sethherr

Sites like stolenbikeregistry.com and chicago.stolenbike.org have been amazingly successful at recovering bikes - their biggest problem is that people don't have good records of their bikes after they are stolen, and that people take too long to list their bikes after they are stolen - which are both problems that we address. And why we're working on providing a universal search so that all sites can access data together.

I don't think many people buying bikes on craigslist want to get a stolen bike.

Bikes are stolen because they're easy to sell - check out the link someone posted here earlier: http://blog.priceonomics.com/post/30393216796/what-happens-t...

Rather than try to make bike theft profitable - you'd prefer to just say it won't work and give up?

We believe a registry is an important part of the solution. There will always be more tools and tricks that can be added on.

There was a bike alarm on Kickstarter, our friends the Bike Spike - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1054587410/the-bikespike

And they want to incorporate registration into their project.

1. We're a staff pick and were project of the day last week, so they don't think we're violating their terms of service.

2. The whole point is to make registration convenient by having bike shops register bikes for their customers. We need to talk to the bike shops to do this.

3. The actual quote: "location specific advice for responding to bike theft." Have you ever reported a bike stolen? In Chicago you have to call at 2am to get someone who will take the report, and if you don't have a serial number you have to call a few times until you get an operator who will report it. More importantly we want to tell people about what they can legally do if they encounter a stolen bike - and how they can repossess it.

4. That was a reward created because someone asked for it. Sorry that you don't like it?

5. YOU WILL ALWAYS BE ABLE TO GET FREE REGISTRATION

That's what we're doing.

Bike Shepherd doesn't solve the central problem of bike registration - how to register people who don't know about bike registration. It also doesn't offer a way of verifying used bike sales.

That is what makes the Bike Index different - we work with shops to register people's bikes for them, and we offer a way to verify bikes that you sell.

Huh? That's exactly what we do solve - we offer a search that is easy to use and isn't tied to a specific region.

We want average joe to know that bikeindex.org exists and we want to give people a way to prove they aren't selling stolen bikes.

If you had indexed the bike you would have proof of ownership.

The first 10,000 bikes will be free, and we may make registration free/cheaper in general, but we want to make sure that bike shops are able to offer something of value to their customers.

Almost all bikes have serial numbers. Including the ones sold at walmart. You can read about them here: https://bikeindex.org/serials

Ironically, it's expensive hand made bikes that don't

We're working on integrating with the police, it's the next step and a big part of the reason for the Kickstarter. But more important than the police doing it is bike shops doing it for free when you buy a new bike, before it leaves the shop.

Also I do not want the police using a hand-held engraver on my frame - it already has a serial number.

The app itself isn't expensive - it's the time and resources to connect with local governments (so police search the database too) and the expense to reach more shops and integrate with various point-of-sale systems in bike shops.

The idea of the police engraving anything into my bike is horrifying. And impossible for carbon bikes.

And once again, it won't be difficult to get registration for free. The reason that there is a fee is to encourage people to register their bike when they are in a bike shop rather than putting it off because they can just do it at home - plus, by adding a fee we will make it easier to track thieves who register bikes they've stolen.

Thank you!

We make bikes public - but not ownership information, including removing location data from photos.

You can check out the way it works at https://www.bikeindex.org

You can also check out the code at https://github.com/bikeindex/webapp

It's a ruby on rails.

You (or a bike shop) enters the serial number, and a few other pieces of information and your email and we send you the information. If you ever log in, all the bikes sent to the email you sign up with are connected to your address (and you can upload photos and information about the components)

You can check out the way it works at https://www.bikeindex.org

It will always be free to register through a bike shop or an advocacy organization.

It shouldn't be tough to get registered for free ever - but by charging a fee we give bike shops a value they can give to their customers.