Any one used any of these services to register their bike?

http://www.bikeshepherd.org/
http://www.bikeregister.com/
http://www.immobilise.com/how-to-register-your-bicycle.html
http://www.nationalbikeregistry.com/
http://www.datatag.co.uk/

Seems to be an abundance of choice and each one claims to be the definitive source, biggest in the UK, one most used by police etc etc.

Any idea which is really “best”?

(Possible idea for a future mag article right there Chipps)

I used immobilise for two of my bikes. Only reason I did that was because on my commute one day the police were handing out free electronic tags for all the cyclists passing through the station, along with info on how to register them on immobilise. So thats what I did. Can’t say its any better than any other, but I think on immobilise you can register anything – not just your bikes.

Immobilise is the official stolen property database, and is free to use, but only the police have full access to it. I’d still put my bike on it though. Apparently extra-cheeky bike thieves have been known to register stolen bikes as theirs using it, so it makes sense to beat them to it.

Bikeshepherd seem to be gaining a bit of a foothold, they’ve recently become an official partner of Cyclescheme which gives them access to a lot of bikes.

http://www.cyclescheme.co.uk/community/featured/protect-your-bike-with-bike-shepherd

Their smartphone app is free and means anyone (with a smartphone) can check who a bike belongs to, but I’m still not 100% convinced by their metal sticker tags – surely any savvy thief can put another sticker over it or buff off the code.

Datatag claim to have supplied all the police forces in the UK with the necessary scanning equipment to tell whose a bike is, so there should be no excuse for not getting one back to you. I’m not sure whether most officers would think to check though, given how few bikes are recovered in the first place, and what tiny proportion of those must be Datatagged.

When it comes to stolen bikes being recovered, we’re talking just a few percent of the number going missing, and the tagged ones are a tiny fraction of that. With the numbers so small overall there’s no definite winner and I’d probably go with as many of the above as I felt I could afford, as they all increase (however slightly) the chance of your stolen bike being recovered.

wtfs with the tag??

Bikeshepherd seem to be gaining a bit of a foothold, they’ve recently become an official partner of Cyclescheme

Yeah they also seem to have teamed up with Kryptonite which is a pretty big name.

I’m still not 100% convinced by their metal sticker tags

No me neither – surely it can just be painted over, scratched up, or buffed off.

wtfs with the tag??

Erm.. a joke? With a rather poor pun about being put on “a register”?

Sorry if it upsets you. 😕

I think all of these things rely on becoming the standard, like the VIN number on a engine. The police check serial numbers and may look on Immobilise, not sure what the deal is with other tracking systems but from talking to people on the force the uptake of them is still relatively tiny.

One other point would be to make your bike look distinctive. Some stolen bikes are recovered after being spotted by members of the public, and clocking a bike with some sort of odd colour scheme or unusual stickers is almost automatic for anyone keen on cycling; it’s certainly a lot less effort than fiddling around with smartphones and barcodes.

Erm.. a joke? With a rather poor pun about being put on “a register”?

Sorry if it upsets you.

wasnt upset just confused!

Fair enough.
A failing of my sense of humour rather than yours then 😆