Bike Registry Sunday—Merger Edition

In what I hope will be the first of many mergers, StolenBikeRegistry.com (SBR) and BikeIndex.org have joined forces. As Bike Index founder Seth Herr announced in a June 13 news release,

"We've combined the most sophisticated, user-friendly bicycle registry and the longest running and most successful stolen bicycle recovery service—creating the largest and most effective bike registry in the galaxy."

A tad hyperbolic, perhaps, but the post-merger force-to-be-reckoned-with will, as SBR founder Bryan Hance wrote, be able to "cover both pre- and post-theft registration" while, to paraphrase Herr, making it even easier for Hance to keep doing what he does best—recovering bikes (more than 2,000 since 2005!).

Personally I think we need more of this, more unification/consolidation of efforts to combat bicycle theft. In fact, shortly before I learned of the SBR/Bike Index merger I was contemplating the possibility of convening a bike theft summit of some sort, perhaps in connection with an existing meeting (the National Bike Summit?). I've been struck since launching Bike Thieves Beware in September 2013 by how many people are separately passionate about reducing bike theft, and I can't help but think that we'd make more headway if we worked together. So, kudos to SBR and Bike Index for starting to make that happen.

Oh, also: If, as I did the day my Cannondale was stolen, you've registered a bike on StolenBikeRegistry.com, don't worry. As SBR's Bryan Hance indicated in a June 17 email to registrants, all of SBR's listings have been ported into the Bike Index platform where they can be managed following a quick and presumably painless verification of email address.

Haven't registered with either Stolen Bike Registry or Bike Index? Show your trusty steed some love today.