rolliepollie

I'd like to start commuting by bike but it doesn't seem like my office allows for bike storage inside. I'm looking for a gps tracker device in the event my bike gets stolen, but I can only find 2 models from the same company, Spylamp and Spybike. They both sound decent from what little reviews I can find, but are a tad expensive around $150 on top of needing a prepaid SIM card every month. Other than that I can't find much of any reviews or anything on these devices or any others. Maybe they're not popular yet or too expensive? Anyone know of a reliable tracker?

njkayaker

All of them would require a cell phone sim.

rolliepollie

Yea but even so, I can't find anything having any significant record in terms of customer service, reliability and durability whether in forums or merchants. I've read of some kickstarters but I don't want to gamble on those if they come out at all.

dbg

A good lock setup would be cheaper. Unless maybe you have the bad combination of total public exposure with just enough seclusion to allow a vandal or thief to operate. I do have that combo at the commuter train station where I lock up. There I try to not be the most attractive bike in the rack (purposely dirty and rusty looking, etc).

(I do that with vehicles. Park closer to more attractive targets. It's a variation on the bear-in-the-woods theory, "I don't have to outrun the bear. I just have to out run you")

njkayaker

Because no one really buys them.

What percentage of bikes have them?
What percentage of stolen bikes have them?

rolliepollie

Oh, I'm still going to get some lock. I was thinking the GPS tracker will at least give me a chance to track down the bike and alert me when it's moving, as a second layer of protection. Good news came today that I can bring my bike onto the 2nd floor of the office building. Still, I ordered the Kryptonite New York chain lock to lock it up.

True, not much bikes if any have GPS trackers, but I think it's due to the cost and maintenance of having one, including adding a paid-for SIM service. How many commuters would spend over $80 for a lock for their $300-$500 commuters? From what I've seen including from a college bike town, ppl would be hard pressed to spend over $20 or $30 for a u-lock. I figure anyone getting their bike stolen will just buy another beater or worse, quit altogether.

Juha

Frequently listed reasons why GPS tracking is less useful with bikes (in comparison to cars, for example):

- Power consumption, both GPS and GSM need a fair bit of juice. You'll need a battery pack, preferrably somewhere readily accessible, because you'll be changing batteries a lot. Especially if it's cold.
- Reception vs. stealth assembly - neither GPS nor GSM will work well inside tubing, for example. Anywhere else, the device would be relatively easy to notice and tamper with.
- Reception vs. usage - after the thief throws your bike in his van and/or in storage, GPS will be blind and GSM may or may not work. Assisted GPS (using cell tower triangulation) may be able to give approximate location, IF the cell phone part of the package gets signal.

Ideal system would be purpose built, IMO. Antennas running alongside tubing, external battery pack beneath the seat maybe, central unit with a small backup battery in seat post. Or maybe build the whole thing into a rear rack, hiding the battery and central unit beneath the rack top.

dougmc

The problem is, such a device will need to basically be on and ready to work all the time your bike is locked up, and so you'll have to charge it occasionally, and eventually you'll get tired of charging it and will forget and so if the bike ever is stolen the odds are good that the battery will be dead or you'll have forgotten to turn it on.

And since the system will require a sim card, that means you've got a recurring cost each month -- and after a year or two, that cost may equal the cost of the bike. Of a cheap bike, anyways.

Personally, I'd suggest taking some of the money you wanted to spend on the tracker, and put it into another U-lock, or maybe a cable lock to use in addition to the U-lock you've already got. Then just lock your bike up extra well -- well enough that a thief will look at your bike, at your two or three locks -- and steal the one next to it instead.

As I see it, these systems really only make economic sense if you expect your bike to be stolen -- you don't lock it, you only use a cable lock, you leave it locked up overnight, etc. If you're looking to set up a bait bike to catch thieves, they're probably great. But if you're careful about where, how and when you lock up, your bike is unlikely to be stolen.

Also, I don't know anything about where you work, but many office buildings have security that patrols, and if they check where the bikes are locked up, that will make your bike that much more secure. My work has these bike locking "stations" that take a single U-lock and locks both wheels and the frames -- they're quite secure. Somebody might rip off many of my components (if there wasn't security patrolling) but they'd have a really hard time taking the frame or wheels.

njkayaker

Of course. Preventing the bike from being moved is much more valuable than the possibity of tracking it.

That's actually the problem with bicycle trackers. A lock (or keeping the bike from being moved in the first place) is cheap and effective. Tracking the bike is expensive and (likely) not that effective (and too late anyway).

The GPS trackers are $100 (let's say) and minimally $10-20 a month forever. That's an annual cost of 25-80% of your commuter bike. For something that probably doesn't work that well.

You can track cell phones but doing that is free. We have no idea how well it works (people stealing phones are more likely to be aware that they can be tracked). Cell-phone tracking is probably more useful for finding a lost phone.

rolliepollie

After a little more thinking, I figured it's just not worth the hassle of maintaining a tracker anymore. For the Spybike, a few users mentioned having to charge it every month, and the signal may drop even inside a home garage. Plus the relatively lengthy setup process of installation (for the headset version), going through ATT for the SIM and checking if everything is functioning and able to send texts might even give me more to worry about. Yea, it probably does work well for a sting operation with a full team like in some videos I've seen, but not alone I guess. I'm gonna solder some bolts to prevent nicking as well as maybe a second u-lock, so it should be pretty safe even alone outside a store.

My office doesn't have any security since it's pretty small (and used to be a small hotel), but the entrances do require key cards. I'm gonna use the ebike to commute, so I'm a little over-cautious of losing close to $2k including accessories and racks, but maybe I'll just toss some caution out and just enjoy the commute (whole reason I went electric to kill these hills).

dblA

I was going to suggest you buy a folding bike which they will likely let you take to your office if you fold it up for the purpose. But a folding e-bike is awfully heavy to lug around, so I have to withdraw the idea...

Soulcharger

I bought a Spybike, it never worked. We did all the things in the instructions and troubleshooting, never worked. In spite of repeated attempts to contact the company (Integrated Trackers) e-mails, telephone call and even opening a support ticket, we never ever once got a reply, their technical support is non-existant. Be very careful about this company I have yet to see any positive reviews on the internet. It would have been better to get the bike insured and buy a decent lock. Shocking !!

vic303

https://www.thetileapp.com/

For all you iOS users, there is Tile. The more people use it, the better it can work.

There's also the 529 Garage project.
https://project529.com/garage/
Social Media theft alert system, not GPS based.