About three years ago, my boyfriend and I were vacationing in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and went into a restaurant for dinner, leaving our fat bikes locked together on the hitch rack. There was a sinking feeling when we came out, and I looked at an empty bike rack. Yep, someone had stolen both bikes!
After filing a police report, I went into revenge mode. I was one pissed-off cyclist and posted pictures of our bikes on every biking Facebook page I could find. I also reached out to all the area bike shops to keep an eye out for our stolen bikes.
When I got home, I decided to write two articles for RoadBikeRider.com to help others if their bikes went missing. During the course of my research I stumbled upon Bike Index, an organization I had never heard of before.
What to do if your bike is stolen
Sometimes stolen bikes find their way home
Fast forward to today when the National Bicycle Dealers Association (NBDA) asked me to guest host a couple more episodes of their weekly podcast—Bicycle Retail Radio. They gave me carte blanche to pick the topics and guests for each show. I’d been wanting to talk to the folks at Bike Index after reading their fascinating report “Closing the loop: A deep dive on a Facebook reseller of bikes stolen in Colorado.”
During the last two months, most cycling publications featured this report. And if you were like me, you were both infuriated and intrigued. Last week, I sat down with Bryan Hance, co-founder of Bike Index, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, to talk about their universal bike registration service, the rise in bike thefts, and dive deeper into that fascinating report.
I recommend you go to bikeindex.org and register every bike you own. It’s absolutely FREE and an excellent insurance policy, which I hope you never need. After registering your bike and reading their report, you should understand the great work they are doing for our cycling community. So why not hit that donation button to help them continue fighting the bad guys?
Enjoy the ride
Sheri
Sunflowers and Pedals 
Flying to Germany today for my father-in-law’s funeral. He died Friday. We had a trip planned in May. He didn’t make it.
John Marsh marsh.john.d@gmail.com 404-502-2894 – mobile
Sent from my iPhone
>
LikeLike
So sorry to hear. My condolences to your family.
LikeLike
Bike Index works! Our team pairs up lost/stolen/found bikes as registered on Bike Index with bikes we see in local online sales listing platforms. Our goal is reuniting stolen bikes with their legal owners via diplomacy. Bryan and Seth, and the entire team at Bike Index, makes these pairings possible.
So many bikes are registered after their stolen, and the bike’s serial number is not available or unknown. If you’re reading my reply here now – and your bikes are in a safe place but not yet registered on Bike Index, take the time to register your bikes now when you have complete information to document all of your bikes’ details.
It’s always a joy to hear Bryan on podcasts! He’s an asset to our local bike theft scene in Seattle. Thank you, Sheri!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the comment Tracy.
LikeLike