Startup aims to pair millions of stolen bikes with their owners

A German startup focusing on protecting bicycles from theft has launched a new international online bike register which allows all owners to make their bikes identifiable - for free.

With 3.5 million bicycles stolen in Europe every year (six bicycles per minute), the registry reunites owners with recovered bikes - as long as they enter their details here.

The brand, model and frame number are required, increasing the chance that a stolen bicycle will be returned to its rightful owner.

Since launching the Bike-ID registry as a pilot project in Estonia in April 2015, the website already has over 5,500 registrations.

As the frame number of a bike is often removed from stolen two-wheelers to prevent identification of the bike’s owner, Bike-ID also provides a security marking kit which contains a security sticker indicating that the bike is marked and 300 titanium micro-tags the size of grains of sand (0.4 mm), each bearing the same registry code to help to identify the bike-owner.

The security marking can be added to bicycle frames of all materials and can be applied all over the two-wheeler. Currently, the pre-order price of this innovative security solution is € 9.99 on the Bike-ID website.

Meeri Klausen, CEO of Bike-ID, said, “The problem of bicycle theft is massive all over the world and, in most cases, there aren’t any solutions that help people identify stolen bicycles.

“We wanted to create tools that help identify and find bicycles, so that bike owners may be reunited with their stolen two-wheelers. That is how we developed the idea of a free bicycle registry and security marking.

“In the coming years we are focusing on expanding our solution in Europe after which, we are also looking forward to expand to US and Asian markets.”