About stolenbicycleregistry.com

My name is Bryan. I am a sysadmin, database programmer, and mountain biker. I live in Tucson, AZ. Cleveland, OH (as of Aug 2005).

I have had 5 bikes stolen in 9 years. The last one was a Trek 4900 stolen in January. The one in the photo on the right? Stolen 5 years ago from my living room while I was taking a shower.

I hate the idiots who steal other people's bikes, and I hate the fact that there's no good resource to register your stolen bike.

I decided that the world needs is a free, easily accessable, well-organized stolen bike registry. Something that biking enthusiasts, bike shops, cops, and theft victims could all use with minumim hassle.

So I hacked together a modern, searchable database. This is it.

(At the urging of my Chicago-rock-band-leadin' brother, I also created a sister site: www.stolenguitarregistry.com)

Questions?

stolenbicycleregistry.com FAQ

Q: Can I register my bike BEFORE it gets stolen?
A: No. Not yet. Right now I'd like to keep the focus on bikes that are known to be stolen.

Q: You're in Tucson. How does this help people in (INSERT CITY NAME HERE)?
A: It is true that a lot of my initial promotion is taking place in Tucson, since I have a lot of my contacts here, but this site is designed to cover all of the US. Listings are broken down by state, city, and zipcode, so the database doesn't really care if you're in New York or Alaska.

Q: How do you intend to make money on this site?
A: I don't. Seriously. The web hosting is cheap, and it only takes about 5 minutes out of my day to check new signups and approve new listings, so it isn't like I'm going broke from this effort. I just want to help people recover their stolen bikes.

If for some reason I start incurring a bunch of hosting fees or it ends up eating up too much time, I'll sign a few volunteers up to help me manage the signups, or get a sponsor. But right now it isn't about money.

If you'd like to donate a few bucks and help defray the costs, however, that would be great. Just click the 'Buy Now' button here:

Q: I've got a great idea, why don't you (GREAT IDEA HERE)
A: I, too have some great ideas for this site. In fact, there are two major portions that aren't 'live' yet that I think will make people say 'Wow, that's a cool idea.' Right now I'm in the advertising and PR phase, so when I have a critical mass of bikes registered I'll flip the switch.

But I'd also love to hear your idea!