The most important thing, the number one thing, the thing you should do if you do only one thing is to record the serial number. And don't lose it.
I actually started doing a bicycle registration service myself, and as a result did some "research" on bicycle registration services. I came away from that realizing that I was just making the issue worse by having yet another registry. There is no clear single most recognized registry. Having said that, I am convinced that the best registry to use is bikeindex.org. Bikeindex is (1) free, (2) publicly accessible, (3) easy to use, (4) usable before or after theft, (5) extremely pro-active about helping find stolen bikes. If you have time, go ahead and register with as many registries as are applicable to where you live. (Sometimes colleges/universities have them, sometimes there are state/city bicycle registries.) The bottom line is that if/when your bicycle is stolen you really want to have your serial number. When your bike is stolen, if you have the serial number there are many, many places to get help; if you don't have the serial number, you'll have much less chance of recovering it. On Tue, Jan 19, 2016 at 12:25 PM, Cyclofiend Jim <[email protected]> wrote: > Suggestions: > - A laminated card stuffed up the seatpost (or tucked around the bottom > bracket) that says - "This bike belongs to YOUR NAME /Phone Number - If I > have not removed this card, then this bike was stolen" > - Detailed set of photos - especially unique scratches/features in a google > drive folder which can be immediately shared (see below) via the webbernet. > - Folder in your personal files (digital or otherwise or both) which has > that info, photos, etc. > > Resources: > - If you are in the Bay Area, you may have heard of Jenny Oh's project - - > Jenny rocks. > http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/nevius/article/Here-s-how-to-get-your-stolen-bike-back-in-S-F-5448933.php > - Her group has good guidelines - > https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/stolen-bicycles-bay-area > - Twitter is pretty instant - https://twitter.com/stolenbikessfo > (if there isn't one in your neck of the woods, set it up and spread the word > to shops, etc.) > - https://bikeindex.org/stolen > - NationalBikeRegistry.com - I think this has been around a while. Back in > the last century, they had a pretty high visibility push into shops, etc. I > remember free pins at Interbike. It was free to register, but I don't know > how it's being kept up now. The idea was that law enforcement could > reference the serial number database. > - http://www.bikeregistry.com/ - no idea on this one - looks pretty sparse. > - Put ads on CL in your area - blanket the town with flyers. > > Hope that helps. > > - Jim > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
