Fatbikes, of all things…
So that means huge percentage, close to 90% of riders riding this bicycle are a thief. Seems like an easy problem to solve. Issue certification cards which have the same serial as bicycle. Stop everyone riding it. If they don’t have the card, off to jail. Problem would be solved practically over night.
Would require some pretty hefty changes in law, making registration akin to registering full size motor vehicles. But hey I’d be all in favor. These things are of course technically better than cars environmentally speaking but they’re still godawful compared to a proper bike.
Bicycles already have a serial number under crankshaft.
All am saying is for either government or manufacturer to issue a standardized plastic card to indicate ownership. Doesn’t even have to have a name on it. Just serial number and bike description or whatever. So whoever steals your bike will have to steal the card as well making it significantly harder.
Unless there’s a way to verify authenticity, which would require central registration of some sort (good luck with that), such a card would be easily faked. It’d impact legit owners more than actual thieves, since many people would probably lose theirs at some point.
Central registration exists already. The two big ones are Project 529 and Bike Index. I highly recommend them. Bike theft is down in Vancouver even while ridership has skyrocketed.
You might be right, but bike theft is rampant and needs to be stopped. Especially as we are looking to get over climate problems.
Or just forge it.
You can have a “public key/private key” system, so the code on the card is matched with but is not the same as the code on the bike.
Most of the bikes are probably resold to buyers who have no idea it’s stolen goods
Solution would work the same. Buying a bike without registration card would be a warning to buyer.
This is the Netherlands we’re talking about, where there are literally millions more bikes than humans. Good luck getting all existing bikes registered.
It can start from new sales forwards, slowly saturating the market.
Not existing, but new.
There are many ways to help a shop owner figure out if it is stolen, such as microdots.
“This bike is stolen” “I bought it off someone, didn’t know” “Who was it? What are their details?” Arrest that person. What’s the issue?
Next guy says ‘Nope, never seen this guy before in my life.’ Or any of a hundred other excuses.
In reality though, most minor crimes today are solvable, no registration required. The issue is lack of motivation and/or resources on the part of the police
So, how many details do you need to give someone when you sell your bike that you didn’t end up using as much as you thought?
How would people know which bikes requires so much information to sell or purchase?
OP username checks out as my response 😅
That’s a really, really high theft rate. Interesting to see that the Dutch are showing an interest in this style of bike though, as it’s quite different from the usual upright/granny bikes.
I do wonder how easy is it to get fatbike parts there? I own a Dutch bike outside of the NL and it’s very difficult to get replacement inner tubes and rollerbrake grease as an example. Last time I did maintenance on the IGH I ended up using mineral ATF bath and a red lithium based grease to repack, couldn’t find anywhere that had the Shimano stuff in stock at a sensible price
The Netherlands recently passed a law requiring helmets on mopeds. This makes mopeds less interesting leading to fat bikes being more attractive, because a helmet is not required on a fat bike.
I don’t know if the parts are available, but if they are, they are pobably very expensive just like the fatbikes themselves
The majority of fatbike riders I’ve seen are lazy teens. These are not the people that want to ride bikes. Usually these kind of people would’ve bought a scooter or moped the moment they turn 16.
I’m no where near the Netherlands but I’m in Oregon and we have all kinds of ebikes and e scooters for rent however, they do often get stolen. I see them in very random places, usually over turned.
I went to Seattle recently and saw they have a similar set up only- their ebikes and escooters were all parked correctly and I didn’t really see them knocked over anywhere. Like maybe one or two but that was it. They were mostly readily available to use and lots of people were using them with no issues.
I’m in Portland, OR and its near impossible to pick one up and just use it. They’re mostly broken, previously stolen, or someone managed to run them dry. They’re also never parked in designated spots.
All I can think is- how is Seattle managing to keep them from getting stolen so often? It was an amazing comparison to see in person.
Could just be it’s part of the local culture.
I mean, both cities have a huge homeless/street people problem that contributes to crime but I think Portland just lets it run wild and Seattle is probably cracking down on it.
I’m also in portland. It’s such a shithole right now. I stick to riding my euc around west of portland, and I always carry a gun nowadays.
We need more shelter space, shelter quality and security, and need to make all camping and loitering illegal and enforce it
That reminds me that I haven’t gotten around to insuring my e-bike (or checking that my home insurance would cover it) or registering its serial number yet.
Living in the Netherlands I genuinely don’t hate this. Fat bikes are kind of annoying here. The people riding them often go with ludicrous speeds as they have been altered, but without a plate like a speed pedelec should. They’re quite dangerous.
They’re also parked quite unhinged as they don’t really fit into regular spots. Hopefully people get normal electric bikes now.
Sorry to hear that, I live in the states and people ride them fairly normally for the most part (at least in my town). I ride an Engwe XP 2 Pro (a fatbike) and it seems to fit in the majority of racks I’ve encountered though sometimes I end up having to hitch my bike on one side of super skinny racks. Probably helps that I don’t live in a big city though and our town is fairly bike friendly.
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