Comrade Cycles recovered another stolen bike!

More details to come, but here's the preliminary email:

My bike has been recovered, nearly 4 years to the day that it was stolen. My sincerest thanks and gratitude go out to Jesse at Comrade Cycles, who found my bike and contacted me after reading my Theft Report on your website.

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Permalink Reply by Comrade Cycles on May 21, 2012 at 6:41pm

If folks remember to post to the registry it becomes easy to identify a bike that looks out of place. Post as many details about the bike as you can. There was another one brought in with this that wasn't on stolenbike, but more likely than not was also stolen at some point. Both were bought at the Swap O Rama on Ashland.

Again, keep your serial numbers! And thanks to the Stolen Bike Registry!

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Permalink Reply by dan brown on May 22, 2012 at 5:06am

yay !!!! three cheers for SBR, chainlink and comrade!!!

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on July 21, 2012 at 2:42am

Kudos to Comrade yet again! I am in awe at their stolen bike kung fu spidey-sense.

Good work. Other than the custom stem and a few other very minor variations from a stock Trek 2.1 this bike doesn't seem really all that unusual or noteworthy IMHO to raise much of a red flag. Seems like this shop could be checking every bike against the serial numbers on the website. Is there an easy way to do this on the CSBR that I obviously don't know about? The last time I tried doing this I ended up having to search manually -a somewhat long and arduous process for bikes that haven't been recently stolen.

Still this is one more proof, in my mind at least, that it is all-important to record and know the serial number of your bike before it gets stolen.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff H on July 21, 2012 at 8:53am

Red Flag = 5'2" person riding a high end 60cm road bike with the seat all the way in the post! Great job Comrades!

James BlackHeron said:

Kudos to Comrade yet again! I am in awe at their stolen bike kung fu spidey-sense.

Good work. Other than the custom stem and a few other very minor variations from a stock Trek 2.1 this bike doesn't seem really all that unusual or noteworthy IMHO to raise much of a red flag. Seems like this shop could be checking every bike against the serial numbers on the website. Is there an easy way to do this on the CSBR that I obviously don't know about? The last time I tried doing this I ended up having to search manually -a somewhat long and arduous process for bikes that haven't been recently stolen.

Still this is one more proof, in my mind at least, that it is all-important to record and know the serial number of your bike before it gets stolen.

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on July 21, 2012 at 1:58pm

Being able to search by serial number would be a huge benefit in and of itself IMHO. I could get behind a check for raising money if it went to such a cause. How much money are you talking about needing to raise to get these improvements?

As much as it sucks I think that if the serial number of a hot bike isn't recorded anywhere it's not really a hot bike and you can't expect people down the line to wade through hundreds if not thousands of stolen bike reports every time they pick up a bike that may or may not have been stolen. There is no way to prove it other than by "identifying features" -many of which can be changed or altered. There needs to be a simple/easy search function where one can type in brand/model and/or serial number and find matches (or close matches since serial numbers can be misread/mistyped pretty easily. I'm more than a little dyslexic when it comes to numbers myself sometimes.

People really have to get used to the fact that they need to start recording serial numbers or just forget about ever seeing the bike again. I'm surprised that as many bikes are recovered that the owners do not have the serial number. But that is really taxing a system that would be overtaxed as it is if everyone just paid due diligence with the recording of serial numbers.

h' said:

Plugging the serial number into Google would probably be my approach, but searching by serial number is not really all that useful as many (the majority of) victims don't know theirs. In this case the victim was also savvy enough to list enough identifying details of the bike that Bailey would have been able to tune in quickly when searching by model.

We're discussing a fundraising process to procure paid upgrade help to the registry since we seem to be out of other options; increased database flexibility is a given when that happens.

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Permalink Reply by Comrade Cycles on July 21, 2012 at 2:49pm

This particular bike, or any that involve the police, probably wouldn't have been recovered without the serial number. Common situations that have led to stolen bikes being identified/recovered involve big (higher-end) bike and small rider, presta valve confusion (although I've done tech support at plenty of triathalons when Cervelo &tc. owners don't know how to air up), sneakers and clipless pedals, confusion about locking skewers. We don't check very many serial numbers. Too often there are situations of questionalbe ownership, and over the years we've seen enough of it to know when something ain't right.

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Doom on July 22, 2012 at 3:27am

I try to keep my money on the South Side, but I'll definitely be heading over to Comrade next time I have some money burning a hole in my pocket. Nicely done!

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Permalink Reply by Jason W on July 24, 2012 at 10:47am

Comrade Cycles Rules!!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on July 24, 2012 at 11:19am

What needs to be done? Is there another thread about it? A drupal upgrade?

h' said:

Plugging the serial number into Google would probably be my approach, but searching by serial number is not really all that useful as many (the majority of) victims don't know theirs. In this case the victim was also savvy enough to list enough identifying details of the bike that Bailey would have been able to tune in quickly when searching by model.

We're discussing a fundraising process to procure paid upgrade help to the registry since we seem to be out of other options; increased database flexibility is a given when that happens.

James BlackHeron said:

Kudos to Comrade yet again! I am in awe at their stolen bike kung fu spidey-sense.

Good work. Other than the custom stem and a few other very minor variations from a stock Trek 2.1 this bike doesn't seem really all that unusual or noteworthy IMHO to raise much of a red flag. Seems like this shop could be checking every bike against the serial numbers on the website. Is there an easy way to do this on the CSBR that I obviously don't know about? The last time I tried doing this I ended up having to search manually -a somewhat long and arduous process for bikes that haven't been recently stolen.

Still this is one more proof, in my mind at least, that it is all-important to record and know the serial number of your bike before it gets stolen.

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Permalink Reply by Bike Bloke on July 24, 2012 at 11:19am

It would be helpful of bike manufacturers to have a standardized serial number system.

After my bike was stolen, I went to the paperwork to get the serial number. And there it was, handwritten, complete with ambiguities due to the handwriting. Thanks, Performance Bike!