Questioneering

To recap. We came across my boss’ stolen bike in a shop, but couldn’t prove it was his , as Evans had no record of the frame number.

I wrote to the MD and Ops Director about this, as I thought it wasn’t setting a very good example as a retailer. I’m pleased to say Mike Rice, the MD, emailed me just before Christmas about it and we exchanged a couple of mails.

He said that they’d be looking at expanding the functionality of their new IT systems now they are bedded in, and that they would like to find a process for recording frame numbers. So hopefully this is something they’ll be adding.

We also discussed registering bikes on Immobilise, the National Property Register. All cyclists should do this. I’ve spoken to a couple of City cycle coppers, and the say the first thing they do when they think they’re dealing with a stolen bike is look there to see if they can get an ID.

It’s completely free, and in my experience it takes less than a minute to get a bike entered onto the system. Do it.

I’m not a natural climber. I do look on with a touch of envy at cyclists who appear to be only slightly inconvenienced by the force of gravity.

Having decided to enter the Etape Caledonia with a few friends at work I feel the need to improve my ability to go uphill. North London has some slopes, so I decided to work out a route that would cover a reasonable amount of climbing so I can start my transformation into a (possibly slightly wheezy) mountain goat. I was looking for something that I could incorporate into a longer ride, or just loop around a few times.

The route I’ve figure out runs up Crouch Hill, up to Highgate, down Highgate West Hill, back up Swains Lane, over to, up & down Muswell Hill and then around Alexandra Palace, finishing up with the back of Muswell Hill. Once that’s done it’s mostly downhill back home. The loop is about 11 miles.

It feels like it packs in a respectable of climbing for the distance covered, and I can also add it onto an existing ride without too much hassle. The added advantage is you get some good views.

Provided there’s not actually ice out on the road I’m going to try to do it as frequently as possible in the run up to the Etape. I’m expecting that to be hard work but good fun, so long as it doesn’t get sabotaged again.

Image used under Creative Commons, courtesy of Robert Shepherd.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a work colleague’s stolen bike in for repair at a local shop. We spoke to them and they agreed to hold onto the bike while things got sorted.

We knew he’d originally bought the bike from Evans Cycles, but when we contacted the store he’d bought it from they told us they don’t keep serial/frame numbers for the bikes they sell.

I think that’s pretty poor. So much so, that I wrote to the MD and Operations Director. Here’s the text of the original letter. I’m yet to receive a reply; if I do I’ll post up their response.

To: Mike Rice, Managing Director
Cc: Andrew Terrington, Operations Director

November 12th, 2010

An appeal to log the frame/serial numbers of bikes sold by Evans Cycles

Hello to you both.

I’m writing to you following an incident that happened to a work colleague. Until recently he owned a Moulton bike, purchased from Evans in Spitalfields. Unfortunately it was stolen from our office secure bike store during a break-in a few weeks ago.

Yesterday, fortune was smiling on us, as we spotted it in a local bike workshop.

We called your Spitalfields store to ask for a frame number check, as this would have identified it as his bike beyond any doubt.

We were very surprised to find that according to that store Evans has no policy of recording frame numbers and logging them against a customer’s account.

Your store staff told us that there is no facility to record frame numbers on your computer systems, and this is a feature that they have asked for repeatedly.

As one of the UK’s biggest bike retailers I think you should be taking a lead in fighting bike crime. Being able to trace bikes back to their owners is an important part of dealing with it. Many people become very attached to their bikes, so the repercussions of bike theft go far beyond the material loss.

Can you please look into adding this simple step into your bike sales procedure, and your IT system capabilities as a matter of urgency.

I look forward to your response.

To my knowledge the original owner and the unfortunate (and we believe entirely innocent) person who bought it second-hand are still trying to sort things out.

Perhaps if you’re buying a new bike it’d be worth checking to see what details the store keeps, in the event it disappears.

My company has been involved in the set up of Internet Week Europe, which runs for the first time next week.

Personally, I’ve got involved in organising an all-day, casual, drop-in drop-out bike ride around some of the events on Thursday the 11th. Although lots of it is aimed at people who work in the “digital” industries, some of the events have a much broader appeal. Here’s some shameless linkage to our event and our own site with the route.

There’s a Twitter feed too. We felt real-time updates might be a Good Idea.

It should be a fun way to see some of the events and so long as you’ve got a bike then you’re in! I have no idea how many people will turn up, I suspect the weather will play a big part.

One way or another, it should be a laugh, anyway. Or a large blob of mechanical chaos. Who knows?