Used, Not Stolen?

If you are buying a used bike, say off the craigslist, how do you make sure, or at least reasonably sure, it's not stolen?

My first instinct would be ask for a receipt, but then, I'm pretty sure I don't have the receipt for my bike any more.

My second instinct would be to not buy from slicksuzy@istealbikes.com, or anyone dressed like the hamburglar. But, then, if I was a bike thief, I'd just get an email address like nicebikelady@honestabe.com and just dress normal.

Do police departments provide info on recently stolen bikes? And if you live in an area like LA, where there are a zillion cities with a zillion PDs, do they even talk to each other?

Does it fit the person who's selling it? And if not, do they volunteer that that's why they're selling it, without being asked?

Don't ask them over the phone if it has any dings, ask when you get there, and see if what they tell you corresponds to the bike's actual condition. Same with the condition of consumables like tires, brake pads, cable housings, chain - ask them when you get there how many miles or months they have on them, then do your own inspection. If it's really their bike, they'll know that stuff.

If they're a career thief, they still may know, but I would think you could eliminate a lot of casual thieves just by finding out whether or not they actually know what they're selling.

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Originally Posted by OakLeaf

Does it fit the person who's selling it? And if not, do they volunteer that that's why they're selling it, without being asked?

Don't ask them over the phone if it has any dings, ask when you get there, and see if what they tell you corresponds to the bike's actual condition. Same with the condition of consumables like tires, brake pads, cable housings, chain - ask them when you get there how many miles or months they have on them, then do your own inspection. If it's really their bike, they'll know that stuff.

If they're a career thief, they still may know, but I would think you could eliminate a lot of casual thieves just by finding out whether or not they actually know what they're selling.

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Oakleaf, I am confused. If you ask them when you are there, they can see just as well as you can what the actual condition is. Am I reading this incorrectly? :confused:

but yeah, be perceptive, listen to their story. if it smells funny (the story that is) you hunch is probably right

If you're standing there talking to them, and they have to bend down and look at the bike to find out there are chain-chips on the chainstay, or scratches on a pedal from where it's been crashed, that's a good clue...

To some degree, I think you can just trust your gut regarding the integrity of the seller. Just ask them about the history of the bike. How long have they had it? Any crashes? Original components? Why are they selling it now? etc.

I bought my first road bike off of Craigslist, and since the bike was too good to be true, I asked the seller why he was selling such a beautiful bike. It was his wife's bike and she was under Dr.'s orders to stop riding. Later,when I met with them to test ride the bike and chatted with them some more, I could tell it was a legit story. Cycling was a big part of their lives and they hated that this beautiful bike was just idling in storage. If anything had seemed off about it, I would not have bought the bike.

That bike was stolen from my garage 2 years ago.

If you suspect a bike is stolen, you can run its serial number here: http://www.stolenbicycleregistry.com/

There may be other resources, but that's the first one that pops into my head.

As for the PDs, how good they are at sharing info probably varies. I don't know that they are able to do very much to help recover stolen bikes, unless people are proactively checking if a bike has been reported. Most of the time they've got bigger things to deal with. A friend of mine saw her own bike listed for sale on Craigslist 7 months after it had been stolen, several states away, and since she had filed reports they were able to help with recovery. So occasionally there are happy endings!

Some great advice here...

Not just with bikes, but parts and such too, I always ask why they're selling. I ask before meeting up, but can see the benefit of on-site. For me if I get to the in person stage I ask again, because the consistency isn't always there. It's just amazing what can come out of that question. I've walked away a couple times because a good deal just isn't worth contributing to the stolen bike scourge if I can help it.

I second the bikeregistry website, I've used that a couple times. And although I certainly understand why a seller would want to meet me at a neutral place, the couple times I've bought bikes off of CL going to their homes put me at complete ease. In one case the guy was an amateur lowrider framebuilder and it was fun to see his stuff and see that his "why selling" story made complete sense.

There's also this - not just stolen bikes but all bikes. If you register here, it would show the date of regsitry and you could verify how long the person owned it.

http://www.bikeregistry.com/index.php