Let’s digress for a moment.
Although whether you can digress before you start might be questionable.
Veterinarians and animal rescue groups have long recommended having a small microchip embedded under the skin of your pet to identify it if it ever gets lost of stolen.
And there’s no shortage of stories about dogs and cats who’ve found their way back home after months, or even years, when a simple scan by a vet or shelter revealed where they belonged.
The Corgi has one.
As a rescue, she came with a chip in her shoulder, courtesy of her original owners. As well as one on her shoulder, after being unceremoniously booted from the only home she’d ever known.
Now your bike can have one, too.
Because Bike Index announced yesterday that they are partnering with VerifiR to add an extra level of security to their free bike registration program.
According to their press release,
VerifiR’s groundbreaking security tags let anyone with a smart phone quickly ‘scan’ a bike to check origin and verify ownership. Once molded into a bike’s frame or concealed under paint during manufacture, VerifiR’s technology is nearly impossible to remove or deface and much easier to scan than a traditional bicycle serial number.
Bike Index – the world’s largest and most successful bike registration and recovery system – will add VerifiR-protected bikes into its database of over 115,000 bicycles when the purchaser of a participating brand registers the bike through a scan. Stolen bikes embedded with VerifiR tags will also cross-list into the Bike Index upon theft, making the bike’s information immediately available to the thousands of partners who identify and recover stolen bikes every day.
Which means that your next bike could come with a VerifiR tag embedded in it. Or maybe you already have one, if you’ve purchased a new bike recently.
And you can add that information to any new or existing Bike Index registration to help ensure that your bike, like a lost puppy, can find its way back home.
Now let’s hope they’ll develop an aftermarket tag we can all add to our current bikes.
Full disclosure: While this site hosts the Bike Index bike registration and stolen bike reports, as well as a listing of bikes reported stolen in the LA area, neither it or its operators receive any form of compensation from Bike Index. Bicycle registration and reporting is offered as a free service to BikinginLA readers because we effing hate bike thieves, and look forward to the day when they have to find another line of work.
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Speaking of Bike Index, I was forwarded this good news/bad news online posting.
Good news, because they helped the owner get his bike back. Bad news, because the owner couldn’t get the time of day from the LAPD.
And frankly, we all deserve better than that.*
(Note: I’ve remove the name of the person who posted this since I haven’t been able to contact him.)
*Pro tip: When you report a stolen bike, include the value of everything you’ve added to it, including wheels, tires, racks, locks or bike computers. The higher the value, the more likely the police are to take it seriously — especially if the total exceeds the $1,000 threshold for felony theft.
………
A new book remembers British cyclist Tom Simpson, who died on the slopes of Mont Ventoux during the 1967 Tour de France.
Love strikes out, as the Belgian cyclist who asked his dream date out by writing it on his chest at the start of this year’s Giro d’Italia time trial ends up in the dreaded friend zone.
A nationally ranked junior cyclist from Philadelphia is fighting back after surviving a rare form of bone cancer, discovered when he walked with a limp after finishing 18th at last year’s junior nationals.
………
Local
KNBC-4 looks forward to this Sunday’s Glendale Meets Atwater Village CicLAvia. But it wouldn’t be a CicLAvia without the Militant’s guide.
If there’s more pressure on Long Beach bike thieves these days, it’s because they stole a city councilwoman’s bike.
A Long Beach letter writer says forget the bollards, because she seldom sees anyone using the green bike lanes they protect. Which is kind of like saying stop building sidewalks because there’s no one walking on them when you drive by.
State
A California bike rider waiting for X-rays describes being harassed and chased by a driver, while the driver ends up getting arrested.
A 69-year old Laguna Woods resident rode across the US this spring as part of a group ride, because he finds it relaxing. Bicycling has always been a form of moving meditation for me. Except when bad drivers intrude.
Santa Ana’s Bicycle Tree bike co-op will reopen in a new location this weekend.
Santa Barbara bicyclists can look forward to smoother riding in a couple weeks.
A San Francisco reporter says no, bikes aren’t express lanes for drivers trying to get around backed-up traffic — even if you’re driving a bus.
San Francisco approves parking protected bike lanes on upper Market Street.
Sad news from Siskiyou County, where a 61-year old woman died after she lost control of her bike on a descent and crashed into a tree.
National
Mobility Lab says businesses can’t afford to ignore customers on two wheels.
Curbed writes that ebikes could be the key to getting drivers out of their cars.
Streetsblog suggests male cyclists need to stop the “macho nonsense” directed at female riders.
Plan your vacation around where to ride through this summer’s total solar eclipse. And no, we won’t see it here in LA, dammit.
Bicycling offers quotes about cycling they think every rider should know. Although there’s a lot more where that came from.
For the second time this week, a woman riding a bike in Chicago’s South Loop district has been attacked by someone trying to steal her bag.
A memorial mass and ride will be held today to honor the victims of the Kalamazoo crash, a year after an alleged drugged driver killed five cyclists and injured four others. The woman who led that ride says she can’t let evil take her joy away.
Five Cleveland bike riders were injured when they were struck by a car this past weekend; the driver was arrested on the scene for aggravated vehicular assault and operating a vehicle under the influence.
A Boston survey says there are racial and cultural differences in how people see bikeways that should be taken into account in designing them.
A Connecticut town threatens to confiscate the bikes of scofflaw middle school students who have been terrorizing — or perhaps just infuriating — the populace.
International
An Op-Ed in the Toronto paper says unlike other disasters, traffic deaths have become normalized, with grave consequences.
Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour candidate for British prime minister in this week’s election, says owning more than one bicycle is extravagant.
Once again, a bike rider is hero. A London doctor was riding his bike home from work when he saw emergency vehicles rushing towards London Bridge, so he turned around and rode back to the Royal London Hospital, where he operated through the night trying to save 12 victims.
Statistically speaking, Britain’s roads are as safe today as they were a decade ago, despite a 23% increase in miles traveled by bicycle.
A writer for the Guardian says there’s something to be said for taking your time riding around the world.
Finally…
If you’re riding with coke and a concealed gun on your bike, stay off the damn sidewalk, and don’t make any illegal turns. Nothing like stealing own daughter’s bicycle, then recording her frantic search for it.
And was he blocked because he criticized the president, or because he rides a bike?
