That's true, nothing will really prevent theft other than maybe a cocaine bear or bullcrew standing guard.
Bike got stolen when I was in college. Friend spotted someone we knew riding it. A little yelling and some mild choking and I got it back. Here it would most certainly end up with a squad of meth heads, am I gonna go get it from them? Nope.That's true, nothing will really prevent theft other than maybe a cocaine bear or bullcrew standing guard.
Would make recovery at least a possibility.
We have that problem up here as well. Few years ago a friend's Pivot was stolen. Four or five months later we found it for sale, did some sleuthing and found it was at a pawn shop a few cities away.
We called the police in that city, but they told us to go pound sand; you have to go to the police where the report was filed, get them to contact us yadda yadda yadda. Luckily one of our riding buddies at the time was an undercover type detective down there, who is covered in tattoos and is all around intimidating (big softy though, genuine nice guy). We called him up and he basically said "awe fuck that noise hold up" and within 30 minutes he had the bike back.
I had a very rare model of trumpet stolen from my Pathfinder parked in Belltown late one night.
That wouldn't happen today
Just guessing that no business interactions with meth heads goes well.
Thats too extreme. Just stick with the cocaine bear.
Then use green locktite
The way US police is organized never ceases to amaze me. Every local police force being like a separate kingdom so no one works with no one. Sure Euro Police has it's problems but at least we don't have issues like Police depts not sending crucial info to themselves.We called the police in that city, but they told us to go pound sand; you have to go to the police where the report was filed, get them to contact us yadda yadda yadda. Luckily one of our riding buddies at the time was an undercover type detective down there, who is covered in tattoos and is all around intimidating (big softy though, genuine nice guy). We called him up and he basically said "awe fuck that noise hold up" and within 30 minutes he had the bike back.
Not all of them are as organized.
They are around here. Using Strava to pin point valuable bikes. They empty garages and houses. 4, 5, 6 bikes at a time
I'd wager that little syndicate that got busted with a U-Haul truck full of bikes they'd stolen from Whistler would at least know to check them for trackers now. From memory they got caught after nicking a GPS tracked police bait bike.
I think it would be good while traveling. I'm looking at you Airlines that constantly loose bags.
Or maybe you're in Moab and someone "accidentally" had too much to drink (pretty much impossible in Utah, BTW) and "accidentally" took the wrong Yeti.
Them? Yeah. If it's a syndicate roaming bikeparks sure. But a lot of bike thefts happen because of random burglars.
The key part is not all of them. Just because there are some groups that are very organized doesn't mean all of them are. They just get the most press and stay in your brain because of how organized they are. Im not going to speak about your area but when I see robbed bike shop stories from around the world the guys are rarely super duper crime people. Those groups sure do exist but if an airtag helps me in 50% of the cases or even 30% of the cases I'd take it over 0% of the cases.
Oh absolutely. A shop near me had a window smashed and the thief grabbed some crazy expensive customers bike worth like $20K. It was later spotted leant up against the entryway of the local shops a few days later so its some dumb junkie using it as a get-around no idea of the value of the thing
Happy to not use any of those services! The few times I did use one, I always started and ended far from my house. Nosy neighbors also add a level of security
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Some junky living in a tent next to the highway near me rides around on a cherry Specialized Demo. I am sure he is just a hardcore downhiller who can't give up the one remaining possession of his former life.
@26forlyfe
Strava has a setup to hide Start and End point automatically. A lot of people don't know about this.Happy to not use any of those services! The few times I did use one, I always started and ended far from my house. Nosy neighbors also add a level of security
There is also a setting to opt out of contributing to the global heatmap.
Remember the guy who sold stolen Honda DH bikes on ebay claiming he "found them in his basement" ?
