that provided the sim card in it) month after month after month -- at some point, you'll have paid more for that than you did for the bike if you're good about how and where you lock the bike, and the bike is not overly expensive.

Probably the easiest thing you can do is to keep track of the serial number of your bike, and use it when you file a police report on your bike if it is stolen. You'd be amazed at how many people have their bike stolen and don't know the serial number ...

Soma Roark

My perception is that those stats are pretty low too, bleh. With these multi-city migrating pros, who stands a chance really? I do like what I hear about those bicycle stings...

tadawdy

If they packed the bike with explosives that would detonate when someone rode it, that would be even better. Just a bit in the bottom bracket to take off a foot or something.

alhedges

I was thinking maybe something in the saddle. Pointed upwards.

It's easier to replace a saddle than a BB, after all.

Soma Roark

GPS enabled, app controlled, saddle deterrence system...yes!

Soma Roark

Wait a minute... if dogs can be tagged, why can't bikes?? Or a credit card smart chip scanning enabled ID system thing?

BikeMomTn

Your talking like a microchip? In a bike? But then that would require a scanner to read for such a chip and that would take decades to implement.

atbman

We have such a scheme in the UK, but then, we are a technologically advanced nation

Soma Roark

huh? I can't take my dog's chip tech and tape it inside the tube, scan it and it'll have my address? =) And atbman, what is this system you speak of... enlighten us. Long live the Queen!

LemondFanForeve

Yes, they are. They'll most likely do NOTHING to help you get your bike back, when/if stolen. Waste of money.

atbman

The UK one is on https://www.immobilise.com/view.php?...ry=1&product=2 And thank you for your good wishes for our noble Queen's longevity, altho' given the fact that her mother lived to 101 and she is 80 something already, such wishes may be a tad redundant

And Krypton have introduced: https://www.kryptonitelock.com/Pages/...evolution.aspx

Always happy to give you ex-colonials the wisdom of the mother country

Soma Roark

AAA HAAAAA!!!!!!! (<-- George Constanza) Not so into sticker systems but looks like the seat tube tag has a chance, and at only $25 not bad! What's the success rate do you know? Does it work? I can see the police having a fixed radius sensor that will alert them if a nearby "item" has been reported stolen via these tags. Too big brother? =7

dougmc

All those microchips do is hold a number. You could do the same thing with a bike -- give each bike a unique number, stamp it somewhere consistent. Perhaps at the bottom of the bottom bracket? You could give it a good name ... perhaps something like a "serial number" ?

That way, when the police find a bike they think might be stolen, they look up this serial number (it's stamped, so it doesn't require a special reader) and run it through a possible database of known stolen bikes, see if there's a match.

I realize it's crazy, that it would never happen ... but it's so crazy, it could work!

KD5NRH

Use https://www.bikeregistry.com instead; no fee for registering, cheap stickers, and if you report the bike stolen they release the identifying information on it to everybody, so anybody who wants to run the bike they found on Craigslist or whatever can check it, rather than you having to just hope it eventually ends up being checked by cops who bother to run the serial number.

NBR doesn't make a whole lot of sense, really; only the police can check the list, and unless your bike happens to be found among a pile of stolen merchandise, they're not likely to ever run the number. With BR, clubs, LBSs, honest flippers or anyone else can get an up-to-date hotlist with photos for their area, and keep an eye on the racks and garage sales, giving you a much better chance of someone finding and reporting your bike.

When you sign up, at the top of your listing page there's a link for an equipment checklist. It's a good idea to fill one of these out for each bike, keep them current, and make copies to attach to any police report along with a (fairly) recent photo of the bike. I like to make sure I get a new photo any time I make a significant change, and update the sheet with all the current info.

atbman

There is also the Datatag system with a readable tag - see https://www.bikeregister.com/howitworks.htm

Soma Roark

That's the problem with sticker systems, it's nothing more than a fancy serial number, which you obviously already have. The tag system does something difference in that there is a potential for random scanning... (beat cop walking by a bike and getting an alert perhaps). I'd like something I have more control over... sigh... one day...

To add, one of the ways crime was dealt with in NYC was paying attention to the little crimes (subway toll jumping, graffiti, etc.) so police should pay attention to bike theft as a solution to bigger problems rather than seeing it as "petty".

dougmc

The chips that pets have implanted can only be read at a distance of a few inches ... just like serial numbers.

Now, if a bicycle had a serial number or something similar in a RFID that could be read from many feet away, that might make a difference. Perhaps if you had a scanner that could scan the code for every bicycle in a 20 foot radius (and point to a specific code of interest to help the cop find an interesting bike) and they could just walk down the street with that and scan everything -- but the civil libertarians would have a serious problem with that.