2. Let's say 15 shops in the 10 cities.
3. The third party will undoubtedly need to call the police. But what are you allowed to do until they arrive? And what will they do when they arrive?
4. Y'see, we aren't aiming to go to 289 cities. We're aiming to raise publicity and interact with bike shops in the areas of the country that a lot of bikers live. Individually approaching all the shops in the country isn't feasible and would be stupid. But joe average shop owner in nebraska will be much more likely to sign his shop up for the Bike Index if he knows a shop in NYC that he follows on twitter has.
5. We aren't looking for serious revenue through people paying for registration. Bike shops benefit when you visit them - so they're happy to get you in there. And we're giving iframe forms to bike advocacy organizations (like EBBC) so you can register on their site (for free). We also go to events and register bikes for free. But we think the service is valuable, and people are much happier getting a registration for free that would've cost 6.99 (which to us still seems like a pretty good deal - the national bike registry charges $10 and throws away your registration after 10 years).