Every bike comes with a unique bike serial number. This is also known as the frame number and it helps to identify it from the rest.
The serial number works the same way a car registration number does. But in this case the number isn’t as obvious as a car’s number.
In this article, we show you how to identify bike by serial number, why the bike serial number is important, where it’s usually located, and other online bike serial number lookup methods that you can use to locate your bike if it’s stolen.
Why Check Bike Serial Number?
It’s extremely important to look up and locate your bicycle serial number identification. This is because you never know what might happen when you leave your bike outside your workplace without a bicycle U lock or cable lock at the local store when shopping for that matter.
You could lose the bike or it might get stolen. So, the only way to prove that it’s indeed your bike after it has been found is by providing evidence in the form of its serial number.
If your bicycle is stolen, you could use its serial number to track it down. You may have a tracking device installed on your bicycle but you stand a better chance of locating it when you provide the bike’s serial number to tracking organizations and the local police.
If you consider the huge number of bikes out there that have the same look and design as your own, you’ll see why it’s important to have a unique identifying number for your bicycle.
With the serial number, you can easily track down your bicycle from found and stolen items and locate whether it was found in your local town or outside your state. Keep in mind that most thieves don’t steal bikes to keep or own them. They use the bicycle as a getaway or temporary usage and then discard it to avoid arrest.
There’s also a category of bike thieves who steal bikes to disassemble and sell the parts. With the serial number, you can at least track down part of the bicycle and bring the thieves to justice.
If you own a bike, you should definitely locate its serial and even take pictures with it clearly visible as additional proof that you own the bike.
Number Location
Now that you know why it’s important to know your bike’s serial number, the next thing you need to do is to locate and note down the number.
So where is the bike serial number located?
Well, different brands and models of bikes such as Schwinn and Trek have the number located on different sections of their bicycle models.
However, in almost every type of bike, the serial number on bike will likely be found under the bike’s bottom bracket. To locate the number, just turn the bicycle around and check for a series of numbers and letters on the spot where the pedal cranks join.
If the serial number isn’t there, don’t worry as there are other places where the number could be stamped.
Here are a few examples of more places to look for the serial number:
- On the underside of the bottom bracket.
- Under the bottom bracket parallel to the frame.
- Some brands such as Schwinn have the number engraved on the head tube at the front of the bike.
- Other brands such as BMX have the number on the rear dropout of some of their bike models.
- There are other bicycles that have multiple serial numbers. If you’re adding the number to an online bicycle serial number decoder, you should enter all the groups of numbers into the index separated by spaces.
It’s quite easy to locate the number but remember to record the number and keep a few more copies in different places such as your phone, notebook, and laptop. You can even email the number to your email account or back it up in your iCloud account.
Like previously mentioned, remember to take a photo of yourself and the bike with the number clearly visible. Such records will ensure that you have the number handy when reporting your mommy bike as a lost item to the police.
Online Bicycle Serial Number Check
Bad things happen when least expected. You may just step out of your workplace or office building only to discover that your bike has been stolen. The place where you parked the bike is empty and your precious bike is nowhere to be seen.
In such unfortunate events, the most important thing is to report the theft of your bike to the police and pray that they find it as soon as possible. After some time, you can also contact organizations that help to track down lost bikes using bicycle serial numbers.
There are several websites with a huge bicycle number database such as Bike Index and Bike Register. These websites help bike owners find their stolen bikes using the bike’s serial number.
It’s quite easy to use a serial number lookup website. All you need to do is to enter your bike’s serial number using numbers and letters only without spaces or special characters into a search box provided on the site’s homepage when you search bike by serial number.
If your bike’s number is on any lost and found bikes database, you’ll be told where it was found and how you can go and collect it.
In case you have recently bought a used bicycle, it’s important to locate its serial number and do a bicycle serial number lookup to ensure that the bicycle wasn’t stolen before it was sold to you. If you find the number filed or scratched out, be careful because this could be a sign of a stolen bike.
It’s only a thief or criminal who would go to the trouble of filing or scratching out a bicycle serial number to hide its identity. To ensure that you don’t buy a stolen bike, check the bicycle status by looking it up in the bicycle serial number database.
Conclusion
You may be riding a stolen bicycle without your knowledge.
The best way to ensure that your bicycle isn’t registered as a stolen item is by doing a bike serial number check.
You also stand a better chance of recovering your lost bicycle using its serial number. The serial number is an important tool in tracking down your lost bicycle.