GPS tracker

I don't have a link for it, but I recently saw a news story about one the size of a quarter, that sticks on to the bike. Very hard to notice that. Texts you if the bike moves. Locates it to 2.5 meters. Not sure if it's actually in stores yet.
 
For anyone interested in this (by the replies I think not) and lives in UK

You can get a GiffGaff sim for the tracker and a GIffGaff sim for a spare phone and all calls and texts are free. Which basically means free tracking and no top ups required.
 
What gps device do you use? What do you mean under the sprocket?

How long does it last before recharging battery?
 
Sorry about mentioning the vaporware. Part of my job now is to read all of it. I forgot that one was a crowd funder thing.
 
I have been using the Garmin but the service didn't last, they abandoned it for lack of interest.

I have been using a small cell phone hidden on the bike, does fine but with minimal functions and poor battery life.

I am thinking of trying a pet tracker next, or one of those very small kid tracker that is common in Russia.

There is a bicycle tracker tail light for cheap on DX, but it doesn't look like it would survive very long on my bikes.

Cell phone services usually offer a yearly plan for 100$ that includes unlimited txt mssgs. So I believe AGPS txt is the cheap and secure way of tracking, realtime map tracking have been buggy for me with all but the Garmin.
 
A GPS locator can be a great tool, but.....
Someone stole your bike, now you know where it is, up to a house or three or an apartment building. Now what?
Call a cop? If you get one to investigate and retrieve you are very lucky. Cops in general just don't have the time or resources to track done everyone's stolen goods, even if you know where it is (gps) they still have to get a search warrant. Can't just go busting doors down looking for bikes. They won't be bothered.
That leaves it up to you. Are you prepared to confront the thief of your bike? Are you going to bust down a door to get it?
Do you have a gang of friends with guns? Career thieves often do.
I bring this up because of a tragic event similar to this happening in Toronto earlier this spring.
Guy(teen) gets robbed of his iPhone. No problem, they have an app for that. Uses the iPhone locator, finds out where his phone is, tries to retrieve it and gets stabbed to death. That's when the cops finally stepped in to help.

The GPS my help you locate it, but are you ready to deal with a feinding crackhead to get it back.
 
MadRhino said:
I am thinking of trying a pet tracker

I use Marco Polo for my MR (multi-rotor) aircraft. Basic RF no cell or GPS required but range is limited. Open field I've tested it up to 2 miles (3.22km) but in a dense city environment it's much less. It really depends if it's buried inside a building or not. I've never tested it inside a car which may limit the RF even more. However, if it can see the tag it's extremely accurate.

They also offer an RC tag about 1/4 the weight (12g) of the pet collar tag (45g) but it's not water resistant and doesn't have as much battery life as the Pet tag. Battery life on pet tag is pretty good though - 30 days standby, around 3 days tracking when activated.

One cool feature is that it can monitor up to 90 days which means it will trigger an alert if the tag leaves a predefined boundary. There is also an alarm output so this opens the door for alarm alert followed by close-in tracking.
 
I suppose that's one of the benefits of living in the UK. Next to no chance of a thief owning a gun.
also the police here ain't got anything better to do than arrest people so I suppose if just call them.

What would I do if I knew which house my bike was at?

Lots of things...... :wink:
 
I will be using a 3 stage defence system for my bike

Stage 1
Fahgettaboutit kryptonite u lock

Stage 2
Motion sensitive remote controlled 110db alarm

Stage 3
GPS305 hidden in headset as previously discussed


Can't really do much more than this to protect your bike.
 
You can do more, don't park it unattended most places. Certainly not in front of a pub after dark.

Or, you can ride a frankenbike, that can literally be left unlocked anywhere. A buddy of mine made his motorcycle ugly enough to park at the bar with the keys in it. Nobody ever took it. But shiny Harleys parked next to it did.

re the tracker, what do you do now when you know where your bike is?

1 find out who has it.
2 follow him around some, from quite a distance.
3 let the cops know when he is in the act again. He'll steal again very soon. They might be interested, if they can catch him that easy. They might be really interested, if you can lead them to his fence.
 
http://www.cyclelicio.us/2015/uglifly-your-bike-does-it-work/ :?
Article from a guy who is skeptical about the ugly bike to deter thieves. My bike is dirty and ugly but makes easy wheels for a thief. :evil:

To make your bike less likely a target for bike thieves, you’re told to sloppily rattle can and sticker your frame. I knew a guy who completely wrapped his frame in duct tape, which very effectively uglified it.
I’ve long been skeptical of the usual advice to “uglify” your bike to make it less appealing to thieves. When I look at stolen bikes recovered by police they’re almost always ugly. Take a peek at the bikes in the Santa Cruz PD property room.
Indeed, one of the takeaways from this story about Sacramento bait bikes seems to be: don’t bother.
The value, type and condition of the approximately 20 bait bikes varies, [Sacramento Police Sgt Rachel] Ellis said, adding that thieves are as likely to steal an inexpensive bike as an expensive one.
“It’s pretty surprising,” she said. “Even some that don’t look that appealing are getting stolen.”
Bait bikes are bikes equipped with GPS trackers and left in areas with high bike theft and other property crimes. Police track the bikes, find the perps, and arrest them.
If bike theft is a problem in your area, other tidbits in that story might help convince your local P.D. to start a bait bike program. According to the Sacramento police sergeant who runs the program, the bait bike program is supported by local businesses who see a focus on low-level crimes like this improve the quality-of-life overall. Police believe the suspects they arrest are guilty of other property crimes as well. They might not have sufficient evidence to prosecute for shoplifting, but the bait bike theft is an easy conviction.
Bait bike programs are also a high-profile way to let potential criminals that the police are watching. San Francisco Police, which also runs a bait bike program, distributed 25,000 “Is This A Bait Bike?” stickers to cyclists. These stickers are also on the real bait bikes. They report bike thefts are down 8.5% in San Francisco over the past year. I suppose these stickers can be considered a variation on uglifying.
Read more in the Sacramento Bee: Sacramento police say bait bikes’ crime-fighting role goes beyond deterring bicycle thefts.
 
Brentis said:
A GPS locator can be a great tool, but.....
Someone stole your bike, now you know where it is, up to a house or three or an apartment building. Now what?
Call a cop? If you get one to investigate and retrieve you are very lucky. Cops in general just don't have the time or resources to track done everyone's stolen goods, even if you know where it is (gps) they still have to get a search warrant. Can't just go busting doors down looking for bikes. They won't be bothered.
That leaves it up to you. Are you prepared to confront the thief of your bike? Are you going to bust down a door to get it?
Do you have a gang of friends with guns? Career thieves often do.
I bring this up because of a tragic event similar to this happening in Toronto earlier this spring.
Guy(teen) gets robbed of his iPhone. No problem, they have an app for that. Uses the iPhone locator, finds out where his phone is, tries to retrieve it and gets stabbed to death. That's when the cops finally stepped in to help.

The GPS my help you locate it, but are you ready to deal with a feinding crackhead to get it back.
Yeah thats what I have thought about, one idea I had would be to have the GPS tracker inside your ebike battery so that it can survive a long time to give location.
Wiring extra gear into your ebike battery is really easy since a single cell is the same voltage as a single cell on your ebike for most phone based gear or any kind of GPS gear the voltages can be matched easily as their often deliberately designed to be high tolerance of their expected input voltage.

Also with the GPS system in the ebike battery pack have additional circuitry that would allow you to via the convenience of the GPS tracking app on your iphone/Android be able to click a 'Short ebike battery' button on the app so that once your outside the thieves location you can cause your ebike to burts into ultra smokey flames and either depending you your mood try and murder the thief or if a firetruck arrives claim your ebike back... There would be no evidence either that you did any evil because the device would of been one of the first things to get burned to bits...

I wired in this simple vibration alarm on my ebike battery, its already seems to have saved some of my gear being taken as someone fully ripped my helmet mirror off my helmet (including the base bit which is very well glued to the helmet) And I am sure it was deliberate as it was done with so much force that it tore the rather thick double sided rubber sticky stuff that is on the mount base of the helmet-mirror right in half...

Its is always locked up with my ebike but weirdly the thief decided to leave it there with the ebike. I decided the only reason he decided to rip it off and then leave it there was because he triggered the alarm and being startled he decided to just bail instead of being caught with anything..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=278x4zyGdwg
The alarm is loud and as you can see after I arm it I fully hesitated on deliberately triggering it as it happened to be late at night..
 
It’s true about a nice looking HD parked by some ratted-out rice grinder. My 34 yr old shit-box-moto is downright scary looking and it’s the last thing those guys in vans with an oil covered floor will consider nabbing….

But when it comes to “junkie” bicycle theft in dense urban areas I believe those low-lifes will often target crap bikes assuming the owner won’t go through as much trouble to find it and prosecute if they do. Plus crappy bikes fit in better to their immediate environment and acquaintances.

I firmly believe it doesn’t matter what lock or counter-measure you employ. If you leave a bicycle parked in public long enough, it’s gonna get stripped and/or stolen.

People steal. Pure and simple. Only certain method to know it’ll be there when you need to ride home is to park it behind locked doors, alarm and monitor (CCTV) the area.
 
Ykick said:
Only certain method to know it’ll be there when you need to ride home is to park it behind locked doors, alarm and monitor (CCTV) the area.

I'd have to say that's not even enough, really--if you want to be sure you'd have to keep it with you. ;)
 
So. Looks like (local to me, in Toronto, Canada) "Mini GPS Tracker GPS GPRS GSM Vehicle Car Tracking" currently for $50. Seen here:
http://www.dobuydirect.com/collecti...-tracker-gps-gprs-gsm-toronto-gta-mississauga

I assume install and monthly monitoring fee extra...
Thinking is to install... somewhere on trike frame. (Watts better than deterring theft? Catching a thief. Hehe) Anyway, it'd take many months before equaling the cost of any lock, chain, wattEVer. `Been sorta getting used to/liking not having to carry any lock or find somewhere (not always handy) to lock up to. Having to carry a key around... etc.

:)

01_afb384a9-0dde-413f-8c92-31dcf94c7945_large.JPG
 
Can this GPS303E thing from aliexpress also cut off the engine etc? Would be awesome. Better than this 2 key spy lock thing...
 
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