Is the internet forum stronger than the lobbying group?

I only ask because over the last few days there has been a debate raging on londonbikers.com about what we can do to stop bike theft. That’s the actual aim… wipe out bike theft.

As ever with these things it was borne out of an emotional post on behalf of a loved friend who had their bike stolen – if you don’t own a bike you will never understand the literal love between the two of you, and when someone steals your bike – it’s like losing someone close. My wife is fully aware the bike comes first.

But my point is how on earth do you just ‘wipe out bike theft’? It’s stupid – you can’t – it’s an unobtainable goal… BUT… you can get councils to install more secure bike parking and put public pressure on the Home Office to put more resources and tougher sentencing into this particular area of crime.

The majority of the club members at the moment favour a very public, very noisy ride through central London – sending a message to the bike thief that “we’ve had enough… no more!”.

Yes that’s a very laudable goal… but who’s going to listen? The bike thief will just laugh at us, spot a couple of machines he fancies and follow us home to swipe dear Fireblade from my back garden.

But of course when people get caught up in the image of 200 riders bringing London to a standstill forcing the government to do something – they get carried away – about all we’ll achieve is getting arrested and giving bikers across the capital a bad name.

So how about this?

We get in contact with the BMF, use their help to lobby local councils – get them to install secure parking – get the bike press on our side and actually make something happen… then lobby the Home Office via our MPs to let them know how a significat number of their voters feel about this issue. Then, and only then, if we’ve been ignored we protest – properly.

So… is the internet forum stronger than the lobbying group? We should ride through London – perhaps that will achieve what people like the BMF have been trying to do for decades. What do they know?