A Seattle vigilante who beats the police to bike thieves

Re:A Seattle vigilante who beats the police to bike thieves by uola on Tuesday September 06, 2016 @05:28AM (#12434616)

I think a better variation of that idea is embedding (or welding on) some sort of RFID chip in the frame that could be reported stolen or reprogrammed with a long code. Then you could search for stolen bikes in public places or put a automatic reader with a large siren on public bike paths and parking spots. Basically DRM for bikes.

It's might be challenging to make something that is cheap, long range (for RFID) and tamper proof of course.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:A Seattle vigilante who beats the police to bike thieves by pbhjpbhj on Tuesday September 06, 2016 @07:17AM (#12435125)

>embedding (or welding on) some sort of RFID chip in the frame //

Why not just a low tech BIN (Bicycle version of a Vehicle ID Number (VIN)) stamped in the frame on the upright. You could also have a QR version printed. A traffic warden then could scan a rack of bikes and find any "reported stolen" ones.

Bikes with no QR would look suspicious and you could check the BIN (as would QR-BIN not matching bike style, colour, location). The BIN could be changed, but then so could an RFID chip (or a tracker); ground off frames would also look suspicious and warrant additional investigation.

You'd have to convince bike manufacturers to add BINs to bikes, which is likely against their financial interests as they probably sell more new bikes if bikes are more often stolen.

[ Parent | on HN ]