MTB BIKE SHOP RECEIPTS! The Big Issue!

When most of use make a big purchase we may do the following,:

~ KEEP THE RECEIPT (For at least a year for warranty purposes, or indefinately until with no longer have the product)
~ MAKE A NOTE OF THE DETAILS (Frame number, make, model and all specifications).

However many people these days may only keep receipts and statements for stuff to do with their car, mortgage, pension, loans, etc.

Do you still have the receipt for your MTB? If NO, do you remember WHY you don't have the receipt? Does the reason sound plausible? Believe me since looking at MTB's that were RRP £3000 2nd hand, I've heard some right stories, of why there is no receipt.

ME, yes I still have mine (Original bike shop receipt), and also the original bike hand book (But these are usually generic outdated rubbish, except maybe the suspension fork/shock hand book instructions).

But other people may have been given an expensive quality MTB as a present, so getting the receipt never happened.

Or some may have lost the receipt over time.

Or some may have bought their MTB 2nd hand and didn't get a receipt.

The other conundrum here, is if buying a 2nd hand bike, and the original receipt is not available, but the MTB still has it frame number visible, the POLICE can take upto 2 days to say IF the MTB has been reported stolen or NOT. But this only applies to the LOCAL POLICE FORCE you enquired to, NOT nationally (So if stolen from another county, stolen MTB may be unnoticed by the Police!)

I'm usually pretty good when it comes to keeping receipts for parts that I've bought new and I will often keep hold of eBay receipts for second hand stuff too.

The problem if you do have a bike stolen though, is that even with receipts, frame numbers and up to date photographs of your bike, there isn't alot that the police can or will do to try to go out and recover it.

Unfortunately bike crime suffers from the fact that bikes and components which are difficult to identify without searching for a frame number, which in turn makes the resources necessary to do so, largely untenable by the police.
In turn this means that recovering stolen bikes would require significantly more resources than the police are able to commit to the recovery of stolen bikes.

Recovering a stolen bike seems alot to do with luck as much as anything else. If the police target and raid a suspected criminal and find them in possession of a bike that has been reported stolen, then the chances are if the police can trace the owner then it can be returned.

So it is a good idea to record serial numbers, keep receipts and take photographs as, if the worst does happen and your bike is stolen, at least you're able to give them as much information as possible should they recover any stolen bikes.

You're right about communication between police forces though Stephan.
However there are schemes out there which are good, placing some responsibility on the bike owner to register their bike onto a police database.

Have a look here: --> http://www.bikeregister.com

I still have the receipts from my modern 09 and 10 bikes but trying to prove stolen bikes or legit gear that is 10, 20 or more years older is a rare thing.

What do you expect to Police to do?

All fair comments (And like many other persons I'm still incensed years later about my bikes that were stolen from me), but it is worth saying prevention is better recovery. That is ALWAYS lock your bike to something very solid and unmovable (i.e. You couldn’t just lift the lock off the top of some steel pillar) IF left outside, or if in your house, make sure doors, windows are always locked, and if you have any windows that open wide, put some restrictors on them, to stop thieves from sneaking in.

The BikeRegister will aid recovery IF your stolen bike is recovered by the police, because some owners will NOT have made a note of their FRAME SERIAL NUMBER, well with BikeRegister owners HAVE TO make a note of the frame number, also there is the cost OPTION of DATATAG (Wedged in seat tube), this will help Police identify the bike as yours, IF ever recovered (Remember your bike may look totally different, perhaps all the paint stripped off, without any make decals/stickers, etc).

Still what do you expect to Police to do?

I mean if the owner does NOT have any idea who stole the bike OR where the bike(s) could be, then it is HIGHLY unlikely that the Police could speculate, hence any recovery, once stolen, is very very unlikely.
OK the bike isn’t going to disintegrate, hence it may resurface as recovered stolen property years later, highly unlikely, perhaps it may be stripped down for parts, and the only real identifiable part (The frame) would have been sawed into bits shortly after the bike was stolen (Speculation).

As a person who works in the Security profession, I don't expect the Police, to systematically or continually look for your stolen bike (I.e. They won't). They can't just raid every house, business or building in the county! I guess for the Police, suspicion is not enough, I presume they need to observe sustained suspicious behaviour, or have very reliable information which is substantial, for them to act upon. If the Police do NOT have substantial evidence, but are very dubious about a person or person(s), I guess they could ask the house/building owner if they could view the house/building/garage to look at items the Police believe they have, but I guess the property owner would be within their rights to say NO.

So unless the Police raid a thieves house or storage area, then also uncover a number of presumed stolen items, including bikes, that is one of a few unlikely scenarios that owners who have been deprived of their bike, may get it back again.

I still have my receipt for my RC100 from 1991


And no Scotsman jokes



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It is all a waste of time, there is no way of proving the reciept you have is for that exact bike you have; it doesn't have a serial number on it. I could get a reciept or one made for any component you have, you are naive if you think it means you are buying or selling 100% genuine

Nice to keep to create the full package when you sell but nothing more than that IMO. There are no log books for bikes.

Your chance of buying stolen is probably quite high, the chance of having to give it back is almost nil. The Police don't care and if you loose a bike, tough luck, you should have locked it up better.

Yes, I've lost a £1500 bike, I'd worked all summer to pay for it and it was gone while I was buying fags. I knew where the bike was, I had several witnesses who had seen it in his house but Police would not act. I don't imagine it is any different now.

Yes, I've lost a £1500 bike, I'd worked all summer to pay for it and it was gone while I was buying fags. I knew where the bike was, I had several witnesses who had seen it in his house but Police would not act. I don't imagine it is any different now.

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I had same thing albeit only for a £500 bike - in the end I went round the guys house & paid him what he'd paid for it (£50) on the basis that I was getting my bike back for a lot less than it would cost to renew it. The upside was when the actual thief got nicked his parents gave me £60

I still have the original 1991 receipt somewhere too!

I had a modern bike stolen and had upgraded the bike considerably but kept the receipts for every component and the insurance company agreed to pay up to the last penny for the upgraded spec bike because of the receipts.

I had reported the bike stolen to the police but never expected to see it again so went shopping the day the insurance company notified me the cheque was in the post.

I got home having bought a new frame and forks and the police rang to say they had found my bike, the check was then cancelled and I went to collect the now hated bike.

When I got to the police station the officer was really proud that he had traced the bike to me because he was an MTBer himself and recognised that the bike was someones pride and joy.

I had to smile and be really gracious but all I could think of was the bloody frame and forks sitting at home with no cheque to pay for them...

Oh right

unocogero":dze3ux22 said:

I had a modern bike stolen from the entrance of my garage whilst I was in the back faffing.

I had upgraded the bike considerably but kept the receipts for every component and the insurance company agreed to pay up to the last penny for the upgraded spec bike because of the receipts.

I had reported the bike stolen to the police but never expected to see it again so went shopping the day the insurance company notified me the cheque was in the post.

I got home having bought a new frame and forks and the police rang to say they had found my bike, the check was then cancelled and I went to collect the now hated bike.

When I got to the police station the officer was really proud that he had traced the bike to me because he was an MTBer himself and recognised that the bike was someones pride and joy.

I had to smile and be really gracious but all I could think of was the bloody frame and forks sitting at home with no cheque to pay for them...

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Ooh right, just what you didn't want, right at the end.

I know what you mean you'd set your mind & heart on your new frame & forks, then get your old bike back.
Possibly get a refund on your frame/forks?
Still if most bike shops are anything to go by, you might get a NO as an answer, if you could get a refund, also if you bought from a non-local bike shop, there would be to postage to pay, etc. IF they'd contemplate giving you your money back, previously when I've returned items a % was taken off the refunded amount!

But could have been worse:
~ Your original bike may have NEVER been recovered
~ Your insurance company may have decided to give you NOTHING, if it wasn't locked with a quality D LOCK.

But IF you like the frame&forks, it's not money you would have spent in the 1st place, UNLESS your original bike got stolen. What an annoying ironism. Just the sort of thing that happens to me daily, almost every second.

As a teenager:
~ my 1st bike that got stolen was a quality aluminium rigid with deore (About £800), this was stolen outside a local bike shop, made a claim to my mum & dad's house contents insurance. AFTER 1 year long year there was still no reply from the insurance company despite numerous letters with copies of the original claim, I said to my mum & dad, "I GUESS THAT MEANS NO". Guess no reply, was implying that in the policy, it sayes MTB must be locked with a D lock.

So I pointed out to my mum & dad, I needed to get about, they said, ok, and stretched out to a very nice Cannondale (Even then top class, these days still be £800, at the least)
I laid out some great upgrades, Marzocchi forks, 1 1/4" to 1 1/8" threaded to aheadset conversion, Deore V brakes, XT Mech's, etc. Yes I was busy with my spanners (ETC) on that one, at the time hydraulic disk brakes weren't popular, so my Cannondale had just V brakes on it's standard bosses.

As an adult:
Anyway my much loved Cannondale (About £1500), got nicked from outside "my house". Since it wasn't locked no point in claiming they'd only say no, anyway.

So after getting properly annoyed at another of my quality MTB's been stolen from virtually underneath me, so I said to myself I'll now lock my MTB everywhere I go, after all it's little effort to carry a D LOCK in my rucksack, as well.

The ironism is that in my profession I see many expensive MTB's left laid about unlocked for hours on end, and nobody even looks at them. Well if that was me, my bike would have gone, well within 5 minutes, nothing that anybody saw, and for it never to be seen again.

SO TO REMINISCE ARE WE LEARNING YET?
ALWAY LOCK YOUR BIKE, AND LOCK YOUR HOUSE, BECAUSE YOU WON'T EVEN SEE THEM NICKING YOUR STUFF, AND YOU'LL NEVER SEE YOUR BELONGINGS, EVER AGAIN.