Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on July 18, 2013 at 2:23am

This.

Not only will this not keep your bike form being stolen but unless your friend is an excellent welder (as in a skilled professional) you are probably going to ruin the frame doing it and heat treating after is never going to work.

Cameron 7.5 mi said:

Welding to thin walled tubing like most bikes are made out of is very difficult to do without burning through the tube. Torching your name into the frame will introduce enough heat into the tubing to create stress concentrations and eliminate some (most) of the benefits of any heat treating done during manufacture. This will weaken your fame and is a bad idea. Heat treating your frame is not as simple as sticking it in a big oven. You have to carefully control heating rates, cooling rates, oxygen exposure, etc. Heat treating is a complicated industrial process that requires more equipment and knowledge than most people have. A better option for a difficult to remove ID would be to get an engraved plate and braze it onto the frame.

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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on July 18, 2013 at 2:25am

Untrue.  Ask the people who used to buy bikes off scrappers at the scrap yard about the bikes they have scored.  Scrappers see bikes, and most stuff they find, as nothing but metal.

h' 1.0 said:

Scrappers make their living off of knowing exactly what things are worth. They're not going to scrap a quality bike for the value of the metal.

Michael A said:

A lot of bikes are sold for scrap, the scrap yard does not care who's name is welded on it

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Permalink Reply by Christine (5.0) on July 18, 2013 at 2:37am

Lakeview East!  http://chicago.stolenbike.org/node/194256

jolondon30 said:

where do you live? I am pretty shocked that somebody would cut through a gate?

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on July 18, 2013 at 2:49am

I am not being facetious nor am I trying to be condescending: where do you live?  This happens all of the time--look at the reports on the stolen bike registry.  And it happens in "good" neighborhoods, like Lakeview.
 
jolondon30 said:

where do you live? I am pretty shocked that somebody would cut through a gate?

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Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on July 18, 2013 at 3:12am

I've lived in Lake View East for three years now, and have never gotten a bike stolen. I have lived in three apartments, and was lucky enough that two of them had bike rooms. The third, I kept my bike in the living room (of my 350 square-foot dwelling), behind the couch. I have never left my bike outside overnight, and I believe that contributes to my lack of theft.

Christine (5.0) said:

Lakeview East!  http://chicago.stolenbike.org/node/194256

jolondon30 said:

where do you live? I am pretty shocked that somebody would cut through a gate?

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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on July 18, 2013 at 10:54am

Your neighbor is only one of many scrapers out there.  I have seen bikes worth way more than scrap value that would have gone to the crusher had people not chased down the scrapper. 

h' 1.0 said:

Read again, Doug. See "quality." I know what Working Bikes was getting for $5 from the scrappers and I don't think it's in the same universe from what was stolen from Christine here (although it looks like we'll never know excatly what her bike was beyond "hybrid.")

I don't really need to go looking for anyone to ask, anyways-- one of my tenants is a Junkero an I've watched first hand for 7 years how items with value in excess of scrap value get sold through other channels.

notoriousDUG said:

Untrue.  Ask the people who used to buy bikes off scrappers at the scrap yard about the bikes they have scored.  Scrappers see bikes, and most stuff they find, as nothing but metal.

h' 1.0 said:

Scrappers make their living off of knowing exactly what things are worth. They're not going to scrap a quality bike for the value of the metal.

Michael A said:

A lot of bikes are sold for scrap, the scrap yard does not care who's name is welded on it

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Permalink Reply by S on July 18, 2013 at 12:45pm

What does that indicate really?  Maybe people in other cities don't bother checking bikes against the chicago registry?  Given the low number of recoveries in general, I don't think this really indicates anything about bikes possibly being sent to other cities to be sold.

h' 1.0 said:

BTW if you want to get an idea as where stolen bikes go, you can read here:

http://chicago.stolenbike.org/recovered

In 7 years there has never been a report of a bike stolen in Chicago turning up in another city outside the Chicago area, although we have received credible information that some of the 'professional' bike thieves have connections in other states.

Christine (5.0) said:

Is scrap metal the usual fate of stolen bikes?  I figured they would be transported to another city and sold.  Who would buy a bike with someone else's phone number welded on it?

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Permalink Reply by S on July 19, 2013 at 5:17am

h' 1.0 said:

It indicates whatever you want it to. As I wrote I have reason to believe it does happen, but if it were happening to any significant degree my belief is that there would have been at least one incidence in all these years of someone locating a bike in another city (e.g. while browsing eBay) that we would have heard about. You do realize the CSBR is indexed by major search engines?

Are you suggesting that you think it's likely that a significant percentage of bikes stolen in Chicago are sent to other cities to be fenced?

Given the recovery numbers, I doubt there are enough numbers to say anything about bikes being fenced in other cities one way or another.  CSBR might be indexed by search engines but how often do bike buyers on craigslist or ebay search for matches to their bike or use the right terms to bring up the appropriate entry.  I'd suggest that the higher end bikes may be fenced in other cities or sold online after a while but it's all speculation without much evidence.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on July 19, 2013 at 6:57am

And partly because it's so low priority for the police?

I spent a fair amount of time scouring Chicago CL after my Schwinn Madison was stolen a couple years ago.  I reported it stolen on the stolen bike registry. I had no other idea what things I could do.  I see on the front page of the "recovered" listings, that someone found their stolen bike for sale at something called "Swap O Rama".  I had no idea such an event/place existed.  It might be helpful if the stolen bike registry attempted to enumerate at least the most common places stolen bikes might turn up, and what you should do if you come across your bike.  Other than "report your bike stolen here", the stolen bike registry doesn't hing at things you might try or places you might look to try and track down your missing bike.  This would seem important, because as I've asserted multiple times (cue broken record), the police don't seem to care.

In short, the crooks know where to go to find and fence stolen bikes, but the victims don't.

Apologies for griping...

h' 1.0 said:

Yes, the percentage of recoveries is low, partly because the volume of bikes stolen every day is huge....

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Mulcky on July 19, 2013 at 10:31am

Sold for scrap or fenced, scrappers still steal bikes. It doesn't really matter to the victim if it's been melted down or not.

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Permalink Reply by El Dorado on July 19, 2013 at 5:09pm

These "scrap yards" are dens of criminal proceeds. Metal from bikes, platinum from car parts, copper from wiring ect...The police need to be cracking down on this. Also, I could see top end $2,000+ road bikes being shipped off to other cities or sent to bike "chop shops" like they have for stolen autos. I just saw a place (which I won't name) that's selling cordless angle grinders for $20. I guess thats all it takes.

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Permalink Reply by Eli on July 20, 2013 at 4:51am

When a report comes my way and the details match the pattern of bikes that end up at Swap O Rama, I often reach out to victims, but most trips down there end up being a waste of time.

Out of curiosity, what is the pattern you're referring to? It wouldn't have occurred to me that a specific type of bike would be more likely to end up there vs other outlets.

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