OFF TRACK SPOKES
Tackling the thieves
CAR THEFT was all the rage in the 80s and 90s. Twocking – taking without owner’s consent – used to be a massive problem. Car security has since come on in leaps and bounds with various beep-beep key devices. While some cars still get stolen this
doesn’t seem to deter car ownership. However, many studies have shown that fear of bicycle theft is a major deterrent to everyday cycling. A (dated) French study demonstrated that when somebody gets their bike stolen, their next bike tends to be substantially cheaper. If this bike is subsequently stolen many people give up altogether. Bicycles are relatively easy to pinch.
Crims with the right tools (with tools in plural, as the best-equipped bike thieves carry mini bottle jacks for d- locks and bolt croppers for chains) can, given time, nick any bike they want. I was therefore looking forward to
the entries in Nesta’s ‘Hands Off My Bike’ competition. What innovative security solutions would be submitted? The org was founded as NESTA, the National Endowment For Science Technology and The Arts, in 1998. Originally a Government agency funded by the National Lottery, in 2011 Nesta became an independent innovation foundation with charitable status. In 2012 Nesta put up a prize fund of £50,000 to be given to the product which foils a bike thief for the longest. The innovation was also to be judged on its potential for commercialisation. Offering cash prizes
Wondering what the Twitterati have been up to this month? Look no further...
We’re considering (re)introducing a regular(ish)
How can product innovators take on bike crime, wonders Carlton Reid…
to incentivise breakthrough innovations is a time-honoured practice. Famous examples of challenge prizes include the Ansari X-Prize for manned private spaceflight, the 18th century Longitude Prize to help British navigators, and the 20th century Schneider Trophy for aviation, which inspired the Spitfire. I was one of the judges in the Hands
Off My Bike competition. I can’t reveal which – if any – product submissions won the grand prize, but I can reveal there were lots of GPS and smartphone app ideas from chancers: these were easily weeded out. There were also a number of bike- components-which-double-as-locks but, as has been amply demonstrated throughout the history of bicycle availability, such components are neither one thing nor the other and therefore never sell. There were natty looking variations on D and U-locks using different letters of the alphabet (really) and a whole slew of static posts with lock attachments although none were as clever or as simple as Anthony Lau’s wonderful – and now commercially successful – Cyclehoop. There were also a surprising number
of wearable locks. Bike messengers look extra tough when wearing their bike chains and a number of designers made bra-style locks that were less bulky, and significantly less macho, than these chains. And, apart from one or two exceptions, that was the general problem with the security solutions submitted. They offered less security
than that offered by the plethora of products already on the market. I use a variety of security measures
for my bikes when out and about. For town use I use a beat-up touring bike (thieves tend not to be partial to touring bikes, for obvious reasons) or a distinctive and rather odd looking cargo bike that can easily carry meaty locks in voluminous side pockets. The cargo bike is also equipped with skewer and component retention devices from Pinhead. When in London I either use a folding bike that sticks with me everywhere I go, or I hire a Boris bike. One of the locks in the ‘Hands Off
My Bike’ comp squirted thieves with a dye. This has a vindictive appeal, but I can imagine the dye going off at the wrong time and squirting me instead. It would be nice to think there’s an immobiliser device out there that could truly protect a bike, but part of the bicycle’s appeal is its simplicity and having car-style security measures would complicate bicycles no end. Perhaps we should re-examine what Boris Johnson promised before he became mayor of London? Speaking at the AGM of the Islington Cyclists Action Group in 2007, he said “I’d like Sharia law for bicycle thieves.” This call was later echoed, jokingly,
by David Cameron who got his bicycle stolen from a supermarket. Then again, perhaps we should also legislate against stupidity, because Cameron had chained his bike to a short bollard and the thief lifted the bike and rode away.
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social ride, starting from HQ or a partner store. Would you be interested? Yes, you.
@Cyclefituk
If it’s this cold in England, how blimmin’ cold is it going to be in
Belgium this weekend for the spring classics? #earntheirwages @davearthur
Soooo much grease/Judy butter in there that it had gummed
everything up. Rebuilt and it’s lovely now, shame as usually very good down there.
@fatladrides
Guy stole my bike so I got in a cab & said follow that guy! He
said sure, what’s his twitter name? We laughed & hi-fived & I need a new bike.
@CrazyUncleJoe
We really need to do Critical Mass in Northampton.
Let’s get it sorted for March. Who’s in?
@Ministryofbikes
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