Bike rodeo promotes bicycle registration

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- The idea of a bike rally isn't exactly new to New Ulm, but the last time local police put one on was when Bill Clinton was president.

And the last time they registered bicycle serial numbers, Ronald Reagan was still in his first term nearly 20 years ago.

Hoping to address what seems an ongoing annoyance -- bicycles that disappear and then reappear seemingly without owners -- a contingent from the New Ulm Police Department set up shop in the Vogel Arena parking lot, along with some parents and a bike repair tech from a local sporting goods store.

The rodeo consisted of four tables, staffed with both active and reserve NUPD officers, which allowed anyone from toddlers to grown adults to register the serial numbers on their bikes, get their helmet sizes checked and look their bikes over for maintenance problems.

A small obstacle course, made up of NUPD traffic cones, stood a few feet away. Some kids, looking to be about the age for elementary school, carefully weaved their way around the cones while Cpl. Rich Hoffman looked on. The kids receive certificates after they finish the course.

The idea behind the course is to teach riders how to handle certain situations, like quick stops and how to steer around obstacles, very much like a driver's ed class does.

Booklets explaining New Ulm's local ordinances were also being handed out, as were juice and cookies.

Susan Willis and her 8-year old daughter were one of the many child-parent teams that went to the rodeo. Willis said she decided to go after her daughter brought home a letter about the event from school.

"I'm here because my daughter wanted to come and I thought it was a good idea," she said, sitting a top a green 10-speed. "It's nice to have our bikes registered too."

Officer Dave Borchert of the NUPD said the rodeo was an assignment he received from Police Chief Howard Zins, who evidently decided to put it on after several parents complained about the problem.

Borchert, who handles a good deal of NUPD's stolen property cases, said the very kids who have their bikes stolen also come forward with complaints.

One complaint Borchert has with stolen and found bicycles is finding the owners. He estimated that NUPD has auctioned off over 70 unclaimed bicycles in the past year. The number of unclaimed bikes sometimes gets so high, Borchert said, that the police department is forced to rent space from the city at Vogel Arena just to store them all.

As a remedy, all the people who registered their bicycle filled out cards giving their names, addresses, phone numbers and descriptions of their bikes. In return, they received stickers with serial numbers on them, which Borchert said will go into a NUPD database.

"It's not unreasonable to say we see one per day whether they're stolen or found," said Borchert when asked about the rate of bicycle thefts in New Ulm. "That's a gut-level average."

Typically, summer is the high season for bike thefts, but Borchert said reports of both lost and found bikes have been coming in year-round because of this year's mild weather.

"We've had the most found property ever because of the mild winter. Usually, it tapers off once the snow hits the ground," Borchert said.

Borchert said NUPD plans to hold the rodeos annually and intends to add on to the rodeos in the future.