fossyant said:
PS If you pop up outside Manchester Uni's Refectory on Friday between 10-2 they are giving away locks, lights etc - we had a heads up at work this week from the Bicycle Users Group.
I went along to this myself today - they were marking bikes (postcode and house number), taking details for the Immobilise database, and distributing the locks and lights. Despite the rain the turnout was really good - we (my manager, who also commutes by bike, and I) got there around 10:30-10:45, and the officer I spoke to reckoned they'd already processed some 150 bikes
His attitude was very positive towards the whole thing, saying that the money the unit had spent on the locks and lights was well worth it. He told me he knew of at least one case where they'd already used information from the last time they did the bike marking to reunite one owner with a bike that had been stolen in a burglary. I didn't get the free lights (I'm happy with the ones on my bike) but did get a lock, a bikehut armoured cable lock (made by Abus), sold secure bronze, which will supplement a Magnum shackle lock.
Hopefully some of the students will actually use their free lights
