It’s starting to feel like getting your bike nicked is not an if but a when - we all try and do our best with locks and alarms but let’s face it - unless it’s attached to something - e.g. handy lamp-posts and rails aren’t always available - it’s just going to be picked up and slung in the back of a van.
Do the police have a handle on how many of these thieving c*nts are operating out there?
And can we as bikers be pro-active about this - e.g. I guess these guys make there money either by shipping bikes abroad to E.Europe etc or stripping down for parts - this means that there is a supply chain operating - most chains have weak spots - most likely the people who fence the parts on ebay etc. or arrange to ship the bikes out in containers.
Consequently:
Is it worth spending half an hour each week (if loads of us do it we could be really effective - a proper ‘dragnet’ ) looking out for dodgy parts on the net? e.g. looking for large expensive parts for sale like late model gixxer/R1 swing-arms/frames and engines with serial numbers filed off.
If stuff looks fishy is it then worth trying to get old bill vehicle crime interested?
If this idea is borroks no worries - but if people think it could be worth doing maybe we could have a go - it would be nice to start hitting back against these c*nts rather than feeling like a load of sitting ducks all the time.
I’ll check the thread out Afro - I for one am happy to put time into this - if 50 of us get going we might come up with some results.
Perhaps we can work out a way of signing people up to this and getting feedback - so that:
a. we know that as a community we are starting to tackle this problem
b. we can see if it gets results.
I guess the moral of this is we either hang together on this issue - or we shall assuredly hang seperately (e.g. have our p&j’s nicked). Plus it will feel good to take the fight to them for a change.
I had a bike stolen just two years ago and presented them with some good forensics. (Greasy fingerprints on my split disclock and a can of freezing spray. Neither sets of prints were mine.)
In short, they could not be ar*ed.
The station sargeant (I’ll keep the location quiet for his job’s sake) told me that the police would probably only lose the evidence, forensics were a bunch of no hopers and it was “only” worth £3,000. Way down the priority list.
I’ll happily do what I can, but how do you change the mindset?
Yep - I hear where your coming from - on the other hand if we could identify whoever is fencing the proceeds then perhaps old bill might give a cobblers as they would have one of the bigger fish to whet their appetite rather than some little scrote.This is all assuming of course that a lot of these bikes are being broken up for parts which then appear regularly on the net - by keeping a regular eye open maybe certain patterns might emerge - e.g. a lot of late model sports bike parts turning up regularly from a certain seller.
As I say - as little as 15 minutes a week from 50 of us might start to turn something up.
O.K. That’s three of us up for it. Just need the other 47.
First rule of advertising. Keep the product in front of the consumers.
So, let’s keep this thread at the top of the page for a couple of weeks by regularly posting or, better, getting others to post and see where we can get to by New Years Day?
How about posting a pretend ‘for sale’ bike as bait?!
We could include pictures and details of how and where the bike is stored and sit back and wait in the shed with tar and feathers?!
We could make Saw 6 as an anti bike-theft youtube vid?!
If interesting data does emerge from our collective efforts (for example individuals on ebay selling different bits of brand new gsxr every few weeks) then it obviously has to be collated in some way if it is to make any sense and yield any results - I haven’t read the thread yet - so I expect a lot of people are way ahead of me on this.
A guy at work had his KTM stolen and he found it being sold on Gumtree…he contacted the seller got mobile number and address which he provided to the police. They took 5 weeks to pay a visit …he got back his forks chassis and I think one wheel.
) looking out for dodgy parts on the net? e.g. looking for large expensive parts for sale like late model gixxer/R1 swing-arms/frames and engines with serial numbers filed off.
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