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Bicitronic

Bicitronic Id V1.0 is a bike theft deterrent system that was first introduced in Barcelona in 2001. It has now also been adopted by other Spanish cities including San Sebastian and Seville, with Vitoria also soon to be added to the list.

The system is based on a bicycle register held by the respective city council and a series of bicycle marking elements, the ‘key’ of which is an identification rivet.

Each rivet is laser-etched with a unique ID code, which is attributed to a bicycle owner when they sign up to the scheme. They can either be fixed into one of the water-bottle holes already in the customer’s frame, or a new hole can be drilled, by an authorized Bicitronic outlet, to fit the rivet. The rounded head and hardened steel make-up of the rivets mean they can not be removed from a bicycle without destroying the frame.
Additional to the installation of the rivet, cyclists who sign up to the scheme, have their bicycle fitted with an ‘irremovable’ identification sticker also showing the registration details.

These use a strong adhesive and are fabricated from a metal foil and will always tear in small fragments, should anyone try to peel them off the frame, once applied. The last on-bike elements are brightly coloured Bicitronic awareness-stickers, supplied to warn others who see the bike that the it is registered.

BuscaBicis (‘bicycle search’) www.buscabicis.com is the technological component that supports the Bicitronic scheme. This website forms the front end of the server which contains all the data of the registered bicycles in the participating cities and also data any of those cycles, which have been reported stolen.

Provider
Bicitronic, in partnership with respective city councils (who access the database info) and cycle shops (who install the rivets and register the customers/ bikes).

Approximate Cost per Bike
€10–15. (£7.50-11.50)
The initial pilot in Barcelona riveted and registered approximately 250 bikes free off charge, to kick-start the initiative.

Strengths
• Low cost
• Inoffensive, simple and durable intervention to the bicycle
• Suitable for bike repairs
• Supports a wide range of bicycles
• Some stands are foldable and portable
• Rivet fixture is secure and will devalue stolen bike upon attempted removal
• Single-system integration with city councils ensures greater database efficiency and improved chance for cycle capture and return

Weaknesses
• Ultimately this kind of system only helps protect the frame and does nothing towards preventing component theft, without the whole bike being taken
• No active tracking of bikes – system still dependent on stolen bikes being chanced upon
• Unclear on mechanisms in place for registered users to legitimately sell their bike and re-register to a different user

Useful References
www.bicitronic.com
www.buscabicis.com
www.bcn.cat/registrebicicletes/es
www.donostia.org
www.youtube.com