Making a list of your bikes & serial numbers etc

daniel_b

Evening all,

been taking some care this year to get the house insurance right, as are household bikes have crept into double figures, and there are the odd high value one in there.

I think I need to keep a document with details of each of the bikes, this is the kind of info I am thinking of, have I missed anything?

Make and model of bike
Year of manufacture
Year purchased and for how much - any receipts?
Add pictures to the document of each bike
Any distinguishing features/marks, scrapes etc
Any customisation, wheels, bar tape, saddle etc etc
Frame serial number - I have not investigated these yet, but do all bikes have them, and are they always under the bottom bracket, or do they tend to be elsewhere?

Anything else I have missed?

Does anyone bother with any other kind of security, I'm not talking about ground anchors and locks and what have you, I'm thinking of getting the bikes marked up by your local plod, and isn't there some stuff you can brush into the seatube or something that you can get made up with your post code on, but is impossible to see with the naked eye?

EKE_38BPM

http://datatag.co.uk/bicycles.php

Most bikes have the serial number under the BB, but it may not be there. I have a bike with it on the inside of the left dropout. Took me ages to find it.

rolf_f

Daniel B wrote:

...and isn't there some stuff you can brush into the seatube or something that you can get made up with your post code on, but is impossible to see with the naked eye?

Smartwater - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SmartWater

Wrath Rob

Police do regular BikeRegister events. I've had mine done, it adds an extra number and they load the data onto BikeRegister for you. Simples.

veronese68

Definitely get the police to mark them. When my bike was nicked I was told frame numbers of stolen bikes do not go on any sort of national database, but the Bike Register they mark them with does.

davis

I've got these in the "expensive" bikes. They can't hurt, I suppose.

Note: Immobilise seem to "run" the UK National Mobile Property Database, but you don't need to buy stuff from them in order to create an account/register your stuff. The best use-case seems to be if stuff (not just bikes) gets nicked you can hand a print-out to plod and say "this is what was nicked". I still use ground anchors though!

Colinthecop

I would say the best thing you could do is have a good photo of your bike with a list of upgrades/mods. Even detail them on photoshop with an arrow,

Eg - ' Quick release seatbost clamp replaced with single red bolt'

Should your bike go walkabout, just hand the pic to the Police (or probably e mail it nowadays).

Headhuunter

Wrath Rob wrote:

Police do regular BikeRegister events. I've had mine done, it adds an extra number and they load the data onto BikeRegister for you. Simples.

I had my bike registered by the police, they were up in Crystal Palace outside the bike cafe there. I registered my bike and they told me I'd get an email etc confirming it but I never received it and there was no record of it being registered. The bike was stolen shortly afterwards and registration was utterly pointless, I told the officer who came round after the theft and he showed no interest when I told him it'd been registered...

iPete

Indeed, had a frame taken from the back garden (live in the arse end of nowhere so it was a surprise) but the frame was worthless. Tried to register it stolen but needed a police reference. Filled in a load of forms online for my local police and no number ever appeared. Not going to bother next time I come across one of these events..

If you are really worried, do all the things you said and insure them.