What do you think of my theft-resistant mountain bike idea?

[genealogyxie]

The concept is simple: why is that you can leave out a brand new $70000 SUV with the engine still running, just parked in a nice neighborhood and you can be confident that your fancy car won't get stolen? Because cars have VIN numbers on all the main components, making it much harder to sell to a repair shop or on eBay or something. So why not put serial numbers on all the components on your nice race bike as well?

Here is the link to the product page:

https://genexie.com/product/the-globalist-full-suspension-carbon-fiber-mountain-bike-with-a-20-year-warranty-made-in-china/

[Kommandant33]

Lovely idea, but I don't think it's a lack of serial numbers that makes it easy to steal a bike... My bikes all come with frame numbers that I have linked to the property vault (I even have my Fox Fork serial number on there).

I have thought about this in the past - bike registration through the government like we register our cars. That way bikes that are sold registered can be tracked back to the original owner, registered bikes hold better value, everything is transparent and goes through an official channel when changing hands (no more buying a TRAK MTB from a dodgy dude in a McDonalds carpark after dark) - BUT this comes with a myriad of other issues...

[Larxxor]

It is done in Europe, vin numbers on bikes are mandatory where I live.
Bikes still get stolen left and right

Only real benefit is that if you report bike stolen, they can check if it is found somewhere.
And if they catch thief red handed, there is evidence. Rarely happens.

[genealogyxie]

Maybe requiring a key to operate the bike would help? But idk how most people would feel about adding another 70 grams to their nice bike

[kbernstein]

The people worried about adding 70 grams of key are not the people who ever leave their bike unattended to begin with 

But there is already a national registry of bikes (sometimes mandatory) in a couple of countries in europe. Wake me up when that deters a single theft

[genealogyxie]

Well, there is also the customizable paint job going for it. If I saw a bike on eBay and it had a custom paint job, I'd start by asking for their proof of purchase or assume it was stolen. Buying stolen goods can still land you in jail

[genealogyxie]

The people worried about adding 70 grams of key are not the people who ever leave their bike unattended to begin with 

I think it's also about being able to ride your $2500+ bike to school or work instead of having a separate beater bike set aside just for commuting. Just seems like a waste to have a nice bike but too afraid to ride it

[Hokum]

It is done in Europe, vin numbers on bikes are mandatory where I live.
Bikes still get stolen left and right

Only real benefit is that if you report bike stolen, they can check if it is found somewhere.
And if they catch thief red handed, there is evidence. Rarely happens.

actually police stopped offering these codings in my country cause they're ineffective.

[dsveddy]

First off Gene, interesting website. I'm perplexed, but intrigued. You seem to have a lot of ambitions.

Serial numbers are not a new innovation. All bike frames have serial numbers. All fancy wheels have serial numbers. All groupsets have serial numbers. Anyone can record their bikes' serial numbers, and even share them with their states' stolen-bike registry where you can post the serial number of stolen bikes, and bike resellers like pawn shops are supposed to check against it. Most places don't check, because there isn't really enforcement, and because it's more trouble than it's worth in most peoples' opinion.

It simply doesn't work. In part because US laws basically don't punish criminals who steal less than $1000 or so in value. And police aren't even interested in investigating bike thefts for bikes that are worth more, because they aren't worth that much compared to other crimes like home burglaries and car thefts.

The other issue is that the VIN system literally costs money, we pay car registration fees which in-turn pays for the record-keeping that makes the VIN system useful. The VIN system works fairly well in cars because they are an order of magnitude more in value, so people are willing to spend a little more for the extra time it costs to deal with the VIN system. People are evidently not motivated to pay $20-50 yearly to register their bike to a bike registry system, because pretty much every past effort has failed.

The premise a bike will get stolen before a 70k SUV with the keys in the the ignition would, is also simply not necessarily true in the US. Depending on the city you're in, car theft is a much bigger problem in the US in terms of total monetary value stolen, and similarly the criminal justice system is not responding to increases in car thefts (see "Connecticut Kia Boys" on youtube). There is also a fairly large black-market for exporting high-value cars that circumvents the VIN system entirely.

I appreciate the thought of trying to prevent bike theft. But this idea barely works well for cars, has been tried before in bikes, and it isn't the answer.