Apple Tags and stolen bikes
 

Can these Apple airtags be hidden in a bike in case they are stolen and still be tracked? How do they work exactly ( I don’t own a tag). Is it practical?

they can be. they’re not really designed for this, as they’ll beep at / notify someone with an iphone who has a tag that’s not theirs “following them” around. this is an anti-stalking feature to prevent a malicious person from sticking a tag in someone else’s clothing, purse, backpack, etc.

the updates aren’t exactly real time (but close in many cases) and limited to times when the tag is within a few meters of an iOs device. so if a luddite or android bro steals your bike and takes it to the woods away from any other phones, it won’t help.

i have them in my bikes, i like the peace of mind of being able to switch to the “items” tab in the “find my” app and see where a bunch of my stuff is.

If you live in an area where your stolen bike will be subject to passing past iPhones, then updates can be frequent.
The tag will make a noise, permitting the thief to find the tag if time permits.

I don't tend to leave my bike laying around, worst case would be a coffee shop stop.
I hope can either send my buddies in the direction of the bike before the tag noise begins, or, The thief is surprised by the Tag noise and ditches the bike in a hurry.

I'd prefer if these Tags were truly stealth, but Apple is dead set against that and for obvious personal safety reasons.
The only other option is to disable the Tag sounds, but that might stop the panic ditch the bike outcome.

In Summary
The Tags are cheap, don't require being recharged (CR2032 battery once a year) and are better than nothing at all.


Barry




BTW - if your family want's to find YOU there is a better option.
Go to...
Settings - Apple ID/Your Name - Your iPhone's name - Find My iPhone
Then turn on Find My iPhone and Send Last Location (< this one reports where the phone is just before the battery dies)

You can then find the phone from another device (iPad) in the same Apple ID account, or go to www.icloud.com/find and using the Apple ID login/password find it from a browser.





Barry

There used to be a device to find stolen cars, why can’t that be adapted for bikes? C’mon big tech! There could be a real bonanza here.

Actual thieves that steal bikes and stuff for a living are pretty smart. They'll no how to check for an find any such device, IMO.

At best you are just going to be protecting yourself from the amateur thieves looking for a quick buck.

Even the devices for stolen cars are only good for the thief that steals your car for a joy ride. Again, the auto thief that steals for a chop shop will know what to look for and methods of deterrence.

Sure - and those devices still exist - and they're connected to the vehicle's power because GPS + cellular needs a bunch of power. Battery operated versions exist - plenty on Amazon for not much $$$ - but the battery life is a few days so you'd have a bit of a hassle constantly keeping it charged. More applicable to an ebike.

My experience with AirTags is the range is a bit more than "a few meters" -- had one in my garage while we were out of town and it was regularly picked up by people driving past the end of the driveway nearly 100ft away. That said if you bury it inside a metal frame tube the range will be a bunch less.

As Barry2 and Iride01 mention AirTags are neither intended for tracking stolen property nor are they likely to help you with a professional thief. That said, for a $25 one time cost, they provide some chance of recovery - which even if small is still substantially better than zero chance of recovery.

Doesn't that depend on folks to have the Milwaukee OneKey app on their phones similar to how Tile works with phones with the Tile app on them?

https://onekeysupport.milwaukeetool....tooth-tracking

Yes, probably more useful to someone in an urban area.

If the bike is worth $2500 and the $25 tag gives a 1% chance of recovery, it's a waste of money statistically.

You forgot to factor in the probability of theft as well as the distribution of that theft probability between pro and joyrider - since that differentiator relates to the actual probability of recovery. You'd also need to account for those probabilities per unit of time (such as per year) and factor against the expected functional lifetime of the AirTag, including the cost of CR2032 battery replacement every 9-12 months. Then there's the more qualitative "peace of mind" benefit to the owner which is rather difficult to quantify. :D

To further complicate matters, the above inputs are quantitatively unknown for the most part, and thus one can't give any statistically significant guidance as to whether an AirTag would or would not be a waste of money. :foo:

I guess people will just need to go with their qualitative feeling about the matter and make the decision they feel is best for their situation. :thumb:

???

Like you, I was talking about the value in the case of needing a recovery. That is, the theft has already occurred.

Anyway, who knows what the distribution of a joyride versus other theft is and whether the properties of recovery are different for both.

And, if the bike is never stolen, no one care too much about wasting $25 on the tag.

No, you don't. This cost is insignificant against the cost of the bike.

I made my assumptions clear (something no one else did). Whether or not it's worth it certainly depends on the assumptions.

The "peace of mind" is likely based on a wildly-optimistic estimate of the success of recovery. It's people "fooling themselves".

They'd be much better off working to avoid the theft in the first place. And somehow registering the bike or having a label that indicates who to contact.

===================================

This says 5% of stolen bikes in England are returned to their owners. It also said 50% of bikes are recovered (seized from thieves but not returned to owners).

https://discerningcyclist.com/do-pol...n-bikes-stats/

This says the recovery rate in Montreal is 2.4%:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...the-problem-is

The cost of the AirTag is spent whether or not a theft occurs. The lower the chance of theft, then the lower the risk-weighted value of recovering the bicycle. In your example you assumed a 100% chance of theft and 1% chance of recovery. Using those numbers just for sake of discussion, if instead the chance of theft is 10%, then the risk-weighted-value is $250 since there's only a 10% chance of losing the $2500 bicycle. The cost of the AirTag is then 10% of that risk-weighted-value for only a 1% chance of recovery in the event of a theft.

As for the rest of it, I'm sorry if you thought what I wrote was anything more than an tongue-in-cheek risk / cost analysis. It was meant to be kinda fun/lighthearted, but seems to have been taken far more seriously than intended.

It has no value if there's no risk of the bike being stolen. In any case, the cost is noise (1% of a $2500 bike).

No, I did not assume a 100% chance of theft.

I assumed the airtag had no value unless the bike was stolen.

Wut? The value of the airtag is worse if the theft rate is lower. The effective value is the recovery rate times the theft rate: you are spending $25 to recover $2.50.

??? Interesting back pedal. For something "kinda fun/lighthearted" (which it doesn't seem to have succeeded at doing), you spent a lot of effort defending it.

Correct.

I had fun writing post #11 and intended it as I said.

As for spending a lot of effort defending "it" - I'm not really clear on what it is which you think I'm defending?

There are other reasons to have an air-tag on a bicycle (or a piece of luggage) quite apart from theft recovery.

Also, you can make them comparatively inaccessible, (eg this), and it might take a thief a bit of time to discover and remove the tag (which is why anti-stalking groups are so upset with Apple).

All this theft recovery stuff is fun and all, but who cares. :)

I have a AirTag on my bike.
If my buddy wants to test ride my bike, it'll beep to remind him it's not his bike and he should bring it back along with that puzzled look on his face.
I get a $25 laugh.

Money well spent!

Barry

Oh and if it is stolen, well, lets not go down that rabbit hole again.
Bye Bye bike. (maybe)

Polaris OBark Thanks for the tip on mounting one on a bike, nice find.

The irony of course is that the amount of time only applies with a iphone; with an Android device and a suitable app you can discover an unexpected BLE emitter immediately.

I put some samsung smart tags on mine. I'm not sure if itll work, but theybmake me feel better.

Remove the BB and hide the tag in the down tube. It will take the thief some time to remove it, if they know how. Another place is inside the fork steerer. Confronting the thief would be the risky part.

I do not have any trackers on my bikes, but I do hide a piece of paper with my name and info on them.

On a metal framed bike, I'd test how well the device transmits though the metal before fully reassembling. Seems to work fairly well through carbon fiber.

Piece of paper is good - also consider registering your serial # at bikeindex.org and of course make a copy of your purchase receipt (if purchased new) and/or keep record of your frame's serial #.