The city is not giving up on its fight for a computerized registry system that could dramatically reduce the number of stolen bikes each year.

That idea, first proposed six years ago and still being held up by court challenges, would require bike dealers, pawn stores and other second-hand outlets to electronically register bicycles and other goods.

The system would be cross-referenced each day with a police computer system that records all stolen property.

Police say over 7,000 bikes are stolen each year across the GTA.

"We would have liked to have seen this in implementation last year," said Councillor Adam Giambrone, chair of the city's cycling committee. "Originally this was supposed to have been a one-year trial project, this goes back to 2004, so we should have seen it roll out.

"Every year [the program isn't implemented] it means thousands of bikes keep getting stolen because we don't have this program in effect."

A lower-court judge has upheld the city's plan, but that ruling is being appealed by a chain of re-sell stores that says the system is unworkable.

About 60 per cent of stolen bikes are resold in Toronto, police say, with the rest shipped overseas.