Comment by thaumaturgy | Hacker News Reader

Comment by thaumaturgy | Hacker News Reader

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Looks like HN is cranky this morning.

I like it! A bike used to be my primary means of transportation back in the Bay Area, and I used to pay for good ones. Every single one of them got stolen. Every one. The last one I owned had a state-of-the-art lock on it, so the thieves cut the bike rack. People that don't rely on a bike seriously underestimate what it means to a bike owner when their bike is stolen; to a lot of people, it's just, "oh, you lost your toy, just go buy another one". To many bike owners, it's more like, "I just lost the ability to get around quickly."

The number one reason I don't own a bike right now is because I don't feel like putting up with it being stolen.

So this is one of those really big under-served pain points that everybody keeps saying you should look for when building a business.

priceonomics' approach makes perfect sense: make it easier to locate stolen bikes online, and build a new, centralized marketplace specifically for bikes that people will want to use (which also makes it harder for thieves to sell bikes online without the owner finding it).

Good job, guys.

Have you ever tried putting a GPS in your bike?

http://www.gizmag.com/spybike-gps-tracker/22999/

Or just buying a cheaper bike on the assumption that you'll need to get a new one sooner or later?

Cheaper bike is not the solution. I rode on a bike worth 50 pounds for two years. Replaced the rear tyre after a puncture with a 15 quid replacement and it was stolen the very next day. From outside the British transport police station at Victoria

I don't know how it is in "nicer" climates, but where I am, my commuter bike has gradually accumulated various things:

- taillight which I don't bother to remove

- expensive headlight which I do remove when parked (but I leave the mounting bracket)

- pedal straps (a must, in my opinion, for safe riding in traffic; feet slipping off pedals can mean a crash)

- thorn resistant tires

- stronger wheel (I'm above-average height and not fat, but the cheapo wheels kept getting bent)

- fenders to reduce splashing in the rain

- rack to hold saddle bag

The bike itself is rather old and worth less than $100. All the accessories add up to maybe another $400. So, I do have a cheap bike, but it's still not so cheap to replace, and doing so is a rather big time commitment.

I mount head and tail lights on a helmet so I don't have to care about that part. You can also put lights on your bags too. The lights are often the most expensive part.

For stronger wheels & tires, I'd just get a thicker tire bike. For a strong frame I just go with cromoly. You don't need anything special then as far as strength goes. The rack, fenders and strap can be had for $50 total after all of that.

Neat! Back when I was riding, those didn't exist. I would probably get one now though, so thanks for sharing.

I had a bike in the bay area too, and in broad daylight someone cut the lock as it was parked on Sansome. I put together a PHP script to scrape craigslist for "white" or "Giant" bicycle ads with images, but after two and a half months I stopped checking and moved on :(

If this service connects just one bike owner with their stolen bicycle then it's worth it, imo.

a lot of times bike thieves paint the bikes

    [...] I used to pay for good ones.
    Every single one of them got stolen.

When I didn't work from home, I biked to work. None of my bikes were stolen. But they were folding bikes that I carried indoors. ;-)

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