Security

Downloads and sites to help bike security & bike recovery

• See also our pages on Bike crashes and on road policing.

Report your stolen bike

• https://stolen-bikes.co.uk/add-your-bike/  biggest UK bike-theft reporting site??
• http://www.bikeshepherd.org/ registration and recovery site
• https://www.bikeregister.com/stolen  widely used by police in UK

Check a second-hand bike before purchase

• https://checkthatbike.co.uk/

Check bikes on sale on gumtree, ebay etc

• http://findthatbike.co.uk/

Register your new (or not new!) bike

• https://www.bikeregister.com/ main site used by police UK-wide
• http://www.veloeye.com/about.php  innovative app-based community-based registration scheme
• http://www.bikeshepherd.org/ registration and recovery site
• https://www.immobilise.com/ general property registration site
• https://bikeindex.org/ mainly US

Don’t buy a stolen bike!! – you are encouraging theft

Here are some hints from @alexwlc that a bike may be stolen…

• Bike is posted online with very few details, no photos or only stock photos
• Seller won’t provide the bike’s frame number (all bikes have one).  If you know yours, check it on the bike register site above
• Seller can’t provide any proof of ownership eg receipts
• Seller reluctant to provide any personal details eg won’t give an address for collection and wants to meet in a public place
• Bike seems very cheap
• Seller wants you to pay cash
• On ebay: Seller has several bikes for sale, or posting from new account

2011 Police Scotland  New leaflet on bike security  Paper copies available from police

1707 Keeping your bike safe   A nicely-presented and fairly comprehensive article, including videos of locks being cut.  Note that this is on an insurance company website – Spokes does not endorse any particular company.

1706 Forth Valley Police   2-minute video on bike security

1508 Police Scotland new bike security page.  Also advice on preparing for winter travel [cycling and other modes]

1501 Social Media bike-theft dangers  [particularly if you have a valuable/ high-end bike] [This article was originally based on a CCE forum discussion].   Many people are now sharing details of their bike rides via sites such as strava or flickr.  This can mean that you are giving thieves a direct route to your (expensive?) bike [example1, example2].  To reduce risks, set privacy zones around home/work or other locations where your bike is stored.  Advice on this from Strava is here.   Also remember that electronic photos now often automatically store metadata (i.e. additional facts such as location) along with the photo; so a photo of your bike at home may locate it for thieves.  There are apps to facilitate metadata removal/alteration – e.g. on Android like this and this – but perhaps best is not to upload pics directly from a mobile to public sites, but instead edit them first and save without metadata.   If your bike is stolen see the web tools at 1305 below, as well of course as contacting the police.

1408 Police Bike Security Marking  The police in Edinburgh organise occasional security marking sessions – sometimes free, sometimes charging £5.   Following the creation of Police Scotland and the ending of Lothian and Borders Police [see 1305 & 1209 below] these sessions are no longer posted on the police website, so we cannot give a website to look up [they are sometimes announced on twitter by @EdinburghPolice and we will when possible link to that in ‘Events’ in the left column].   You can also ask the officer who deals with bike security when the next sessions will be:  Victoria.Henretty@scotland.pnn.police.uk.

1403 Bike Shed Security  Our 2011 competition (‘My Cycling Solution’) included a prizewinning entry which gave detailed instructions for cheaply making it less easy to lever the hasp and hinges off from a door [pdf 153k].

1311 Local Policing Plans  Under the Act creating Police Scotland [below] each local authority area must have a Local Policing Plan. The plan contains priorities for the area as a whole and for each Ward of each council.

The police are expected to consult on area and local priorities for each plan. The current Edinburgh 2014-2017 Local Policing Plan consultation includes a questionnaire, and drop-in sessions [pdf 191k] for each local area within the city. [2.12.13 Spokes LPP submission, pdf 188k]

The current 2013-2014 local policing plans are below.  Road safety is a priority in all plans and in most wards, though with greater or lesser emphasis – you can help improve this in future plans by participating in your local consultation.

• Edinburgh [pdf 1.2MB]
• East Lothian [pdf 1.7MB]
• Midlothian [pdf 0.6MB]
• West Lothian [pdf 0.2MB]

1306 Web tools to register bikes, find stolen bikes and check second-hand bikes.  It may be worth trying more than one of the sites – and some of the sites are only geared to some of the above purposes.

1110 Edinburgh Council bike security advice – includes various downloads [Home Office advice; list of certified bike locks, etc]

0812 L&B Police Bicycle Home Security Leaflet [doc 2528K] – advice on securing your bike at home and elsewhere.  This leaflet dates from 2008 and has been superceded by the 1204 entry above.