It’s an unfortunate reality that just about every day we see yet another stolen bike reported in our forums. In an effort to better track thefts, identify stolen bikes and the contact owners of recovered bikes we’ve put together a Stolen Bike database.
It’s a more organised means of keeping track of reported stolen bikes than the current forum provides.
Bikes are listed with some key information in a set structure (Make, Model, Year) to allow for more useful searching. Along with colour(s), serial number, photos and further details / special features to assist in identification.
The aim is to allow for quicker identification of a stolen bike and an easy means to contact the owner. Additionally, over time the data will give a picture of trends across geographies, brands, etc. to further assist in combating bike thefts.
Reporting a theft
Any registered Hub member can report a theft. The report will include sections for information about the bike along with the date, location and details of the incident.
Once a report is created a forum topic is automatically added to the existing Stolen Bikes forum. Any replies on the forum topic will also be visible as comments on the Incident Report page.
Bike registration
We’ve also added a feature to allow you to privately register your bikes. We often see that people reporting bikes don’t have any or at least any clear pictures or haven’t noted the serial number. The registry allows you to store this info just in case you ever need it (although we sincerely hope you don’t).
Existing reports in the forum
If you’ve already reported a stolen bike in the forum we encourage you to please add it to the database. We will merge comments to ensure a single thread exists for the incident.
Take a look – we’d like to hear your feedback and suggestions on what we can do to improve to this going forward.
Great idea. Would all the info relating to serial no, bike description be available for public viewing or only registered hub members?