I am way out of touch with the latest trackers for bikes, and the way they work with mobile phones as a warning system. Can anyone provide a rapid synopsis of the sort of stuff available and its pros and cons? My general impression is that most alarms just drain the battery and when they go off, no one cares. What you'd want is a tiny tracker that would have batteries lasting years, which you could hide on the bike easily and would require no wiring. It would tell you when your bike was moved and where it was, accurately. Does such a thing exist now? Do the trackers work Europe-wide and do they require huge annual subscription costs?
Hi Glidd i got BikeTrac on my 848. It's a subscription service which is £99 a year but a lot cheaper if you buy for longer (£229 for 3 years). It's wired into the battery on the bike but has its own power supply should the link be cut or battery run flat (although it will tell you that the voltage is low). Theres a small benefit in terms of insurance but I enjoy the peace of mind. You can also looks back at journeys you've made which is good if you were following your nose and found a good road. When it's set up you put in your contact details and those of anyone you want to be included (my wife in my case) and it will text and email you if the bike is moved without the system being deactivated (ignition being turned on). You also get a call fromRoad Angel themselves who run the system.....this all happens within about 2 minutes of the bike moving. There's also an alert if the bike goes down so in theory if you crash on an empty road someone will know about it. I think its a great system......https://www.roadangelgroup.com/biketrac.aspx have a look
+2 for the BikeTrac. Got it fitted to my Multistrada 1200s and the girlfriend's Diavel. Text and email if it moves followed by a phone call if the movement is persistent. As MrAliT has said you can go to their web page, log in and see a breadcrumb trail of where you have been. Supposed to be extra for European cover but when we went to Le Mans we never lost sight of the bikes on the map. It works on both MMS and Sat Nav and the only issue we have experienced in 2 years is when TMobile and Orange teamed up and they started to remove phone masts where we live. Not had a problem since though. Andy
Ive got an old iPhone 4. I'm tempted to strip it down and plant it under my tank or somewhere and use 'Find My iPhone' app as a tracker.
That would be neat, but how will you charge the thing, or just leave it there for rides, I suppose? The reddit post on the security chain thread seemed to imply that any thief worth his salt will go all over the bike with a fine tooth comb to remove tracking devices. They seem quite clued-up, although you also have to admit that many thieves are as thick as pigshit, which is, presumably, why they are thieves in the first place.
You can buy a charger from ultimate and have it wired in full time. Simplez. If I can get off my arse and do something I might just do it over the spring and see how it goes. Plenty of cheapish old iphones out there if someone else wants to have a go.
I work on the theory that most bikes get nicked by being stuffed into the back of a van, whether alarmed, tracked or locked; so as most Ducatis, including mine are on a side stand and it has to be moved upright to flip the stand up, I have a hidden 100+ db siren on mine which is activated by a hidden mercury switch as soon as the bike is started to be moved upright.......Hopefully it would give me enough warning if someone was fiddling with it....or it might make them leave it alone as it has two red flashing leds when armed as well....there is no battery draw other than the two leds until it goes off.
The idea is you bury the thing in the nose cowl or under the tank. Common practice (apparently) is for your average scrote to nick a bike and stash it for a couple of days to see if its got a tracker on it before taking it away. Even if they do try and find it its going to take them half an hour so you should have time to get the message, call the fuzz telling them you can see where the perps are with your ride and get down there before it disappears. There's a few instances of a bike being tracked to a garage where there's been a couple of other nicked bikes too.....I think the police are rather keen on them as they can solve a crime quickly!
I desperatly wanted a tracker for my track bike, a 996, but the more I looked at it the more I realised with a couple of tools (screwdriver and allen key) there was nowhere I could hide it that I couldn't get to in under 5 minutes. So by the time I'd recieved the message and got to where my bike was I'm sure I'd just find a tracker on the floor and no bike. Plus there was the thought of, do you advertise it's tracked, giving the toe rags chance to look for and find it, or leave it stealthy but risk it being nicked, pulled appart and still being left with just finding a tracker on the floor. Cars have loads of places to hide the hardware, the 996 certainly doesn't. I don't know about some of the newer stuff but it's something to think of before spending any money.
IMHO... lock first, then immobiliser, then alarm, then tracker get cheap iphone, one off eThief with broken screen, for a few quid. fit it under ECU. wire it direct to battery, take time to wrap wires into loom so it doesn't look too obvious to toe-rags turn off 3G to save power use findMyPhone when every you feel you need to... Cheers, Bob
Not saying it's the answer but thought it was clever. Mobile Phone Alarm for a motorbike, car or anything you want Cheers gaz
And how do you think find my phone works? By the time you've bought the broken phone and paid for a simple card which will allow you to find the phone using 3g you might as well have the proper tracker surely?
I usually leave an old phone on the tank and a note asking the thief ( they are usually thick ) to hit button 9 and this auto dials my phone . simples. edit to add...... tramadol and cocdamol.
Errr... Find My Phone works by sending TCP/IP packet switch data over a cellular network... (or 802.11 but I'll leave that bit out) Cellular does not necessarily mean 3G as 2.5G uses GPRS for packet switched data. As 3G does its multiplexing using CDMA, not TDMA, it runs a more complex algorithm; as it has to constantly measure signal strength, unlike GSM (2 / 2.5G) which use a different freq for each neighbouring cell. So turning off 3G doesn't mean you can't have packet switched data, but it does mean you'll get more out your battery... So that's the simplified version of how "find my phone" works... Bob
My siren alarm cost about £10 to make....Assuming the naughty people can't get to the wiring, it should be enough to put them off ----hopefully. AL
:biggrin: I didn't understand any of that so I'm going to assume you know a lot more than me and say sorry. I'd guessed (wrongly it seems) that it worked over 3g......still not sure it would be that much cheaper than having a dedicated unit though.
Hey, no worries....:smile:... It's only a matter of time before someone rips my post for my confusion of CDMA / TDMA and FDMA... Cheers, Bob
The problem with using mobile phones as a cheap substitute for a proper tracker is their thirst for power and sheer size. Biketrac (which I use) is the size of a small matchbox, and can apparently last 30 days without external power. This provides 30 days after the bike battery is flat or disconnected and allows a much more effective covert install on almost any bike. Also, a much smaller current draw on the bike's battery. The signalling is fairly strong as it still communicates inside a van (personal experience when I forgot to disable it during transport) but less effectively and also inside my garage with the strong shutter doors closed. As others have said above, definitely worth the money hope this helps
