National Bike Registry

[SerialCarpins]

It doesn’t load for me either…I know at some point they were acquired by Boomerangit (http://www.boomerangit.com/whyBoomerangIt/faq.aspx) so you might want to check in there. I also have my bike registered with the NBR, and didn’t know about this. I just logged into Boomerangit with my old credentials and the login worked. I just saw the info for my bike under my account there. Hope this helps! Good luck!

[mstone]

from boomerangit: “BoomerangIt Packs and Subscriptions are no longer available for purchase. With any questions, please e-mail support@boomerangit.com. To purchase National Bike Registry (NBR®) Packs, please e-mail nbr@boomerangit.com or call 1-800-848-BIKE.”

This is something that really cries out for a real national database.

[peterw_diy]

The site is still dead. I assume this means law enforcement also cannot use the registry — right? Are there any other registries used by local law enforcement other than the registry that WMATA set up?

[n18]

It doesn’t load for me either. There is Stolen Bicycle Registry, which unlike NBR, you can register your bike and search their database. They don’t get their information from the police or NBR, individuals have to submit their stolen bike information to their site.

[peterw_diy]

…and today the National Bike Registry site is back up.

[cyclingfool]

Hooray!

[peterw_diy]

I guess. Frankly I’m a little disappointed to see it return, as I wish police would endorse other registries that cost a lot less and that allowed anyone to search the database. If NBR were truly gone, police would have to pick another registry.

The NBR cost means it’s not as widely used as it could be. The fact that only police can search the registry means it’s useless to honest Craigslist buyers who want to be certain that a seller is legit.

Even the cops complain about fences on Craigslist, so I don’t know why they don’t promote a more modern registry that helps solve that problem.

I’d love to hear the perspective of WABA, BikeArlington, etc. on this.

[cyclingfool]

On a related note having to do with fencing, CL, and eBay… I don’t remember where I saw this first (may have even been here):

http://www.peopleforbikes.org/blog/entry/sign-the-petition-to-stop-bike-theft, which points here: http://project529.com/garage/petitions/

A petition asking CL and eBay to force sellers to list serial numbers when selling bikes online. I like the idea of this, but I’m not sure how well it would work in actuality. Major issues/potential stumbling blocks would be:

What’s to keep someone from posting a fake serial number to avoid detection by police or theft victims who may be searching for their bike being sold?

How likely are police to actively match serial numbers to those of bikes reported stolen, given the lack of seriousness they often seem to display to a bike being stolen?

[mstone]

@peterw_diy 88267 wrote:

I guess. Frankly I’m a little disappointed to see it return, as I wish police would endorse other registries that cost a lot less and that allowed anyone to search the database. If NBR were truly gone, police would have to pick another registry.

The NBR cost means it’s not as widely used as it could be. The fact that only police can search the registry means it’s useless to honest Craigslist buyers who want to be certain that a seller is legit.

Even the cops complain about fences on Craigslist, so I don’t know why they don’t promote a more modern registry that helps solve that problem.

I’d love to hear the perspective of WABA, BikeArlington, etc. on this.

Agree that NBR is sketchy and needs to go. I’d prefer to see something that’s actually got a government charter and open records. What makes NBR any more official than the dozens of other registries that come up when you google “free bike registry”, other than the fact that a portion of the fee they charge goes to renting McGruff? I don’t want to buy a stupid label from a for-profit company — the bike already has a freakin’ serial number — I just want to pay a reasonable administrative fee for maintaining the registration. And I’d like to be able to search to make sure they’re actually doing something other than taking my money.

@cyclingfool 88269 wrote:

On a related note having to do with fencing, CL, and eBay… I don’t remember where I saw this first (may have even been here):

http://www.peopleforbikes.org/blog/entry/sign-the-petition-to-stop-bike-theft, which points here: http://project529.com/garage/petitions/

A petition asking CL and eBay to force sellers to list serial numbers when selling bikes online. I like the idea of this, but I’m not sure how well it would work in actuality. Major issues/potential stumbling blocks would be:

What’s to keep someone from posting a fake serial number to avoid detection by police or theft victims who may be searching for their bike being sold?

How likely are police to actively match serial numbers to those of bikes reported stolen, given the lack of seriousness they often seem to display to a bike being stolen?

It will take a long-term cultural change, but just getting people familiar with the idea that bikes have serial numbers and that they are something you should look at when buying a bike would be a huge first step. If someone posts a fake serial number for a bike, that should be a red flag to walk away from the sale. Most people don’t actually want to buy stolen goods, and would hesitate to do so if the tools were readily available. As far as checking the serial numbers, that should be easy to automate.

[cyclingfool]

@mstone 88273 wrote:

It will take a long-term cultural change, but just getting people familiar with the idea that bikes have serial numbers and that they are something you should look at when buying a bike would be a huge first step. If someone posts a fake serial number for a bike, that should be a red flag to walk away from the sale. Most people don’t actually want to buy stolen goods, and would hesitate to do so if the tools were readily available. As far as checking the serial numbers, that should be easy to automate.

Don’t get me wrong. I signed the petition, and I agree it is a good first step. Any positive change would be a good/big positive in my book. I agree checking could be easily automated… to check against a nationwide database like the NBR. What happens, though, say, when someone’s bike is stolen, they report it to the police, along with a serial number, but haven’t registered either before or ex post facto on NBR?

I guess my concern is that 95% of buyers aren’t going to think to double check the serial number. The types of people that post here will think to do that. I’m not sure how many of the rest will, even if the serial number has to be listed with the ad, which opens up the realm of cheating.

Having had a $1500+ bike stolen from a secure location in the last 18 months and a cheaper one from an arguable even more secure location years ago, perhaps I’m just too cynical about all this. Forcing the posting of SNs w/ bike listings will help to clean things up some, even if it’s not foolproof or perfect.

[mstone]

@cyclingfool 88277 wrote:

Don’t get me wrong. I signed the petition, and I agree it is a good first step. Any positive change would be a good/big positive in my book. I agree checking could be easily automated… to check against a nationwide database like the NBR. What happens, though, say, when someone’s bike is stolen, they report it to the police, along with a serial number, but haven’t registered either before or ex post facto on NBR?

I guess my concern is that 95% of buyers aren’t going to think to double check the serial number. The types of people that post here will think to do that. I’m not sure how many of the rest will, even if the serial number has to be listed with the ad, which opens up the realm of cheating.

Having had a $1500+ bike stolen from a secure location in the last 18 months and a cheaper one from an arguable even more secure location years ago, perhaps I’m just too cynical about all this. Forcing the posting of SNs w/ bike listings will help to clean things up some, even if it’s not foolproof or perfect.

The bottom line is that I think people will be more likely to check serial numbers if that’s listed as something they should consider on the premier used-bike forum than they are under current conditions. Will everyone? No. Will some? Yes. Is that an improvement? Yes. Will registering your bike be more useful if checking serial numbers becomes more common? Yes. (Here’s where we need to replace NBR with something open, so people can actually do something with the serial number when they’re buying a bike.) If more people register their bikes will that make checking serial numbers when you buy a bike more useful and encourage people to do so? Yes. Will all of this make bike theft less of an easy profit? Yes. At this point a stolen bike is basically cash, and until that changes there’s going to be a lot of bike theft.

[cyclingfool]

@mstone 88288 wrote:

The bottom line is that I think people will be more likely to check serial numbers if that’s listed as something they should consider on the premier used-bike forum than they are under current conditions. Will everyone? No. Will some? Yes. Is that an improvement? Yes. Will registering your bike be more useful if checking serial numbers becomes more common? Yes. (Here’s where we need to replace NBR with something open, so people can actually do something with the serial number when they’re buying a bike.) If more people register their bikes will that make checking serial numbers when you buy a bike more useful and encourage people to do so? Yes. Will all of this make bike theft less of an easy profit? Yes. At this point a stolen bike is basically cash, and until that changes there’s going to be a lot of bike theft.

So, in short, everybody go sign the petition if you haven’t already.

[PotomacCyclist]

Why don’t all bike manufacturers embed RFID tags somewhere in the frame? Somewhere so it’s readable by a scanner, but not easily removed by a thief without destroying the bike. From the info I just looked up online, RFID tags can be as inexpensive as 7 to 15 cents each. There might be a minor installation cost, but if it’s just some sort of label, couldn’t they apply the label/tag on the inside of one tube before connecting it to another tube? Seems like one of my favorite types of solution: inexpensive and convenient.

If more people were aware of both the external serial number and a future RFID tag on every bike, then maybe that could provide an even greater deterrent to bike theft. As long as the original purchaser kept track of the RFID number (or the store keeps it on file), it would be much easier to establish that a bike is stolen property.

[PotomacCyclist]

@cyclingfool 88269 wrote:

On a related note having to do with fencing, CL, and eBay… I don’t remember where I saw this first (may have even been here):

http://www.peopleforbikes.org/blog/entry/sign-the-petition-to-stop-bike-theft, which points here: http://project529.com/garage/petitions/

A petition asking CL and eBay to force sellers to list serial numbers when selling bikes online. I like the idea of this, but I’m not sure how well it would work in actuality. Major issues/potential stumbling blocks would be:

What’s to keep someone from posting a fake serial number to avoid detection by police or theft victims who may be searching for their bike being sold?

How likely are police to actively match serial numbers to those of bikes reported stolen, given the lack of seriousness they often seem to display to a bike being stolen?

Maybe this thread: http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?7145-Stolen-Trek-Bike

[mstone]

In the good old days the serial number was stamped on the frame. Some manufacturers seem to cheaping out and using stickers instead. Maybe if more people checked/registered, there’d be a push to actually make them permanent again. I’m not sure that RFID is actually beneficial over a permanent visible marking.

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