Originally Posted by Maelochs

Bike theft in the US comes in two forms.

Casual theft, where someone doesn't really have a lot of tools but maybe a pair of diagonal pliers,, sees a bike not locked or insufficiently locked, or locked in a remote area day after day, and cuts the chain or cable. These thieves can generally be defeated by using a serious lock and chain and only locking up in high-traffic areas and for short times (I just got back from the grocery store where I left my bike locked to a rail right outside the main entrance. never had a problem there. I would never lock up anywhere away from the main entrance.)

A casual thief might just want to joyride, or might sell the bike (probably to buy drugs.)

In the first case the bike probably won't be more than five miles away. In the second case, probably also not much more than a few miles. The buyer could sell it to anyone, who could take it anywhere. Still these are generally local networks, neighborhood networks, so the bike isn't likely to go that far.

These sorts of thieves generally work one bike at a time.

The other type is the professional thief. These folks frequent big cities and college campuses, places where there are a lot of bikes, and generally target higher-end bikes. The usually have a truck or a van, and have big bolt cutters and/or angle grinders---the kind which can cut through any lock or chain in two to five minutes.

These guys will generally load up their vehicles with stolen bikes and take them somewhere probably farther away to sell wholesale. These are the guys who might not bother with a cheap, ratty bike--not enough return for the risk---but will stop at a bike rack night or day and cut loose and cart away a bunch of high-end bikes.

Rule of thumb---never leave a bike unattended if you aren’t willing to lose it. Always lock securely with a serious lock to a solid object if you need to lock up. Know the risks and accept the risks. Pay attention to the neighborhood—if it is low income/high crime, or if the store in question has a lot of work trucks and beat-up cars (lots of laborers will have tools in their vehicles) the risk is higher.

I have two bikes which I would risk locking up in a public place for a short time. I would hate to lose either of them, but they are both kind of low-end and beat up, and my lock is sturdy enough to keep a casual thief busy for the amount of time I would leave them. I have a nicer bike, and I would Never leave it locked anywhere ... and it isn’t that nice, but just good enough that someone might want it for the parts if nothing else.

Your product has a Huge market. Particularly in college towns and bike-friendly cities, people would definitely pay for a real chance to get their stolen bikes back.

The real issues are battery life and range. If a person locks up his/her bike for a couple hours while in college classes, and half the battery life is already gone by the time s/he find the bike is gone ... and if the range is only a few miles, but the bike has been taken to a poor neighborhood or an industrial area across the city ...

The person who lost the bike has to first call the cops, then call a friend (or several) who have cars and have the time to help ... if his/her friends are at work or in class, s/he has to wait for them ... and chasing after a stolen bike in some neighborhoods is just asking to get beat up and robbed. Confronting a ring of professional criminals is also potentially dangerous.

For this to work, there would need to be some kind of registry or database which was made available to local police, so a customer could call the police and say, “My bike, registry number XXXXX, was just stolen and I have the address where it is now located. I want to file an official report.”

If this was all set up in advance, police would be more willing to chase after the stolen bike—and there would be the risk of bad publicity if they didn’t.

Add some kind of registry which is shared with local police and I think that would increase the customer base.