Industry fights motorcycle theft

New initiative designed to make motorcycle less attractive to thieves

Posted: 27 July 2012
by Visordown News

THE MOTORCYCLE Industry Association (MCI) has launched a scheme to combat the theft of over 26,000 motorcycles and scooters a year in the UK.

The MASTER Security Scheme is the first ever nationwide marking system and has been developed using Datatag technology, in conjunction with the Metropolitan Police force, supported by the Home Office.

It uses a sophisticated array of technology to give each component part a unique fingerprint. This involves a combination of visible and concealed elements, including hidden data dots, stealth etching and a number of transponders embedded into parts - similar to the technology that allows the chipping of cats and dogs.

MASTER is based heavily on the Cesar scheme, which Datatag launched to reduce the theft of construction and farm machinery. The Cesar scheme has a 100% success rate of prosecution, where machinery had been tagged.

Honda, Triumph, Suzuki, Kawasaki, BMW and Yamaha will introduce MASTER across their range of new models in the coming months and will absorb the cost themselves. All motorcycles and scooters from participating manufacturers will be registered on Datatag’s national secure database. This is updated continuously, which means the reporting of stolen vehicles is immediate.

If your bike is stolen and is part of the MASTER scheme, hopefully the police won't return you next door's cat.

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Discuss this story

Gaz66

About time!

Glad to see the industry we all love have at last got together to do something about motorcycle and scooter theft’s, so will insurance be cheaper?

Posted: 27/07/2012 at 10:40

Leon Trotsky

Great for new bikes - can it be retro-fitted and if so, how much?

Posted: 27/07/2012 at 13:26

cidercider

I suppose it all depends on the Police's enthusiasm with the scheme too. How many current police forces issue Datatag scanners to patrol cars???? Lets hear an answer to that before they hype up this latest scheme.......

Posted: 27/07/2012 at 13:27

Avalon

Of course it can be retrofitted, it's a Datatag kit re-branded :)

The only news here is that motorcycle manufacturers have decided that standardised security marking is something they need to include. Datatag already have the infrastructure to handle the registrations etc so it'd be a waste not to use it. 2012 Datatag kits can be had for £50 retail if you shop around, I imagine Honda etc will be paying a lot less. The only problem with this idea is if they standardise the transponder locations, that would be stupid.

Posted: 27/07/2012 at 14:18

pablo biscotti

Club rcing will suffer... a lot of racers and race teams will now lose their access to cheap spare parts.

GOOD MOVE by the industry.

Posted: 27/07/2012 at 17:01

mikeprytherch

Club racing will suffer... tough shit, why the hell should my pride and joy be used to fund a Sunday racer, why don't I just give them my salary, well done to the bike manufactures.

Posted: 27/07/2012 at 17:30

thoppa

I've Datatagged every bike I've owned since 1996, except a KTM, and guess what, the KTM got pinched. So I really think Datatag puts off thieves. But what happens when every bike is datatagged ? I don't think the thieves are gonna quit thieving, so no doubt they'll start to find ways around the Datatag protection, and it won't be such an effective deterrent. So I really hope the manuf. are gonna address this with other things like chipped keys + immobiliser as standard, like Yamaha already do. How about some kind of integrated gearbox lock ? Obviously it must not be possible to activate it while the engine is running (disaster !) and it must activate when the engine stops running, so the bike can't be wheeled away. Combined with an ignition immobiliser, this makes the bike fully immobile - it must be carried away. Why not ?

Posted: 28/07/2012 at 06:39

Nick Name 998

The gap between rich and poor in the UK is the widest in western Europe. We have more CCTV cameras than the rest of Europe put together. More bike theft per head of population as well.
Solution required to problem not supression of symptoms.

Posted: 29/07/2012 at 11:27

thoppa

Nick name - even in countries where the wealth gap is not great, there is still theft, as I'm sure you know. Some people have no moral code and prefer to be parasites than contribute. There is no simple solution ( I see you don't propose one ) so owners have to make it harder for the thieves. Manuf. have to make it less profitable and the Police have to provide a deterrent. I know from experience that it is the latter that is very much lacking. I think manuf could do more by putting coded chips inside engines so the engine will only run from a similarly coded ecu and coded clocks, and by putting anchor points on the frame/engine for a security chain. Gov't could do more by providing more secure parking, especially where it is paid parking. And we all need to do more by being vigilant. I wonder if there us a Facebook page for victims of motorcycle theft so they can post details of their stolen bikes ? Perhaps Visordown could start one ? Why not ?

Posted: 30/07/2012 at 06:09

ripsawII

Nick Name 998 - Spot on.

However I will still be keeping my bike locked up until we sort out society.
In the interests of equality this scheme should be made cheaply and easily available to owners of used machines otherwise the thieves will just shift their attention that way.

Posted: 30/07/2012 at 13:58

Jimnwendyuk

Modern technology is fantastic! But, it will only work if the police look for the stolen parts....Do they spend the money actively looking for stolen motorcycles and parts? In these times of cuts in policing, I don't think so....

Posted: 31/07/2012 at 14:33

Stephen Trigwell

There was a case not that long ago where a guy's bike was stolen. The bike had GPS tracking, what did the police do? Sweet FA. The guy had to track it down himself tell them where it was and when they eventually went to check it out there were several stolen motorcycles. If the police got off their arses they might have prevented some motorcycle thefts.

Instead the police have taken to arresting people who tweet at an Olympic diver "you've let your dad down". Where's the sense in that? The only solution is to cut thieves hands off, but that is too barbaric for this nanny state we live in. We're screwed, no amount of security makes you safe :(

Posted: 02/08/2012 at 13:30

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