Stolen bikes, checking before purchase.

[Brite spark]

I'm currently looking for a second hand bike, ebay / gumtree etc obviously have some stuff that could be dodgy but is there anyway to check if a bike has been reported as stolen to the police before buying.

Obviously frame number could be googled to see if it brings up any thing although I imagine its unlikely to have a result.

Then there's Bike shepherd/bike register, anyone know if these use police entries as well as their paying customers?






(Trek also seems to have similar function on their website) assuming people had their serial number.

[anonymous-user]

No national database as far as I'm aware.
The best bet is to ask for receipt/Manuals/instruction book. The kind of thing which rarely comes with a stolen bike!

[Brite spark]

Realise that paperwork is handy but certainly not bulletproof way of checking.

[Engineer1]

Full knowledge of the bike as well, I bet there are very few bikes that get to be sold on second hand that haven't had some tweaks or dinks and the owner will know what was done and why or know that it could have been done in a service.

[anonymous-user]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I sold 2 surplus bikes this year. I supplied the manuals with both. I'm a bit of an anorak and keep that kind of thing!

[P-Jay]

According to the Copper who I was dealing with after my Spicy got nicked Gumtree is a swamp of stolen bikes and scam artists and there's zero come back, I'd stick to eBay, for all it's faults it does come in handy if you get done-over.

Things to look for:

Sellers who clearly haven't a clue what they've got, most are bright enough to Google the words on the frame to sell it, but wouldn't know a Deore from a X9 if it bit them on the arse. Be cautious of people "selling for a mate".

Right bike wrong house - 6 month old Carbon wonder-bike being sold from a scuzzy council flat, should ring alarm bells.

Pictures don't match the bike - I'm afraid to say they scum has caught on that when someone has their P&J nicked they'll be all over every online source looking for it, I know I was, and still do 6 month later! The poor victim will know every scratch, every obscure non-standard part, it might look like every other of the thousands of identical models to most people, but to someone who's spent months / years riding and maintaining it it's unique. So they take imagine from Google Images for the same model - most MTB's anyway will be wearing different bars and pedals to standard, if the bike doesn't match the pictures - walk.

[donfisher]

P-Jay said:

Sellers who clearly haven't a clue what they've got, most are bright enough to Google the words on the frame to sell it, but wouldn't know a Deore from a X9 if it bit them on the arse.

To be fair you've basically just described Dizeee and he's actually a decent rider.

[P-Jay]

Fair enough, I was only trying to offer some signs it might be stolen rather than an iron-clad reason to tackle the seller to the ground and call the Police.

I'm just a bike geek I guess.

[GuinnessMK]

You could look on http://stolen-bikes.co.uk/ to see if it has been posted up on there?

[sidaorb]

WeirdNeville said:

immobilise is the only online register that I know of. The chances of a nicked bike being listed on there are very remote though.

All the usual things really: Ring up about "The bike" and if they ask "which bike" that's your starter for ten. IS it the right price for it's spec, are they willing to show you it at their home, etc etc.

If you get a good feeling then you're gravy, if you get a bad feeling walk away.

Immobilise is also checked by police for found items (not just bikes) forces have special access that allows full search of serial numbers and partials, spent 6 months doing it when I was at TVP. Worth registering ALL your gear on it, not just your bikes.

[Gumstabber]

How about photos of the seller out on the bike. I'm sure we all have some of those somewhere.

[Chris71]

There was a bike tagging scheme at one point. Maybe the company that did that had the sense to combine its database records with others?

[Engineer1]

Gumstabber said:

How about photos of the seller out on the bike. I'm sure we all have some of those somewhere.

Not necessarily I am the slow one in the group so catch up just as they leave.

[Accelebrate]

The Police run regular bike tagging schemes here in Oxford, it's not tagging as such just finding the serial and entering it on Immobilise. Annoyingly I don't think there's a way for the member of the public to check the database so it's of no help to a secondhand bike purchaser.