Another reason to have your bike registered: man in collision identified through BikeRegister

A man who was hit by a vehicle while out riding was identified by his BikeRegister tag and his family informed of his hospital admission - and the police and BikeRegister are urging more cyclists to sign up.

The man, from Stratford on Avon, was not able to convey his identity to police and ambulance crew, making it impossible to inform family members of his condition.

But having attended one of the many BikeRegister bike marking events held by Warwickshire Police where he had his bike marked using a QR code, the cyclist’s details were retrievable by the police, who were able to contact his family.

Originally designed as an anti-theft measure, the cycle and the owner’s details are put on the BikeRegister database, which police can access 24 hours a day to trace a bike’s owner.

BikeRegister is used by every UK Police Force and there are more than 460,000 bikes already registered on the database.

According to BikeRegister, Specialized, Trek and Giant make up almost 60 percent of bikes stolen in the UK. They’re also the dominant brands of bike shop bikes in the UK, but they don’t dominate the sales figures quite as much as they dominate the theft data.

We reported recently how the top five models being stolen in London are all from Specialized and Trek.

At number one with a bullet, the Specialized Sirrus is exactly the sort of bike Dixon was talking about: a mid-priced commuter model. Specialized takes the next two spots too, with the singlespeed Langster and the Allez road bike.

Two of Trek’s flat-bar bikes round out the top five, the 7.3 and 7.2. They’re classic examples: common, practical and easily fenced.

Three of the top five have flat bars, which points up an oft-forgotten fact that the majority of mid-priced bikes sold in the UK are not enthusiast-type race bikes with drop bars, but bikes like this that make people feel confident and comfortable. Hybrids might not be sexy, but the category is the Ford Focus of bikes: popular and practical.

In November we reported how a London man’s bike was recovered just hours after he reported it stolen with police using the BikeRegister database to identify him as the owner.

Steven Lovelock was getting ready for work one Monday morning in October when he noticed that his shed door had been kicked in. Thieves had cut his bike lock with bolt cutters and his bike had gone.

After taking some photos, he called the police who he says came round within the hour to ask him questions and to examine the scene.

Lovelock had bought his black Genesis as part of Cyclescheme’s Cycle to Work initiative which includes automatic registration on BikeRegister. After the police had gone, at around 9.10am, he logged onto the site and recorded his bike as having been stolen. About 90 minutes later, he also uploaded some photos and entered the frame number.
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At around 11.30am, he got a call from Bromley Station saying they had his bike.