Who owns that old bike on the railings?

Mombee

Hi,
does anyone know the legal position of a bike that's been left chained to railings on a public road for months?
I've been looking for an old BMX bike for my son (who's turned in a stunt-monster in recent weeks and a BMX might be a good alternative before he trashes his Ridgeback)... and there's an ideal candidate locked to railings on the edge of town. It's unlikely to belong to someone who lives nearby as... a - all the nearby houses have gardens and/or garages... b - it's not locked very tidily and hasn't moved position for ages.
So can it be 'liberated'? I did wonder about putting a label on it asking "is this your bike, if so please call me" and seeing if someone responded - but how long would you have to wait for an answer.
Any thoughts?
Mombee.

inkyfingers

My car sits outside my house and hardly ever moves, doesn't mean I wouldn't mind if someone took it!

The bike has probably been abandoned or forgotten about, but you shouldn't assume so.

adrianb1066

Don't know where you stand legally, but in Brighton the council puts notices on bikes that appear abandoned in the centre of town saying they will be removed in 7 days.

Don't know what they do with the removed bikes but if your council does the same give them a ring they may sell them cheaply.

chuckcork

I have an old bike locked outside the flat I was in last year. Still there I think, but is unrideable.
Not forgotten though, but would rather not have it at the house, prefer to give it away for restoration is someone woudl take it from.

Sadly the local rebuild a bike group in Cork couldn't be arsed to respond to my offer.

Bikerbaboon

I would not liberate the bike, leave the note but then you are open to random people getting hold of your number.

I would say lay some flowers and morn the slow death of a bike and then head to a LBS and get a BMX for your lad for Xmas.

spen666

Who owns that old bike on the railings?

Certainly not you Mombee.

You seem to be wanting those members of this Forum to condone theft by you.

tjm

it might be worth checking with the police.
A good few years ago my brother gained ownership of a car that was parked (abandoned) in his company car park. Something to do with asking the DVLA if he could claim it, they wrote to the previous registered owner and then eventually wrote back and told him it was his.

Not sure how it would work with bikes but there must be some law to let councils etc clean up junk.

Toby

pneumatic

I once had to organise the liberation of a University town from a plague of abandoned bicycles. We got the Police to supply appropriately worded tags for all the abandoned looking bikes and then, after a decent interval, they were cut loose and taken to a pound. After that, I'm not sure what happened to them, but I do remember a student coming back from a year in Bolivia and being really p1ssed off that his 50 pound halfords steed was gone from where he had left it for about 14 months.

He was about to kick up a huge fuss and waste loads of my time on matters of principle, so I just arranged for the University to buy him a replacement 50 pound steed from the LBS and that stole his thunder.

hammerite

chuckcork wrote:

I have an old bike locked outside the flat I was in last year. Still there I think, but is unrideable.
Not forgotten though, but would rather not have it at the house, prefer to give it away for restoration is someone woudl take it from.

Sadly the local rebuild a bike group in Cork couldn't be arsed to respond to my offer.

do what I did at uni with a bike that I simply didn't use, that needed some work that I couldn't afford to do.

I just left it outside the front of the house with a sign that said "please take me", it stayed there for a dayl before someone actually did take it. I reckon if I had just left it outside the house without any sign it would've been stolen within minutes

pneumatic

I took a couple of kids bikes out of my garage the other day and dropped them off at our local cycle refurb organisation (Bike Works, Glenrothes). I got a tour of the premises for my trouble. It is like an alladin's cave of frames and wheels and curiosities. Very impressive.

The work gives disadvantaged people the chance to learn mechanical skills, the bikes get sold on at a good price to those who want/need them. They had just sold a whole lot to students at the local university - I reckon there's a good chance they'll get most of them back in four years' time!

Onan

This is what wikipedia has to say, but I don't know if that's under american or english common law.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost,_misl ... d_property

Just cutting off a bike lock and taking it sounds dodgy to me though. I wouldn't risk it, especially not if you live near by.

My best advice would be call the police and report it as an abandoned vehicle, and just casually enquire about the possibility of keeping it. They might tell you to, because I don't think the authorities like the hassle of disposing of abandoned vehicles.

on the road

Maybe it's a trap? :twisted:

avoidingmyphd

i wouldn't steal a bike because wikipedia is ambiguous about whether it's OK...

Onan

avoidingmyphd wrote:

i wouldn't steal a bike because wikipedia is ambiguous about whether it's OK...

If you can't cite it in an essay, you almost certainly can't use it as the basis of a defence in court, right?

mhuk

If the OP intended to nick it he'd already have got the bolt cutters out and this thread wouldn't be here....