Is the Bike Register worth it??

[Time Waster]

A local police event in my village was a bike marking scheme based around the Bike Register. I did almost all our bikes (well my son's and most of mine) I once did it to my old commuter through a police register with a purple ink stencil. When it got nicked the same constabulary did not know about that scheme!!

So I am a little sceptical on thee grounds that will the police actually use it and will it be effective in any way if your bike gets stolen? Also, if you bought a secondhand bike, do you check the frame number? Would you buy a secondhand bike, check it and if you find out it was stolen would you take it to the police? Or would you enjoy the bike in the knowledge that nobody is going to check it is stolen?

Do you think it is a scheme that is worth doing if they com your way?

Anyway, I am always on for a freebie and all it cost me was a couple of rides up a very, very steep hilll. One of those rides was on my Recumbent which I had not ridden for a year or two that had flat tyres and the smallest chainring was not playing nicely with me. I realised when I got home that the boom had been shortened and my legs were really too bent with the pedal at the furthest point. Still, I got three oof my bikes marked and my son's. No harm and perhaps it will prove useful if it got nicked.

 

[Drago]

No.

Bike Register was successfully hacked some years ago, so i'd be reluctant to have my details on it. Space age levels of protection it does not enjoy.

Record and photograph your frame number. In the event the bike is stolen the dibble can then record the frame number on the property tab of NICHE. If it turns up, even out of county, the dibble will check the frame number on the property system. 99.9% ot the time it fails, but for you they will shout "hurrah" and high-five one another in their excitement.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Mine are registered
did it at an "event" at a local park
It did annoy me that the bloke putting the sticker on put it on at an angle!!!

 

[wiggydiggy]

A local police event in my village was a bike marking scheme based around the Bike Register. I did almost all our bikes (well my son's and most of mine) I once did it to my old commuter through a police register with a purple ink stencil. When it got nicked the same constabulary did not know about that scheme!!

So I am a little sceptical on thee grounds that will the police actually use it and will it be effective in any way if your bike gets stolen? Also, if you bought a secondhand bike, do you check the frame number? Would you buy a secondhand bike, check it and if you find out it was stolen would you take it to the police? Or would you enjoy the bike in the knowledge that nobody is going to check it is stolen?

Do you think it is a scheme that is worth doing if they com your way?

Anyway, I am always on for a freebie and all it cost me was a couple of rides up a very, very steep hilll. One of those rides was on my Recumbent which I had not ridden for a year or two that had flat tyres and the smallest chainring was not playing nicely with me. I realised when I got home that the boom had been shortened and my legs were really too bent with the pedal at the furthest point. Still, I got three oof my bikes marked and my son's. No harm and perhaps it will prove useful if it got nicked.

> So I am a little sceptical on thee grounds that will the police actually use it and will it be effective in any way if your bike gets stolen?

Having had a stolen bike returned by the police, I'd say so yes

> Also, if you bought a secondhand bike, do you check the frame number? ..... Would you buy a secondhand bike, check it and if you find out it was stolen would you take it to the police? Or would you enjoy the bike in the knowledge that nobody is going to check it is stolen?

I wouldn't check and so would never have cause to return it or know it was stolen.

> Do you think it is a scheme that is worth doing if they com your way?

Yes

 

[rogerzilla]

If you bought a stolen bike from a marketplace such as eBay, or used PayPal, you could probably get your money back from them.

 

[Drago]

> So I am a little sceptical on thee grounds that will the police actually use it and will it be effective in any way if your bike gets stolen?

Having had a stolen bike returned by the police, I'd say so yes

> Also, if you bought a secondhand bike, do you check the frame number? ..... Would you buy a secondhand bike, check it and if you find out it was stolen would you take it to the police? Or would you enjoy the bike in the knowledge that nobody is going to check it is stolen?

I wouldn't check and so would never have cause to return it or know it was stolen.

> Do you think it is a scheme that is worth doing if they com your way?

Yes

Now the property system is cross-boundary it has no advantage. If you know your frame number then give it to the Feds when reporting the theft and its just as traceable as any other number on any other database.

 

[HLaB]

I went to a bike registration event 12 or so years ago. The police computers were down and whilst they marked the bike they were going to send full registration details after the weekend. They never did.

 

[wiggydiggy]

Now the property system is cross-boundary it has no advantage. If you know your frame number then give it to the Feds when reporting the theft and its just as traceable as any other number on any other database.

I do, my lovely dad (who I inherited the bike from) wrote it down. I have it saved seperately as well.

Just to share the bike I had returned was taken by an opportunist thief from my garden, the police (in the same county) found it and connected the dots to us and we went to get it. I also got back but didn't keep a pick axe that he had strapped to the frame but they had not removed assuming that is was mine lol.

 

[Baldy]

After reading this I've just been and photographed and written down my frame numbers. Got photo's and numbers recorded on my computer, phone and a paper copy for all three bikes.

Not heard of a Bike Register before, from what I've just read it doesn't sound like a very joined up scheme. I don't think I'll bother.

 

[Time Waster]

I got my frame stencilled and registered by Lancashire Constabulary at a bike security drive on or near the Millenium bridge in Lancaster many years ago. I waited about 20 minutes to get done thinking it might help. I got my bike nicked and gave a report. When the police officer from HQ called me to take the full details, which I gave in only the way a keen cyclist can about their own bike with mods, including the make and model of anything added like guards or rack or tools. She then heard me say something about the security marking and registration by the local police team. She had no idea about it but she said she would speak to the local team to find out about it. Apparently that did not help as they did not know. Must have been the pet thing of one copper and a few PCSOs. Anyway that causes me to wonder whether any theft prevention scheme police run is actually worth the expense at all.

Sorry to be so much of a downer on the local police force. I am sure they are not all useless, there must be some gooduns!!

 

[roley poley]

i have done bike register for what is worth .... did have a bike returned many years ago when on an "event "a bobby punched my postcode and house number on the bottom bracket ...a letter came to my house saying they had it handed in by a bloke who found it lobbed in his garden hedge.... the bike was not high value and used for cheep runaround but it came back..... thanks to all those in that process of return was warmly expressed with a letter of compliment to the cop shop

 

[Dadam]

Bike Register was successfully hacked some years ago, so i'd be reluctant to have my details on it. Space age levels of protection it does not enjoy.

Have you a link for this? I don't disbelieve you but I can't find any record of a data breach via either google or GPT. The latter says the owning company Selectamark has Cyber Essentials Plus (2024) and ISO 27001:2022, which in itself is no guarantee but it's an indication they take it fairly seriously and I believe both involve a degree of external pen testing and vulnerability scanning