Quantcast

Is buying a painted full suspension bike means its stolen?

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
A friend of mine just bought a high end XC FS model of a major manufacturer from 2004 (I am keeping all the names secret just in case).

The components have all been upgraded to 05-06 XT/XTR.

I didn't think much about the bike until I heard it was painted. Then I thought the bike might be stolen.

With a lot of high end stolen bikes, thieves will switch parts around to make it less identifiable.

However, painting full suspension bikes is always a chore. You have to disassemble the entire frame to do it correctly, and be absolutely sure to cover all the surfaces which contact other frame members, or the fit will not be correct when you reassemble the bike.

For these reasons, very few people I know have ever repainted a full suspension bike. Admittedly, most of my friends would just sell their bikes because of their industry hookups.

I guess I am still jibing the effort with repainting with the possibility it was stolen.
 

CrabJoe StretchPants

Reincarnated Crab Walking Head Spinning Bruce Dick
Nov 30, 2003
14,163
2,484
Groton, MA
Fvck, I stripped down and painted my full suspension XC frame when I bought it.


I'm going to turn myself into the police after work.
 

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
FYI, I have not looked at the bike at all. I can figure out if this bike is stolen if examined it, but I was just speculating generally.
 

dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,194
4,419
Generally, no. I'd look at the serial numbers, but even then, it's far from conclusive.
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,232
20,015
Sleazattle
Fvck, I stripped down and painted my full suspension XC frame when I bought it.


I'm going to turn myself into the police after work.
Not for your bike but you should be jailed for listening to crap music. Maybe not jailed but at least tazed a few times.
 

ire

Turbo Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
6,196
4
I've painted several of my full suspension bikes over the years....the serial number condition would be a better indicator.
 

Sonic Reducer

Monkey
Mar 19, 2006
500
0
seattle worshington
if you call into the police with the serial number, do they have a database from other cities and stuff where the bike may have been reported stolen from? I'm sure a stolen serial number would be easy to id locally but if the stolen bike is from the other side of the country I dunno.
 

nelsonjm

Monkey
Feb 16, 2007
708
1
Columbia, MD
If they said "I just built up this bike within past 1 month" and "I just don't have any time to ride it" in the same ad, I would be suspicious.

Unless the s/n was messed with I would just think the person really liked their bike, especially if the new paint had some typical use scratches.
 

CRoss

Turbo Monkey
Nov 20, 2006
1,329
0
The Ranch
There are three painted full suspension bikes in the back room right now. All where painted before they were even ridden. They were bought from a shop then sent out to be painted. The guy who owns them does not want to ride billboard.