Bike registration eg bikeshepherd

[marthall]

Hi,

I've been feeling a bit guilty recently. I'm feeling that I should do something just in case the worst happens and my bike gets nicked. There is plenty of advice to get your bike tagged or registered but I wasn't sure where or how. A quick google turned up bikeshepherd.com, but I wondered how popular this is (I figure that any succesful scheme has to have a certain momentum behind it). Before I fork out £10 for a set of stickers what does everybody else do?

Regards
Martin

 

[HLaB]

I register my bikes, etc with immobilise.com for free, no fancy stickers though ;-)

 

[The Jogger]

I registered mine with the local plod, they came to the. village hall, still waiting on the paperwork though.

 

[Twenty Inch]

Well, first of all, have you got a full description of all your bikes,including components, colour scheme, frame numbers, and distinguishing features eg tattoos, funny saddles etc. written down and kept in a safe place? If not, do that now. Coppers say the biggest obstacle to recovering bikes is the owner not being able to give a description, 'specially if they spot some scrote on their freshly-stolen bike in the shopping centre a week after the theft.

Secondly, what are you really getting with this? Do the coppers know to look out for Bikeshepherd when they recover bikes? Is there any special equipment required to read a chip or RFID? Are the stickers conspicuous enough that a scrote will look at them and decide to rob the bike next to yours? Once they've taken your money, what afterservice do they do eg do they alert all the local police forces when your bike is nicked? What do other people say about them?

 

[Twenty Inch]

Actually I don't think much of their bike-locking video. He left all that space in the D-lock for a thief to get a stubby jack into, when he could have filled it by rotating the crank into the space.

Barry Mason (RIP) does a much better job here:



View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPDHPpnXPv8

 

[Xiorell]

With the whole "writting down a description of your bike", would not detailed photographs be as good/better?

(genuine question not an argument)

 

[marthall]

@HLaB. Thanks for the link, I've started to check them out. They actually do seem to do fancy stickers ('RFID' anybody). I suppose I could adopt a 'more the merrier' approach and register on several schemes, not sure that I would want to cover my nice looking bike with too many stickers though (one may be too much!)



@The Jogger. Yes, sound advice but I'm not sure if there is a local scheme or how to get involved if there is one. The Thames Valley Police website didn't seem to have any scheme listed. Could it be force dependent?



@Twenty Inch. Good points, and I would say that yes I have all of this detail. of course I am not quite sure where it is that I wrote it all down.... I think it was that piece of paper that I left on the sofa a while back. I'd best check the filing system, there will probably be some loose change there if nothing else.



Regarding your other points, well that is exactly what I'd like to know also. I see that bike Shepard has a website full of details of stolen gear, but if nobody checks this and the thief has removed the sticker well then what is the use? Ideally I want to use whatever system everybody else uses and that always gets checked by the police and people buying 2nd hand bikes. But I guess this does not exist. I liked the idea of the barcode and phone app but I can't see it actually being used much. I guess there always has to be early adopters though.



@Xiorell. I would think both options are good. Serial numbers etc are usually better written down but a photo would be key for any bike that was in any way unusual. My bike being a standard Boardman would perhaps not benefit but I;ve seen some recent bike blogs where photo's have helped the bikes be spotted on auction sites and recovered. A picture could always be useful in any appeal, makes it more personal if you can show off your pride and joy and you are not using a stock factory photo. I probably don;t have many photo's of my bike which I will rectify, then at least I can then have the memories if it does get nicked.



@all

So am I any further on? if there is a police scheme I will probably go for that, otherwise I have two options immobilise.com and bikeshepherd.com with no real idea of how useful either might be. I could also let indecision lead me into doing nothing.



I'll try contacting Thames Valley Police as the next step.

Thanks you all for your thoughts

Martin

 

[Xiorell]

Mart, just noticed you're a Banbury chap, as am I !

 

[jefmcg]

There are two schemes used by the Met Police (or whoever it is tags bikes regularly near Waterloo station). I got tag at the beginning of the year, and was added to http://www.immobilise.com. 4 months later, I got an email for the same registration from http://bikeregister.com - which is the same company that london police are advertising when they put leaflets about security on chained bikes.

Both are free, I wouldn't bother paying someone £10.

 

[gallego1968]

I use Immobilise.com to register loads of stuff.

Immobilise.com

 

[pip ryder]

Both are free, I wouldn't bother paying someone £10.

Yeah, I think the £10 is mainly for the fancy sticker. They do come with chips, but the sticker is the deterrent. The chav that looks at your bike may fear that it'll damage the resale value if the buyer sees the sticker and wants to know how he can get the database changed to show him as the new owner.

 

[jefmcg]

If anyone wants to get their bike marked and stickered for free in London, here are the dates and locations:

http://www.met.police.uk/transport/cycle_marking.html

Oh, and you can sit in a HGV at Hyde Park Corner today!