Jewel

Anyone register their bike (for possible return after theft. yeah, I know, probably unlikely, but...)? If so, which one(s) do you use?

fietsbob

College Campus Security may require or facilitate such, at Uni.

I've seen old bikes still with the campus registration sticker on them, decades later..


Me , I moved away from a college town with a trafficking in stolen bicycles and parts. ..

Jewel

No, I'm not referring to campus registration. I was curious about a national bike registry such as: https://stolenbicycleregistry.com/index.php or locally, through the police dept or ??? that sort of thing... wondering if anyone uses these or something else and how effective these sites are in getting a bike back, if stolen.

J.C. Koto

Yes I register my bikes with the local police dep't. I had one bike stolen from my garage and returned years later thanks to registering with the police. I even think the LBSs around here offer to register all bikes at time of purchase nowadays.

wahoonc

I don't bother much with it. I maintain my own registry, I don't know how effective the national registries are. I have had close to a dozen bikes stolen over the years and have never had any returned because of them being registered. I have recovered a couple by myself, but that was because my bikes are fairly distinctive and I spotted them.

Our local police department had a registry for years, but stopped doing it about 5 years after it started, the data base is long gone, I still have those stickers on a couple of bikes.

The stolenbike registry is a good idea...if enough people utilize it. There is also National Bike Registry, I believe I may have a couple of bikes registered with them, because it was offered when I purchased them new.

I keep a list of all my bikes, their serial numbers and the accessories mounted on them. I also put plastic ID cards inside things like bottom brackets, head tubes and seat tubes. In the case someone steals the bike I have an additional method of ID'ing the bike in addition to the serial number. I know of one stolen bike that was recovered that way. It was a higher end road bike, the guy put a plastic ID tag in the seat tube, it was found when someone brought the bike in for service, unfortunately the person that brought the bike in had purchased from a flea market. The bike shop knew the original owner and called the police. The person that bought the bike at the flea market was out the money, because the police took it.

Aaron