General Cycling Discussion - License for a Bike

I recently got a Columbia road bike and it had a label on the seat tube, "Scotch Plains NJ Bicycle Lic. # 3562" (I may be off on the number). Does this mean that some townships issued licenses for bikes, like pets and other things? Unfortunately, I did not take a picture.

Some towns have police-registry programs to (somehow) deal with bicycle thefts.

How, exactly, did you "get" that bicycle!?!?

My early 1970's Peugeot frame came with a Palo Alto, CA license sticker on the seat tube. Used to be common as I recall, particularly in college towns and other high bike use areas but it has pretty much vanished now from what I read.

My old hometown did this. You give them a couple dollars - they give you a sticker with a serial number. On the police database is information that you give them including the bike's serial-number, make, model, so forth. It wasn't required - but if your bike was stolen and the thief abandoned it somewhere, then you would be notified. I used it back then. And I found a couple of bikes that someone had ditched out in the woods - with the stickers on 'em. The owners got their bike's back.

Before there were license stickers there were little metal license plates for bikes. They are now collectible and I have a thousand or two.

Ebay

http://shop.ebay.com/items/__bicycle-license_W0QQQ5ftrkparmsZ72Q253A1205Q257C66Q253A2Q257C65Q253A12Q257C39Q253A1QQ_trksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em1 4QQ_sopZ10QQ_scZ1

Those were quite common back in the 70's and are still around in some areas today. They were primarily to help get serial numbers registered in hopes of recovering stolen bikes. I have had many a bike stolen and only managed to recover a couple, usually on my own with no help from the police. Most of my older bikes do have them or have had them. A Twenty I recently purchased has a sticker from LaCrosse, WI on it.

I like to see the old bike shop stickers too.

Aaron:)

They are required by law in Irvine, doubt many are
License Requirements
No resident of the City shall operate a bicycle on any street, road, highway or other public property within the City unless such bicycle is licensed under the provisions of this chapter and bears a current bicycle plate attached thereto in accordance with this chapter. Nonresidents of the City are not bound by this section (Sec. 4-7-401, City Code).


I remember as a kid in Santa Clara in the 70's going to a fire station and paying my $3 to license my bikes. Four got stolen and I only got one back when I saw a kid riding it; knocked him off it and beat him up.

Some towns have police-registry programs to (somehow) deal with bicycle thefts.

How, exactly, did you "get" that bicycle!?!?

I bought it from CL,(No I did not steal it, :)) it had a totally rotten front tire/tube.
You can see the before/after pics on my blog (in my sig.) The before is not the same one, though.

They are required by law in Irvine, doubt many are
License Requirements
No resident of the City shall operate a bicycle on any street, road, highway or other public property within the City unless such bicycle is licensed under the provisions of this chapter and bears a current bicycle plate attached thereto in accordance with this chapter. Nonresidents of the City are not bound by this section (Sec. 4-7-401, City Code).


I remember as a kid in Santa Clara in the 70's going to a fire station and paying my $3 to license my bikes. Four got stolen and I only got one back when I saw a kid riding it; knocked him off it and beat him up.

Must be a ploy by the city fathers to generate extra income, before they figured out that just hiking regular traffic ticket rates will work much better.

Before there were license stickers there were little metal license plates for bikes. They are now collectible and I have a thousand or two.

Ebay

http://shop.ebay.com/items/__bicycle-license_W0QQQ5ftrkparmsZ72Q253A1205Q257C66Q253A2Q257C65Q253A12Q257C39Q253A1QQ_trksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em1 4QQ_sopZ10QQ_scZ1

Yes, I think I have seen them in gift shops, too.

I had one back in the '50s in Newton MA. It was green with white numbers, about 2" wide and 6" tall. It was mounted the rear fender of a Schwinn with a horn in the tank and a light on the front fender.

My folks bought it for my 10th birthday in 1955 from Harris Cyclery for $20. I had a big Wald paper-delivery basket in front and delivered papers for a couple of years.

I have one from UFPD (University of FL police)

I had one back in the '50s in Newton MA. It was green with white numbers, about 2" wide and 6" tall. It was mounted the rear fender of a Schwinn with a horn in the tank and a light on the front fender.

My folks bought it for my 10th birthday in 1955 from Harris Cyclery for $20. I had a big Wald paper-delivery basket in front and delivered papers for a couple of years.

I remember those, too. Most of the towns around there had those long ovalish-metal plates. Harris in the 1950's, eh? That must have been an episode from Leave It To Beaver! :lol: :D

I bought a bike last week in my parish (county for you non-Louisianans), and I was required to buy a license for $6.00. I think we were late to the party, and it seems we're late to abandoning licensing too. Go figure.

I've had quite a few bikes with the stickers, and one with the metal license plate. My town still sells the stickers, and I bought one last year for one bike, but with how often I switch bikes, it would be way to expensive to get them even for just the bikes I use.

LOL, I had a Columbia Tourist with a green license plate. I eventually sold that bike, it was a boat anchor.
Ernest

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b396/Gordo_Ruckus/Picture2804.jpg

I had one back in the '50s in Newton MA. It was green with white numbers, about 2" wide and 6" tall. It was mounted the rear fender of a Schwinn with a horn in the tank and a light on the front fender.

My folks bought it for my 10th birthday in 1955 from Harris Cyclery for $20. I had a big Wald paper-delivery basket in front and delivered papers for a couple of years.

Wish you had a pic of it.

Topeka, Kansas requires all bicycles to be licensed, which really just means registered. All you do is take your bike to any fire station and they fill out a little form and slap a sticker on it. It's free, and I've never heard of anyone suffering any kind of repercussions for failing to do it.

Topeka, Kansas requires all bicycles to be licensed, which really just means registered. All you do is take your bike to any fire station and they fill out a little form and slap a sticker on it. It's free, and I've never heard of anyone suffering any kind of repercussions for failing to do it.

True but in some areas the police can use the lack of a visible license as "cause" for a stop and request for ID.
A few years back the drug dealers in this town were using 20 inch bikes to make deliveries to customers on street corners or in houses. But none were smart enough to comply with the bicycle licensing ordnance so the police could simply stop them and get names. A few were legally searched and then arrested.
That put a bit of an end to the drug dealers using bikes in the city.

True but in some areas the police can use the lack of a visible license as "cause" for a stop and request for ID.
A few years back the drug dealers in this town were using 20 inch bikes to make deliveries to customers on street corners or in houses. But none were smart enough to comply with the bicycle licensing ordnance so the police could simply stop them and get names. A few were legally searched and then arrested.
That put a bit of an end to the drug dealers using bikes in the city.

The visible license requirement wouldn't work in Baton Rouge because the LBS puts the sticker underneath the bottom tube.

Here, the LBS submits the license. The bike won't get out the store without it. That means no trips to a fire station.

When I was a kid we had to get our bikes registered. And they had a bike patrol. Which was a few kids that had the right to give other kids a ticket for not following the rules of the road.

I live in Topeka, KS and they just recently made it required to have your bike registered. It has always been an option but it just recently became required. I think it's outrageous. They've actually ticked people for not having their bikes registered and after court costs it's a $76 fine! Unbelieveably ******** in my opinion.

In the 80's I diligently got a license for my Bridgestone MB-2. It got stolen. I filed a complete police report with license number. I bought an 87' Bridgestone MB-1 for a replacement. A few days later I found the MB-2 locked up. It was a Friday evening. I flagged down a police officer and explained everything to him. He told me he could not get a lock smith out until Monday and that was it. I went and got a wire cutter and stole my bike right back. It was also the last time I ever got a license for a bike. I also sold the MB-2 as it was love on first ride with the MB-1.

Maybe I should have thanked that thief...

When I was a kid I had a license plate on my bike that said JIMMY on it...

Before there were license stickers there were little metal license plates for bikes. They are now collectible and I have a thousand or two.

Ebay

http://shop.ebay.com/items/__bicycle-license_W0QQQ5ftrkparmsZ72Q253A1205Q257C66Q253A2Q257C65Q253A12Q257C39Q253A1QQ_trksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em1 4QQ_sopZ10QQ_scZ1

Used to get them in boxes of Honeycomb cereal back in the 70's. Used to have a dozen or so. Wonder whatever happened to those...

When I lived in Kyoto, Japan a couple of years back, I found out that you had to get a bicycle license. In fact, when I bought a used bike, I was required to pay for registering the bike at the shop, about $10-20 if memory serves correct.

One thing that took me by surprise in Kyoto was that the police periodically stop cyclists and see if their registration matches the information they give. I had lived in Tokyo for a couple of years and they had never done anything like that, but then Kyoto is small enough to just use a bicycle for your primary means of transportation.

Anyway moving on, bike theft is pretty rampant in Japan, usually just some drunks not wanting to walk home. Long story short, my bike was stolen. Being American, I look it for granted that it was gone forever. Low and behold a few months later, I got a call from the police saying they recovered my bike. Mind you, it was a piece of cr*p, but I was happy to get it back. Granted the stolen bicycle was probably just abandoned on the side of the road and then picked up by the police, as opposed to the police actively investigating and pursuing the bicycle thief.

Point of this too long narrative, I'm all in favor of bike registration/licensing if it works the way it should, versus just another way to get money for local government.

Point of this too long narrative, I'm all in favor of bike registration/licensing if it works the way it should, versus just another way to get money for local government.

The reason I don't agree with it is because I've never seen it work the way it was supposed to. I've heard of multiple people getting $76 worth of fines, but never once have I heard of anybody getting their bike back.