It has to work a lot more than once to become a sufficiently prevalent problem to start being worried about it.

Well that's true.

The odds of it happening to you are low.

IF you do a few things to protect yourself the odds of it happening are insignificant to worry about. Sometimes you have to take tiny risks in life.

At garage sales all the time, usually just for inexpensive bikes though.

Yes, they do. Maybe it's an old guy thing, but I use a phone to enlarge text quite often.

Cool movie. How often do you suppose it would work out this way in real life? The beating especially was a nice touch!

There is something to be said for this tactic.

If you know it's yours and are SURE it's not one that just looks like yours...

Take it back. The thief who stole it from you isn't going to call the cops on you.

Friend of mine had his motorcycle helmet stolen once (it was secured to his motorcycle, but the thief cut the strap with the D-ring to get it off). Sure enough, a couple of days later he finds a note on his bike with a phone number...

Story ends with my friend going to someone's house, where he gets a sheepish apology from a younger guy (in front of his parents, who forced the apology), and a brand new helmet to replace his old helmet which was irreparably damaged during the theft (and which the parents no doubt made the kid pay for). Don't know whether the kid also go a beating to go with his life lesson...

I think we were saying that it's not easily repeatable because eventually the cops should (and that's a big should) catch on to the scam. But, again, if you are that one unlucky victim of a one-time scam, it's not going to make you feel any better. I just saw a Colnago C60 with Campagnolo stuff for sale on local Craigslist for $6,000. I don't think anyone would enjoy getting hustled out of that much money, or even a tenth of that amount (or even a dollar, if you are big on pride).

I love the American badassedness in this thread.

Steal the bike back! No one is going to steal a bike and ride it in the same neighbourhood.

Over here, most bikes (even in CPH they steal the entire bike racks with the bikes attached) get immediately shipped out of country to Eastern Europe or Northern Africa usually.

Same with most cars actually! When I lived in New England, I had a colleague with an Escalade (and with a "lo-jack") stolen in MTL. They ended up tracking it via CCTV (after a week or so) to a ship on its way across the Atlantic.



No one wants the hassle on unloading a stolen bikes or even dealing with cleaning parts and trying to sell them alone.

Organised crime doesn't have time for that.

Just claim the insurance and buy a new bike.

Dumb thread.

Right, you are saying there are no tweekers in England? They do steal bikes and ride, and sell in the same community. Nothing organized about their lives. If you get them busted you are doing them a favour. Been there on the recovery side.

The majority of bicycle thefts are not by tweekers as there's a very small used bicycle market. Most bike thefts in England (and most other EU countries) are via organised rings that steal hundreds of bicycles and ship them abroad. What you mention is a very small minority or thefts and quite rare unless you live in a tiny village.

Where I live now bike theft is rampant because it's a port city with a plethora of shipping options to southern Europe and over to Northern Africa.

Also, there are at least 10 bike shops and at least 3 or 4 co-ops selling used bikes for low prices (under £40 for a hardtail MTB with used Deore drivetrains) so no one would buy a used bike from an individual unless it was nice (and then they'd check with the police first.) I should say that's for an island with 200k people.

Also also, tweakers don't have a need to ride a bike as public transport (especially buses) will let them ride for free during non-busy hours. Or co-ops will give them bikes for free as the used bikes are essentially liter at this point, where they used get shipped to Africa as donated bikes (which is how the stolen bikes sneak through not-so-legit African customs.)

The same is true with the used car market (so many that they're essentially worthless.) I see cars for under £500 that would go for easily 5-10 times those prices in the US or GER. Just a market over saturation in England for used bikes and cars.

Also, I should state that opioid tweaker is distinctly an American phenomenon and quite noticeable last time I was back.

Very, very sad. Especially for the younger people involved.

data: https://annals.org/aim/article-abstract/2714295/premature-mortality-from-drug-overdoses-comparative-analysis-13-organisation-economic

I thought you were taking a little break from your usual nonsense, no?

Aside from the obvious fact that all of your generalizations are ill-informed and/or flat our wrong, you also shouldn't assume that everyone's bike is a piece of junk with poorly maintained components like your bike is. You claim to be a scientist, but you clearly don't have the first clue about the scientific method.

The paper I posted shows it's a fact. A sad fact, but a fact.

Why don't you jog on like a good little peasant and let the big boys play.
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Ha, calling me a peasant? That's cute. And now you want to play with others in this thread, after labeling it "dumb"? Sure, Ok.

And what fact are you even talking about? You threw up a lot of nonsense for us to wade through, as usual...

ignored ... not intelligent enough to read the linked PDF ... no content reply as per usual.

Ha, go on with your bad self...

That might be true in England. But the last 2 bike stolen from me were recovered (sortof) within 10 mi of where I live.

Well, then I'm sorry that you you live in an area where social programmes for "tweakers" fail to remove them from the streets via rehabilitation.

Here, I usually just have to deal with the profit motive rather than other various social components as well.

Why not try an Ebike, they have GPS installed

^^^^ What, so the thief will know how to get where he's going?

Even if the bike is the stolen one from the original poster, the new person riding it might not be the thief. No thief just wants to steal a bike and keep it. The thief would either just joy ride on it and dump, sell to someone quickly for money, or strip for parts. But yes use a mirror to read the serial number or use a cell phone to take a pic of it. If it is indeed the stolen bike then use a spare U lock to keep it on the rack and call police.