Tracking device for a bicycle

HurdyGurdy

Having had my bike stolen from work a few weeks ago (devastated!!) I want to protect my new one as much as possible.

I am thinking about some kind of tracking device which can be placed inside the frame, or hidden elsewhere on the bike.

Anyone got any recommendations please?

brat

I feel your pain. We took four bikes over to Italy on our family holiday. I had one stolen in Milan city centre two weeks ago and one stolen off my bike rack in a supermarket car park in Calais last week. Both were IMO pretty well secured for their value with bronze class locks. Both nice Trek women's hybrids, worth over £1,400. Unfortunately uninsured.

I'm looking at beefing up the locks. I've ordered this D-lock and this chain to hopefully deter the determined opportunist.

There are a couple of alarmed padlocks you could consider too, like this one by Oxford.

There are some GPS tracking devices lurking around the marketplace, but I'm not aware of any that have been taken on by the big retailers. By the time they've been tracked, the bike would be sold on, so they're not going to deter the thief anyway.

My preference will now be to used gold rated locks and insure the bikes. A quick check of my home insurance gives me cover for theft of bikes up to £1000 each for an extra £10 per year, so it's a (belated) no brainer.

[Deleted User]

Not a tracker, but there's this.

Weird_Nev

Bike trackers don't work. I promise you, they don't work. What are you going to do anyway? Follow the dot into a housing estate? Then what? Charge it every day on the offchance your bike gets nicked?

Just stop it getting nicked in the first place with a strong D-Lock locked through frame and wheel around a closed loop bike rack or very tall pole.

Mids_Costcutter

I guess that unlike a car a bicycle is more portable and much easier to hide, so as Weird Nev says a tracking device is not really a viable solution.

Definitely lock your bike to something immovable: I've learnt this the hard way. I'm sure at home many people store their bike(s) in a locked shed or garage but they're not locked to anything inside.

How was your bike locked when it was stolen at work?

GwylimT

I know the feeling, I'm on bike number four in almost seven years, the previous three have all been stolen! I now physically take my bike into work with me and leave it in a cleaning cupboard which isn't used during school hours, so when the children are gone I move it into a room so it doesn't get in the cleaners way.

When I think about the locks I had on my bikes, if they want to steal it they will, I never leave mine anywhere in public now, it's a shame really.

Richard53

If you want to make it 99% safe (it will never be 100%), then a motorcycle chain and lock from Almax (http://www.almax-security-chains.co.uk/) will do the job, wrapped through both wheels and frame and around a solid object. Check Youtube for clips of people trying and failing to break the chains with 6ft boltcroppers. But they are monstrously heavy, even for a motorcycle, and probably best kept permanently at the place you leave the bike.

Weird_Nev wrote: »

Just stop it getting nicked in the first place with a strong D-Lock locked through frame and wheel around a closed loop bike rack or very tall pole.

This is probably the best compromise between security and convenience, and will deter all but the most determined thieves.

dandelionclock30

With bikes what people have to understand is that even the best D lock can be removed with a battery operated angle grinder in 5 minutes or less. You can get these angle grinders for less than £80.00.
So I only leave mine for less than 5 minutes, to run in a shop etc and then I lock it right outside. My thinking is that if an angle grinder is used I will hear it. I use the D lock and a cable lock for just the front wheel.
If a person leaves a bike for long periods of time outside its only a matter of time before its stolen.
Also garages and sheds for expensive bikes are also a no, no. Again they will be taken eventually. All my bikes are in the house. If you have a very expensive bike then you need to consider something like a ground anchor as well for somewhere like a cellar.
I dont know abot trackers but if they really work then the main retailers would be selling them. Really to avoid your bike being stolen the main advice is dont leave it.

Weird_Nev

dandelionclock30 wrote: »

With bikes what people have to understand is that even the best D lock can be removed with a battery operated angle grinder in 5 minutes or less. You can get these angle grinders for less than £80.00.
So I only leave mine for less than 5 minutes, to run in a shop etc and then I lock it right outside. My thinking is that if an angle grinder is used I will hear it. I use the D lock and a cable lock for just the front wheel.
If a person leaves a bike for long periods of time outside its only a matter of time before its stolen.
Also garages and sheds for expensive bikes are also a no, no. Again they will be taken eventually. All my bikes are in the house. If you have a very expensive bike then you need to consider something like a ground anchor as well for somewhere like a cellar.
I dont know abot trackers but if they really work then the main retailers would be selling them. Really to avoid your bike being stolen the main advice is dont leave it.

Makes it a bit pointless having a bike though, no?

Remember, your bike doesn't have to be unstealable. It just has to be harder to steal than the equally nice bicycle parked next to it.

And a 'proper' D-Lock needs a petrol or generator powered cutting disc, and even cutting through one side the shackle and lock should be strong enough to resist twisting, so you have to cut both sides. I've met D-Locks (High end ABUS, Some Oxfrod branded locks, the new Kryptonite New Yorks) that will actually run out the battery of a hand held angle grinder before you get through them.

I've broken well over a thousand bike locks in my time - only an actual motorcycle grade chain (i.e. too heavy to carry on a pedal bike) or a top end ABUS completely defeated the resources we had to hand, but then most thieves prey on weak targets and if you present a well locked up bike with a solid D-lock they will move on to the next. Just don't attempt to leave a multi-thousand pound mountain bike in an urban area. Even if the frame is there on your return, the parts won't be.

Don't use a cable, anything with a combination, a weak chain or a cheap D-Lock and you'll be fine for any average bike. Much more important to lock it up carefully and in a safe location.

liamvad

Weird_Nev wrote: »

Makes it a bit pointless having a bike though, no?

Remember, your bike doesn't have to be unstealable. It just has to be harder to steal than the equally nice bicycle parked next to it.

And a 'proper' D-Lock needs a petrol or generator powered cutting disc, and even cutting through one side the shackle and lock should be strong enough to resist twisting, so you have to cut both sides. I've met D-Locks (High end ABUS, Some Oxfrod branded locks, the new Kryptonite New Yorks) that will actually run out the battery of a hand held angle grinder before you get through them.

I've broken well over a thousand bike locks in my time - only an actual motorcycle grade chain (i.e. too heavy to carry on a pedal bike) or a top end ABUS completely defeated the resources we had to hand, but then most thieves prey on weak targets and if you present a well locked up bike with a solid D-lock they will move on to the next. Just don't attempt to leave a multi-thousand pound mountain bike in an urban area. Even if the frame is there on your return, the parts won't be.

Don't use a cable, anything with a combination, a weak chain or a cheap D-Lock and you'll be fine for any average bike. Much more important to lock it up carefully and in a safe location.

My son has had 3 bikes stolen,but,not locked up,while he was riding it!!! 3 times in Slough,broad daylight,threatened with a knife on 2 occasions,police not interested as was Somali's,and difficult to ID,what can he do to stop this kind of theft? Its just heartbreaking he can't have a bike,as he lives in fear of it being stolen with menaces again.:mad:

Weird_Nev

That's robbery and police should be all over it like sauce on stew....