Anyone know where stolen parts end in in San Francisco?

[duncanknudsen]

I finally made the move to the east bay for lower rent, after living in the San Francisco for a year. When I lived in SF I always heard horror stories of people having their bikes stolen by crafty thieves using all the tricks; freezing and breaking locks, disassembling everything that wasn't locked down, ect. I never saw it first hand till last weekend.

As if San Francisco was spiting me for moving away, when I went to visit a friend I locked my bike up. U-locks on both wheels, and the frame. I was gone about 4 hours. When I returned to my bike on Market Street, everything that was not locked down was stripped and stolen off my bike. This thief was good, not only did he take everything he could remove with allen wrenches, but he had a peddle wrench and clippers that got through metal zip ties. I've never seen a bike be stripped of all its parts so quick. Normally for there to be that random frame sitting their locked up it has abandoned for weeks, not in this case.

Now for my question for the paceline public: Does anyone know where stolen bike parts end up being sold in the San Francisco Bay Area? I have been checking craigslist, but nothing yet. I was thinking there has to be some sketchy place that stolen bikes go to be hawked. I would love to see all my components on a tattered blanket with the price set to some absurdly ignorant price. Let me know if you have any info. Thanks for reading!

Cheers

[toytech]

Laney and coliseum flea markets, craigs and ebay. Sometimes they frankenstien them into complete bikes and sell there too. Get there early
parts are hard to prove ownership of unless marked though.

[josephr]

probably ebay or shipped off to Asia somewhere. I sold a couple of things on ebay a few years ago they wanted shipped to industrial sounding addresses (eg: 6200 Commerce Blvd, Suite 110, Box 282....). There's quite a few clearance houses for international folks wanting to purchase goods in the US but folks only ship to CONUS addresses. Just off the top of my head, I've had a pair of Suntour bear trap pedals go to Japan, a shimano 600EX hub go somewhere in Asia, and a Yamaha DVD player go to Ukraine. I wouldn't be surprised if bike parts were shipped en masse and retailed overseas.

Joe

[dana_e]

under the tree

traded for drugs

[modernfuturist]

Yo OP!

I have contact information of the admin from the Bay Area Stolen Bikes Google Group. She can point you in the right direction, but your parts are most likely at different chop shops throughout the city.

[duncanknudsen]

Hey thanks for all the input! Thanks toytech, I have heard of the Laney flea market but not the coliseum. Ill check it out. As for marking the parts, I'm pretty sure that if i go to a flea market and I say 'hey this is mine I am calling the cops if you don't give it back.' I would hope they would oblige.

Also I'll thank modernfuturist I'll try my luck!

Let's hope they aren't on some Asian or Ukrainian kid over seas.

[ultraman6970]

Just think on this, if the handlebar is not locked or doesnt have chain you can take the stem handlebars and seatpost in less than 30 secs, probably in 5 secs if you have a friend to take the other part at the same time.

Cranks are super easy to take off, 15 secs if you are good, then cut the brake cables that is super easy witrh the right tool and take the calipers, 20 secs each?

Even if the guy has enough time can just cut all the spokes and steal the hubs w/o any problem, like if it was that hard to cut spokes with the right tool.

So, after 4 hours you gave the guy a lot of time to work the bike up. Probably took them no more than 10 mins to strip your bike, good luck next time, never understood why people leave the bikes in the street. If you go to visit a friend is safer just leave the bike inside of the house??

Well good luck.

[druptight]

Originally Posted by duncanknudsen

As for marking the parts, I'm pretty sure that if i go to a flea market and I say 'hey this is mine I am calling the cops if you don't give it back.' I would hope they would oblige..

I wouldn't be too sure about this for a few reasons.

1 - If they're just parts, how can you distinguish yours from some other set of Campy Chorus brifters or calipers. People could just come claim stuff like that all the time with no proof. I have a feeling the person would tell you to go ahead and call the cops with no proof.

2 - This feeds into the above too. The person selling it at a market probably won't be the person who stole it. Odds are it will be someone who bought it for next to nothing off the street trying to flip it for a profit. The odds that they bought something on the street and put up their cash for it and are willing to just hand it over if you say it's yours are pretty slim. Then they're out their cash, and they're not the ones who stole it.

If you have serious concerns about stuff like this happening you need to scrawl your name in things and take pictures, or record serial numbers before they get stolen, otherwise you don't have much in the way of evidence that it's yours.

[jtakeda]

Try ashby flea too. Found a stolen Davis phinney there and got it to the right person.

[BurritoGuru]

What time and what block on market?

[sean]

Originally Posted by toytech

Laney and coliseum flea markets, craigs and ebay. Sometimes they frankenstien them into complete bikes and sell there too. Get there early
parts are hard to prove ownership of unless marked though.

Add:


Ashby station swap meet to that list.

Behind bestbuy or thereabouts sometimes a guy in an RV hangs out with stolen bikes on his roof.

There is a new spot just off Valencia behind Zeitgeist where some squatter kids always seem to be wheeling bikes and parts around.

Sometimes there is a small swap meet in the alley between Valencia and Mission at 15th. Seen a few saddles there.

Sit around civic center and United Nations Plaza, another good spot to find stuff.

Weekends in soma, chances are you will see some sort of junkie wheeling around something stolen from downtown. I rescuded a couple bikes a few months ago from some sketchy dudes.

GG park- but that's a lost cause, and I wouldn't recco digging around in there.

The underpass where Cesar Chavez and the 280/101 meet.

Don Raffa Bikes on 14th street. Look behind the counter.

... I've helped find a few bikes that went missing in SF, that's my mental list.

[Louis]

^^^^ Whatever you do, don't get mugged trying to find your parts.

[sean]

Pepper spray. Always have pepper spray. Even when not trying to retrieve bike parts!

I had a drunk/high dude in the mission accuse me of taking his parking spot. He got out of his truck (thankfully the passenger), ran up to my car and reached in and tried to punch me in the face.

SF is awesome these days...