Ebay Stolen Bike Petition

danlikesbikes

diy wrote:

Yes having both the Vin no and the reg number along with the spec of the car is a very useful thing, which is why people tend not to advertise them. The problem bikes have is they can be taken apart with ease. A stolen bike can be stripped and sold for parts less the frame, for probably 70% of the value of the whole bike.

I would have thought getting buyers to adhere to basic things like:
- checking title from the seller - original receipt or purchase receipt, manuals etc
- verifying their name and address and getting them to sign a bill of sale (I always do this)
- checking basic knowledge about the bike

ebay could help here by prompting sellers to specify proof of ownership details.

there is enough of a market of legit bikes out there that you don't need to buy from people selling on behalf of a mate or people who have bought from someone unusual and then sold on quick. I actually think the issue of counterfeit parts is far worse than stolen bikes. I have certainly lost confidence in ebay when looking for nearly new components.

I totally agree with you there, with most Ebay sales for legit bikes, sold and purchased by legit buyers and sellers and everything works pretty well at a low cost to the seller without too much run around to get things listed with pics etc. Plus anyone with any common sense (I certainly do with Ebay bike purchases) would check those things naturally. Though I sold a £3K X/C race MTB via Ebay recently and didn't have the original receipt but did have the manual, however I could have easily got a copy of the manual as they tend to be multi bike nowadays.

I have no idea really on what happens when a bike is stolen, but I guess it would make sense to split it up and sell the parts as even harder to trace if stolen.

I guess what the petition was designed to do was come at it from the point of an owner having their bike stolen and giving them the tools to recover the bike. Not having a go at any police members as I think they are pretty upstanding people with often an unthanked job, but if my bike was stolen and I said its on sale via Ebay but had no receipt but a couple of photos they may not look into it fully or feel they had any proof otherwise. However if it was listed on Ebay (as was my MTB for example) with a fairly unique number and photos, me having photos of the bike and the number, photos of me riding it at events, the service manual & I could probably get the LBS to confirm it was my bike as serviced by them it might give police more grounds for recovery.

Like I said its not an outright solution, but it is low cost/high return & it might be enough to cut out those dodgy sellers. I would love to say that Ebay prompting people would work, but to be honest we are in that position now in that legit owners/sells tend to offer/ask these questions.

Anyway think this one has been done to death as they - lets hope that John does recover his bike and keeps on baking, or cooking or whatever it is he does

diy

Part of the problem is people's attitude to stolen goods. Many people will not be bothered if its a "bargain".

bernithebiker

Just a quick observation - if the government funded a V5 type registration scheme for all new bikes sold in the UK over £500, this would definitely have a powerful anti-theft effect.

And any cost involved would surely be outweighed by the amount of police time saved in a) handling the stolen bike report, b) investigating said report, c) failing to find the bike/thief.

(I did use Datatag on my Ducatis and it seemed like a good system - none ever got nicked anyway, and this was in London, always parked outside over a period of 12 years).

danlikesbikes

diy wrote:

Part of the problem is people's attitude to stolen goods. Many people will not be bothered if its a "bargain".

Yep bang on there

danlikesbikes

bernithebiker wrote:

Just a quick observation - if the government funded a V5 type registration scheme for all new bikes sold in the UK over £500, this would definitely have a powerful anti-theft effect.

And any cost involved would surely be outweighed by the amount of police time saved in a) handling the stolen bike report, b) investigating said report, c) failing to find the bike/thief.

(I did use Datatag on my Ducatis and it seemed like a good system - none ever got nicked anyway, and this was in London, always parked outside over a period of 12 years).

Yeah agree the system would be a good one, not sure on the numbers but think you might be right that the cost in savings would probably outweigh the cost of policing bike theft. However would thieves not just steal the bike strip its part and sell and simply ditch the frame, though I'm not expert on what they do currently.

Only issue with a cycling V5 (which I would be massively in favour of implementing) is is would need to a scheme either started by the bike manufactures forcing Government to bring in which I can't see the manufactures doing. Or the Government introducing a system with a sizeable initial cost and a slow reaping of the rewards by way of a slowly decreasing cost of bike theft. Would have to say that such a system might only pay for itself after many many years and of course would only be applicable to newly manufactured bike and to their frames only.

diy

Sorry but its flawed.

If I was a bike thief, I'd nick your bike and split it for parts. It doesn't take much skill and given they can do it for cars and motorbikes which requires a lot of skill it would be easy.

Then there would be a massive market in second hand framesets as people built up bikes on legit frames out of stolen parts.

danlikesbikes

diy wrote:

Sorry but its flawed.

If I was a bike thief, I'd nick your bike and split it for parts. It doesn't take much skill and given they can do it for cars and motorbikes which requires a lot of skill it would be easy.

Then their would be a massive market in second hand framesets as people built up bikes on legit frames out of stolen parts.

I'm not saying that its a perfect system but I think its a start. Regarding splitting of bikes others have commented that this is what bike thieves currently use Ebay to do by splitting the bikes down and selling parts so I don;t see that changing if it was or wasn't implemented.

I don't have much in the way of mechanical knowledge for either cycles, motorbikes or cars but I have broken down an old landrover and rebuilt it. It wasn't that hard with basic tools, a Haynes manual and plenty of coffee to keep me going!!!

Either way I have signed it & hope that it helps some poor person who has suffered a theft and might help them recover their bike. As for the deterrent to a thief I don't think it would make that much difference as they could just as easily move to gumtree or other such sites.

How's about we call it quits and agree to disagree & hope that it never affects either of us

bernithebiker

Thieves are inherently lazy f&$@kers.

They would much rather just shift the whole bike in one hit for a few hundred quid than faff about dismantling it and doing 10 transactions. Less risky too.

Of course, some organised thieves will be happy to strip, but you do often see full bikes on Ebay for sale, that 99% sure have been nicked.