The first place I have three times bought bikes for others there, and like:

bulldogbikerestoration.com

second place, I have not bought at but I have seen their selection and it's decent - they are bike sellers who set up at the Arlington Courthouse farmer's market on Saturdays, and at the Georgetown farmer's market on Sundays. Similar prices to Bulldog ($125 and up for clean, refurbished basic transportation and some finds)

Most of these bikes were reported bought at auction but I said "police auction" in a previous post and I'm not actually sure of what percentage of the auctions were from the police or just what people donated to Salvation Army and the like. The high quality makes me think it's the former more than the latter.

Only drawback either place is it's impossible to shake off the uneasy feeling about where they all came from. But it beats paying for a new one.

If you like to have a bike shop attached to your ride, for great service and avoiding unpleasant surprises, Mt. Airy Bikes and College Park bikes (same owner) sell a ton of used high quality rdes but they are priced on the high side.

As a life-long resident of the District, I've had three bikes stolen. Two of them were strong arm situations (I was a child and was assaulted twice by roving gangs of bike thieves that would access NW via Rock Creek from NE and other parts South), and one was a cut lock situation.

read, where are these places?

That is one of my biggest annoyances...if you have quick release levers on your bike, don't just lock up the frame...your bike will end up being permanent "frame" art.

Pretty much if you're not willing to lose it, don't park it outside...or buy a bike of less value. Having your bike stolen is the worse.

Second, I know of a specific alley that gets traffic from folks with hot bikes who repair there to break up locks out of sight from the street and windows. If we know of a location that is being frequented by bike theft predators is there someone to whom we should write to nominate a new bait-bike location?

Second, in the First District, the vast majority of stolen bicycles are opportunistic crimes involving bicycles that were not secured to immoveable objects.

Third, while we used the "bait bike" program to target bicycle thefts, it also targets the many other opportunistic crimes, including thefts of packages from doorsteps.

Fourth, while it would be nice to have the time and manpower to focus on the other bicycle thefts, such as the few thiefs that utilize bolt-cutters, it would be ridiculously inefficient. We could lock up a bike to a fence post and wait days and days, with possibly negative results. Additionally, it has been my experience that there are so many valuable unlocked bikes, why would any thief target locked bikes? The thief in the article seems to underline this point.