frame serial numbers

[dick220369]

Why are the serial numbers on Thorn Sherpa frames so hard to read? When I first received my Thorn Sherpa frame I noted the serial number for insurance purposes. Even when new it was really difficult to read. I've now had the frame for around a year now and today, while washing the bike, I tried to read the serial number. There was now way I could make out any letters/numbers after the '530L'. I doubt, if the bike was stolen and re-found, anyone would be able to identify the bike as belonging to me from the serial number if they can't effectively read it. The frame/paint isn't damaged/worn in anyway where the frame number is to be found on the bike. It's just so faint now that it can't be fully read. I've tried reading it in full daylight and also shining a torch onto the area to no avail.

[Paul S]

Man,

I am struggling to understand where you are coming from here 

[dick220369]

Serial numbers are used to identify the bike when it is stolen. I just don't why the serial numbers on Thorn bikes are that difficult to read if their main use is bike identity. I don't think my post was that difficult to understand.

[Paul S]

Frame numbers are a very easy to render unreadable & alone are not reliable if the bike gets stolen.

Note to self. Must always turn my bikes upside down when washing them just in case.........................

[energyman]

All the more reason to fit some kind of RFID chip .  It gives all the infomation a "finder" can need to identify the bike.  I've got all mine chipped.  The frame number is the first to be filed off to destroy its id.  It works with dogs etc and it works with bikes !
QED

[David Simpson]

I got a new Nomad frame a couple of months ago, and the serial number is very hard to read. The thickness of the paint makes it hard to distinguish the digits. I shone a flashlight at a sharp angle to the surface to cause shadows (like long shadows at sunset), and I could just make out the numbers. My frame is yellow, which helps. It would be very difficult on a matte black frame.

Energyman, I like the RFID idea. Where can I learn more about that?

Thanks,
DaveS

[energyman]

Not sure if it is international but all my RFID chips are from https://www.immobilise.com/ .
They were being given away by our local police until the budget cuts and now they retail at £15 from Halfords in the UK.
You just ram it down the seat post and register it on line.

Another one is http://datatag.co.uk/bicycles_rfid.php

[Paul S]

All 3 of my bikes are protected in addition to the frame number.

My Dawes via 'Immobilise' a plastic widget with a chip which you thrust down the seat tube, together with a sticker on the frame, registered to a database.

My Thorns, via datatag stealth, UV etching, registered on a database.

Bottom line. If any one of them gets stolen, the chances of recovery, in reality are slim.

So, in the UK it is a case of acquiring a valid crime reference number & starting a conversation with ones insurer.

My Dawes is an insurance replacement & boy was it hard work to get them to cough up.

Sounds negative I know, but the last thing that is likely to help is the frame no.

[Bill C]

The frame number is the first to be filed off to destroy its id.  It works with dogs etc and it works with bikes !
QED

christ almighty people really file the serial numbers off dogs?

[Danneaux]

people really file the serial numbers off dogs?

<nods soberly> I think so, Bill. I mean, I read it here, so...

Best,

Dan. (...who suddenly thinks a stolen bike might not be so bad in comparison  )
 

[mickeg]

I also found it hard to read the serial number on my Nomad.  First attached photo shows part of the number, if the paint was black it would have been even harder to read.  But with care and a light, I managed to read it.

Some communities in USA license bicycles and I needed the serial number to license it.  Generally you are required to license them if you live there, but nothing bad happens to you if you don't license it.  So most people do not bother to license them.  But the license sticker has very good adhesive, so it is almost impossible to get off unless you are willing to damage the underlying paint.

I always license my bikes, just because if it is stolen and later found by the police, the odds of me getting it back is much greater.  Decades ago, my dads bike was stolen, he got it back when the police found it abandoned because of the license.

It also is good proof of ownership.  A friend of mine, his daughter's bike was stolen.  A few days later she saw it on Craigs list, someone was trying to sell it.  She called the police, but without proof of ownership, the police did nothing and she did not get it back.

The bike on the right in the second photo is my Sherpa, the white sticker on the seattube is the bike license.

[Pavel]

When they steal your car or motorcycle, they always file or alter the serial number as well, I hear. I wonder why GM doesn't follow Thorns example and save them the effort by making it illegible and useless to start with?

[energyman]

My son came around today, one of the things he does is board Guide Dogs (for the blind) which are sick, in training or waiting for owners.  The one he brought today is a rather large German Shepard.  Bradie is chipped (by that I mean he has an RFID chip inserted somewhere) and there is no way I would ever think about filing off his serial number !! 
[Note to self - be more careful with grammar in future]

[Pavel]

Isn't the limitation of RFID that the scanner needs to be close?  Are there any GPS based tracker for bikes (and even pets) I wonder?  Or would the five foot antenna be obvious?

When someone took my wife's iPhone 7, from her lectern at class when she stepped away, we got it back the next day.  My pets are far more important to me than our gadgets, and the Thorn would also be a much greater loss. They however are welcome to steal my Garmin - a pox on thieves that would be.   

[Paul S]

I also found it hard to read the serial number on my Nomad.  First attached photo shows part of the number, if the paint was black it would have been even harder to read.  But with care and a light, I managed to read it.

My be things work different in the US.

In the UK, If one has not got proof of the frame/serial number in writing, from the folks that manufactured/sold one the bike, it matters not one jot if the number is readable to the eye or not because its useless & even if one has the paper 30 seconds with a file or such & its over.

As far as I am aware in the UK the only folks who posses the scanners to read the immobilise chips are the manufacture & and the police.

Tamperproof labels may well cause the opportunist thief to have second thoughts.

Do I think that either a chip & or UV etching (including a phone number for the data base administrators) / UV microdots etc would foil a targeted theft, no I do not.