[rola643]

It's been debated with some heated discussions before but it's always good to keep current and aware. Be proactive and keep ahead by being aware and don't let the little things creep up and be taken away from you.

Road Rights » Blog Archive » License To Ride | Bicycling.com

[Poolie]

To me it's just Uncle Sam with his hand out again.

[photosbymark]

Well it is really a jobs program. They want to hire 10 bureaucrats at 75,000 a year and of course a supervisor that makes 100k and an administrator that makes 250k to run a program that provides 1000 licenses at $25.

It's a lot like the airline industry. We lose money on every single seat that leaves the ground, but we make up for it on volume. Yeah that works.

[worthlees]

Easy now, we'll have black suv's & helo's shadowing us!!
rola643 Your right about keeping up on events that the dreaded 435 that make laws for
the sheep to follow, like it or not.
Poolie Most likely someone looked at the number of bikes sold each year, used their
magical "left handed" calculator to figure out that the 435 could have a 50% salary raise
by penning a license law for bikes.

[Digital_Cowboy]

I like myth #2:

Myth #2: Cyclists don’t pay their way.
We do pay to maintain roads through taxes like the one on gas that we fork over when we fill our tanks. Therefore, we expect equal access to the infrastructure in which we’ve invested.

Uh, correct me if I'm mistaken but most of the funding for the roads does NOT come from the gas/registration/licensing fees. But rather property tax, sales tax, and income tax, at least for the surface roads. Which are the roads that we cyclists ride on. And if I am not mistaken, don't "we all" pay those taxes in one form or another?

[Moto700]

Houston had a bike registration program that was optional. $1.00 for life for each bike. made it easy for the police to identify your bike by serial number and you got a big yellow sticker to put on the bike. Yes, it could be scraped off but then whoever had the bike would have to explain the missing paint spot and why they had a stolen bike. Also made insurance claims easier. Alas, that program is no more.

[Digital_Cowboy]

Originally Posted by Moto700

Houston had a bike registration program that was optional. $1.00 for life for each bike. made it easy for the police to identify your bike by serial number and you got a big yellow sticker to put on the bike. Yes, it could be scraped off but then whoever had the bike would have to explain the missing paint spot and why they had a stolen bike. Also made insurance claims easier. Alas, that program is no more.

We have a registration program here in St. Petersburg. There's no charge for it, and sadly it's just a piece of paper and scotch tape. It's not anything that would be noticed if it was removed. Now the label that I got from the National Bike registry THAT would be noticed if it were tampered with.

[Moto700]

Originally Posted by Digital_Cowboy

We have a registration program here in St. Petersburg. There's no charge for it, and sadly it's just a piece of paper and scotch tape. It's not anything that would be noticed if it was removed. Now the label that I got from the National Bike registry THAT would be noticed if it were tampered with.

National Bike Registry? Didn't know about that. Thanks for the info.

[Moto700]

I forgot to mention I do have my bike registered, along with my cell phone and laptop, on a site called Stuffbak. Again it won't prevent someone from stealing your bike but will make an insurance claim easier.

[Digital_Cowboy]

Originally Posted by Moto700

National Bike Registry? Didn't know about that. Thanks for the info.

You're welcome, when I bought my Specialized Hardrock at my LBS and purchased their Platinum package I got something like a 10 year registration with them.

When I registered my Hardrock with the St. Pete police they ran a check on the SN to verify that it wasn't stolen and then gave me that nice stylin' piece of paper and a piece of scotch tape to "secure" it in place.

I guess it's better than nothing, of course some 6 or so years later I don't think that that little piece of paper is in very good shape. But hopefully by having registered my bike if someone else were to attempt to register it, it would come up as having been stolen.

One sad/sorry note is that here in Florida if a person has something stolen and it is found in a pawn shop they have to (adding insult to injury) either buy it back or go to court and get a court order "forcing" the pawn shop to return it to the rightful owner.

I know about this, because just recently a woman who bought a nice road bike from the LBS that I regularly do business with. She got a call from the police letting her know that her bike had been found, and that it was located at a pawn shop. She was however (and I'd say rightly so) shocked to learn that she would have to buy it back, or go to court (and pay court fees) to get a court order forcing the pawn shop to return it to her.