Stolen Bike Survey - Win £50 in CRC vouchers

[hopless500]

Done.

 

[Easytigers]

Done

 

[mossj88]

Interesting concept which is great for exposure but I would still be wary as an investor because you are essentially relying on a retailer giving a discount and then giving a cut of the sale to you which reduces their profit margin twice... I fear that retailers would be reluctant to sign up because of this and would drag their heels to pay up.

The other issue if I was an investor would be your income is not guaranteed because you are relying on the customer to take up the discount with the retailer to get the income from providing them with a service. Say a 100 people use the service and only 10 people use the voucher so you are losing 90% of your potential income.

Best of luck by the way!

Chris

We aren't getting investors they're grants from the Government, the discount is usually agreed and taken from our 'cut' most of the major brands have agreements with companies like mine for around 10% of sale amounts.

Thanks for the advice though I can see where your coming from if I was going for loans/investors

 

[L14M]

Done!

 

[SlowerThanASluggishSloth]

Done.

 

[Machin]

Done!

 

[mossj88]

You do realise that there is already a system in place and those selling used bikes can already access the relevant registers? The fundamental problem is that not all bikes are registered and there is no standard for marking bikes (e.g. no standard format for frame or part numbers).

Thank you for your input could you talk me through a scenario then. I have a bike and I want to know if it's frame number has been reported as stolen, what do I do? where do I go?

I'm aware that manufacturers don't use standardised markings (although you can often tell schema's they are using), which is why I will be working on selling the idea of a MAC address type of system to them. I'll also be talking to manufacturers and seeing if there is a way I can validate frame numbers against their existing schema's.

This whole survey is designed around demonstrating to the industry and other organisations that there is a need for change and it is in their advantage to make those changes..

For example I can now walk into a bike shop and say

1. 89% of retailers currently don't give security advice
2. 95% of cyclists (your potential customers) want to see their retailer recording the frame number for them
3. 70% of cyclists would pick a retailer that offered security advice over one that didn't

This I believe will wake them up, they will think "here is a way I can stand out amongst the competition, it's profitable for me and good for my customers, I'm going to get involved in this".

 

[mossj88]

On what basis would you say that? This little survey? You're having a giraffe...

This little survey that got enough responses to be meaningful yes (although I will concede surveys can be designed to say exactly what the person using the information wants), and 2 years experience of working to combat theft, and countless conversations with fellow cyclists
/police officers/members of the cycling industry.

But lets ignore all that why not belittle the work that I'm doing, that's fun right? Who cares that it's already started to work and the wheels are turning, lets ignore the proven results, lets not provide a scenario where you claim this is already possible.

 

[e-rider]

who won the £50?

 

[mossj88]

Someone from Oxford, can't really say anymore than that as I didn't write the terms and conditions to allow me to publish the winners. The padlocks have also been delivered to their new owners.

I'll be putting on a bigger competition to celebrate the 2nd birthday soon (hopefully this week) for £500 to spend at a Local Bike Shop (as long as they will invoice us, otherwise vouchers) and two runners up will get a D lock. I'll be sure to write publishing limited details of the winners into the T&Cs.

 

[PlymSlimCyclist]

Shame I missed the boat on this, but interested all the same.

I know my LBS retains the bike numbers they sell, and although they're not tech savvy, they're clued up on the things I've approached them about.

 

[mossj88]

I've just kicked off a new competition for £500 to spend at a local bike shop, your more than welcome to enter.

 

[PlymSlimCyclist]

I've just kicked off a new competition for £500 to spend at a local bike shop, your more than welcome to enter.

All done, thank you!

Could've done with the £500 today, just spent £135!