How many of you know the serial number?
What other methods of positive identifical can you give?
Your name on a piece of paper in the seatpost or handlebar?

a reciept for the cheap lock that was cut?

My campus police took digital pictures of my bikes and gave me some registration numbers to stick onto the bike. If I ever want to take them off they will ruin the paint, but I dont!

I have my road bike which is more expensive registered with the Cambridge, MA police.. I have serial numbers for it and receipts...

My conversion on the other hand, I got nothin for.. I don't know how to go about verifying the ownership of a franken-bike

dated and notarized picture of myself with signature and DOB rolled up and taped to inside of seat post.

DUH!

Big Brother has now officially assimilated you.

Do they register the bikes for *your* protection? Or so they now have a database of who's who and on what bike?

So that not only can they steal your bike, but also your identity.

I thought about name and address hidden in the seatpole or grips, etc...than got nervous about the thief finding my info. so I settled on an email address registered to me.
I have the serial number at home however feel a lil better in case of a "no...it's my bike, I didn't steal it" type of thing.

i read about this website in bicycling magazine i think. i dunno how effective it is or what but i should probably get on some kind of method to tie me to my ride

"Register your bike or scooter"

"Experts estimate it takes 7 seconds to steal a locked bicycle."

the thief probably spent 5 of those seconds to make sure the owner wasnt looking

who the **** has a 7 second lock
?

and are they talking about childrens scooters or motorscooters
?

Madison Bicycle Federation told me that the bike registration isn't at all useful for finding stolen bikes. The only thing they really use it for is contacting people who have left their bikes on temporary racks outside of large city events.

I've heard of a lot of people keeping their data in the handlebars, but I don't know how valuable that would be if you aren't catching someone in the act. In my experience, the best defense is a group of friends keeping an eye out.

When I moved to Texas, I had a bike stolen that I had previously registered with campus police at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. I contacted the campus police department to request the information so I could file a police report in Austin, and they refused to provide it, saying I could be anybody. I offered to supply all the information they gathered at the time of registration to prove who I was. They refused. I told them they were worse than useless in as many ways as I could muster. Never got the bike back. Never went back to Tuscaloosa.

i keep my bicycles registered with my campus police at school, serial number, description, et cetera. at home i keep under the radar as my bike is either locked to the wall in my garage or between my legs.

Same here. My campus police are actually pretty proactive about bike theft. One time I was just sitting out in front of my apartment changing the front wheel on my cruiser (I had broken a few spokes and had an extra 26" wheel laying around) and they actually came and talked to me because they thought I was stealing the bike/wheel/something. They took a police report with a description of the bike and my name and everything. I thought it was a little overkill but at least they're paying attention.

Thats pretty good.
Too bad real cops dont care like that.

paranoid. a notarized picture with my signature and DOB means nothing in the hands of someone who isnt actually me, or willing to go to great lengths to appear like me. Furthermore, the chances of them finding the photo where it is hidden is slim to none.

once i was walking my bike back to my apartment after i flatted without tools / tubes (i was just running out to get cigarettes and milk). so i'm walking my bike back and a cop was following me for like two blocks, real slow. so he stops me, detains me, takes a description of my bike, writes down all my information, generally gave me a hard time... finally i proved to him the bike was mine when he got word that my bike was actually registered with the campus police (who are a REAL police force, not just campus rent-a-cops). kind of bull**** but it's nice to know they're vigilant like that.

... especially after i've already had a bike stolen in that town.