Bike Theft is Evolving. So Are We.

Bike Theft is Evolving. So Are We.

It started with a message from a cyclist in Mexico:
"Hey, I think I found my friend’s stolen bike… for sale online… in Guadalajara."

That one tip kicked off a nearly four-year investigation led by our co-founder Bryan Hance—years of combing sketchy listings, chasing patterns, and building a case across borders. What he found was bigger than anyone expected:
A $2.1 million bike theft ring, moving high-end bikes from the U.S. to Mexico in under 12 hours.

This is the story GCN told in their video:

🎥 Watch the GCN Investigation

The ring involved thieves, transporters, online sellers, and more than a few platforms that looked the other way. Bikes were getting stolen in San Francisco and listed online in Jalisco by the next morning.

Police got involved. So did the FBI. A few people got caught. But the thefts didn’t stop—they just moved.

We Don’t Want to Just Play Whack-a-Mole.

We Want to Change the System.

That's why we built the Bike Index Marketplace. It's our answer to the chaos of anonymous, unverified online bike sales.

This isn’t just a new feature—it’s a shift in how bikes are bought and sold. A place where listings come with a public history. Where bikes are traceable. Where thieves don’t stand a chance.

What Makes It Different?

  • Registered bikes only — every listing is tied to a Bike Index ID
  • Full history & photos — so you know what you’re getting
  • Community flagged — sketchy listings don’t last
  • Nonprofit-run — your fees fund recovery tools, not some VC’s exit

We're already working with law enforcement and local orgs in cities like Edmonton, the Bay Area, Davis, Boise, Portland, and Seattle—places where stolen bikes move fast and recoveries need to move faster. The tools we've built are already helping reunite thousands of bikes with their rightful owners. And now, we’re giving everyday riders a way to shut down theft before it even starts—by cutting thieves off from the market.

What You Can Do

Bike theft is organized. But so are we.
Let’s rebuild trust in how bikes change hands—together.