Bike tracker ?
Posted by Short_Necessary_1750@reddit | ebikes | View on Reddit | 13 comments
anyone added tracker to their bike? proper one, so when someone is is riding your stolen bike on the other side of the city you can actually follow though and find it ?? if so, what brand you've got and how much is subscription ? thanks
Ok_Incident8962@reddit
Ask yourself what you would do if you tracked it and saw it was in a rundown apartment building or homeless encampment. Are you ready to risk an altercation on criminals home turf? My experience is Police won't help you search a home without a warrant. In my city they just say, well go steal it back or file a report.
The best case scenario is it can help in first few minutes if it is a joy rider, before airbag alerts themnitbis there. The real pros grind off locker chain, ride off in 1 minute, discover a tracker and no the tricks to find and get them off. Then it is bike in a storage unit and shipped to another city or state to unload.
I would say invest in a quality lock like Hiplok D1000, add a cable through wheels and seatpost. Anti theft hubs and like Pinhead system can save you from theft of seat, cockpit and shifters, wheels etc. The high DB alarms are not bad idea for short stops like coffee or a beer. Tracker can't hurt. If your bike is really high dollar get some theft insurance and record the serial number
Short_Necessary_1750@reddit (OP)
Gezass where do you live 😅😅😅
Ok_Incident8962@reddit
Major urban area with high bike theft, armed ebike jackings, homeless camps and basically neighborhoods where you don't want to show up banging on doors accusing people of theft. Glad all you Rambos are out there though, taking care of business!
Suit_Responsible@reddit
Park outside the apartment cal the cops, tell them your there. I have had to do it. Worked well
Ok_Incident8962@reddit
Police responses vary so much, even in same precinct person to person. Glad it worked for you!
Suit_Responsible@reddit
Most police departments will send someone reasonably quickly if you tell them someone stole it and I’m outside the thief’s house.
Elvy2006@reddit
I'll get the crew and go deep. Definitely worth it.
iHeartQt@reddit
Bosch Connect Module gives me peace of mind. $35 annual subscription for full cellular tracking, alarm, etc
ancientstephanie@reddit
For those saying AirTags, they are not "proper" trackers as they do not have their own GPS nor do they have long range communication.
They report too slowly unless they're already in lost/stolen mode, and if they're already in lost/stolen mode, the battery life is only a couple of days.
A thief can tell *exactly* where they are hidden in seconds by sniffing out the tag with an app on their phones, even if you've cut the speaker wires.
And, there's nothing to show where the bike actually is since it's reporting the location of the phone it pinged rather than the tag itself, and there's nothing to show whether the airtag still is with the bike. So the police can't use it unless it happens to lead them to where they can see the bike in plain sight.
You might get lucky with a particularly dumb thief, but a particularly dumb thief would have been stopped by a decent diamond-rated angle grinder resistant lock.
Curious_Party_4683@reddit
Airtag is the only solution I know without fees. I guess you can build your own with Meshtastic stuff too
Comfortable-Fly5797@reddit
No. Recovering a stolen bike isn't worth the risk to me and police in my area won't help recover a bike even if there's a tracker.
bubbleboix@reddit
Check out WheelKeep.
emaja@reddit
I put an AirTag in one of those holders that goes in the fork tube above the front tire. It’s hidden well enough that you’re not going to find it unless you know to look there. It blends in pretty well.