Log-book for cyclists backed by Halfords and others

Its just £5.95 for consumers to register. They can do so online www.bikeregister.com or via the Bike Register leaflets the company is claiming will soon start to appear on bikes at the point of sale.

One of the recommendations of the previous governments National Cycling Strategy was a comprehensive registration scheme for bicycles, a scheme that should cost no more than £5.00 a bike. Most registation schemes have come in at double this amount.

Bike Register, part of Pericom plc, is aiming for millions of registrations, not hundreds or thousands which has been the death knell of previous schemes.

We doing this at a good price, says Bike Registers Steve Bennar, because this has to be a volume situation.

Bennar has been thinking about such a registration scheme for the best part of 20 years. He used to have shop in Wellingborough which dealt in second hand bikes and knew that the provenance and rightful ownership of a used bike was all but impossible to prove.

The technology to cheaply register and track relatively low value items such as bicycles was not available before the internet, says Bennar. He claims that previous registration schemes proposed for the web have come unstuck thanks to lack of set-up funds, actual registrations and usefulness to the police.

Bike Register benefits from being bankrolled by Pericom PLC, a major IT company. It has secured deals with a lot more bike companies than most registration schemes, says Bennar, and a link in to Chief Police Officers Property Tracking Group has also been secured.

There will be Bike Register posters displayed in police stations, claims Bennar. He says insurance companies have also given the scheme their blessing (they would, it costs them nothing yet may reduce thefts).

The scheme launches on 21st July when the website opens for business. Registered users input their address details but this is only viewable by parties such as the police thanks to a secure server.

The website is not currently operational although BikeBiz gained access for research purposes. The site features a Raleigh logo but Jayne Foster (neé Davies) of Raleigh marketing department says no deal has been inked although if the claims about the police deal hold water the Nottingham company will be very interested indeed.

www.bikeregister.com