Cheap Antitheft Tracker
 

I had my bike stolen from my house a few weeks ago and since then I’ve been on the hunt for a GPS tracker or other anti theft device to supplement my bike lock. So far all the ones I’ve seen have been far outside my budget. Any recommendations?

Not trying to be funny, but very seriously my recommendation is not buy a bike you can't easily afford to replace.

Trackers just have all sorts of ways not to work. And anyone that steals bikes for a living will know what to look for.


If you have to have one, look into Tile tracking devices.

On a different forum that I occasionally look at, someone bought one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/Real-time-Ant...dp/B095C7D4CM/

I have now told you all I know about it, so don't bother asking me any more detail.

A few months ago I registered my bikes with https://bikeindex.org/ and put their stickers on my bikes.

apple airtag. https://www.washingtonpost.com/techn...airtags-theft/

A stand-alone tracker will need access to a cell network to work (they report back to you as a cellphone would). At the low end, that would require a $10/month subscription. Is that cheap enough?

Things like Tile or the Apple AirTag ("cooperative trackers") will report to the nearest phone in their network (which would not require a monthly subscription) but would likely only really be useful in populated places.

Looks like they may go as low as $5 per month now - https://www.t-mobile.com/iot-devices...tracker-device

There remains the question of just exactly what one is going to do when standing outside the house or apartment building that the tracker is reporting from.

$5/month + $60 for the particular device needed for the plan.


Call the cops.

Any device is likely to have a purchase cost, though TMO did have a free-with-24-months-bill-credits promo on the device earlier this year.

Calling the police may have mixed results. In a rural or low-density suburban area it'd be easier to identify the specific residence and get the police to obtain a search warrant. With multi-unit buildings the tracker isn't going to give the specific unit. See the various mixed experiences people have had with phone & computer location tracking (FindMy and equivalents). Sometimes it works out, often it doesn't.

... and that's even assuming the thief didn't immediately locate and disable the tracker.

While I'm not suggesting a tracker is useless - since it could aid in recovery - I'd caution against assuming it is a guarantee. Might be better to put the money towards an appropriate insurance rider.

Of course. We don't know what cheap means to the OP. I was actually pointing out that one had to take into account any subscription costs (in addition to the device cost).

Some trackers (like the Apple Airtag) don't require a subscription (which means they will be cheaper long term). Though, for the Airtag, you might need to have other Apple stuff.

Nothing is going to be perfect. The only real option is to call the police. Not having a device would never "work out". Dealing with it yourself isn't really an option.

The answer to this is obviously "call the cops". It's the only option (whether or not it will work).

People with the idea of using a tracker tend to be overly optimistic about how well it will works.

The issue with how well calling the cops is going to work is only one problem with using trackers. Trackers will have "mixed" results due to other reasons as well.

Airtag
 

I placed an Apple AirTag on my bike.
1. I hope never to need it.
2. I don’t think it’s use is foolproof.

It’s replaceable CR2032 battery lasts 1 year, then you replace the battery.
It uses Bluetooth to find random iPhones close by, then those iPhones report it’s location.

So if stolen, the bike/AirTag will only report position if somebody’s iPhone in within Bluetooth range.
Here in San Francisco Bay Area, iPhones are like spiders…. You’re never more than 6’ from one!

For the price of the device, fit and forget (no recharging) and no monthly fee, I thought, why not.

Barry

A guy I know said that his daughter's bike was stolen, a few days later she saw it on Craigslist. The police would do nothing to help because she did not have proof that she owned it.

Decades ago when I lived in Minneapolis, they had a bike license program. Months after my dad's bike was stolen the police called, said that they had his bike. The bike license is how he got it back.

I now live in Madison WI, they used to have a bike license program, I licensed every one of my bikes so that there would be a govt database with that record. But, Madison no longer licenses bikes, they suggested Bike Index or another one.
https://www.cityofmadison.com/bikema...gistration.cfm

As I noted in post 3 above, I have since registered my bikes with Bike Index. I also bought the decals for my bikes, not the ones with a scannable graphic, just the cheap decals that would alert the police to check serial numbers for ownership.

And of course, good locks. My titanium bike is not my most expensive bike, but it is the one that looks most expensive. I paid over $100 for the lock I use on that bike.

But my errand bike is the one I paid $5 for at a garage sale, took another $50 to make it rideable, but that is a great rusty cheap looking bike that is great for grocery store trips. I have no qualms about locking it up in high crime areas.

Situational awareness is your most important defense. I live about 5 miles from a large university campus which has a lot of bikes stolen. I do not ride my expensive bikes if I am going there, I ride cheaper ones. Be aware of the risks and act accordingly.

​​​​​​How did it get stolen from (inside?) your house anyway? If they can steal bikes, why aren't you worried about other stuff being stolen?

There is this (recent) interesting piece on trackers.

Nice article.

There's certainly something to be said for a tracker in the event of theft - it increases the chance of recovery albeit how much so is situation dependent and whether that is worth the cost is an individual matter.

I would suggest the OP remember that trackers aren't "antitheft" devices - you still need to try to prevent theft in the first place. Any tracker comes into play once those measures fail and the item is stolen.

I want to thank everyone on this thread that provided useful information on Airtags and Tiles.

I was unaware of those devices and I think I am going to get one of the Tile options this coming spring. (Nobody will be stealing a bike from me during winter here in the north country.)

I was not interested in paying a subscription for a cell connection for a tracker. Thus, the Tile option interests me. I do not use an Apple phone, thus the Airtag is not an option.

I was interested in more info. A couple other articles I read are listed below, the second one is paywall but it might open for you, not sure if the first is paywall or not:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/tec...ooth-trackers/
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/r...tooth-tracker/

Hmmmmmm. Not sure where the best place to hide something like that on a bike is.

I doubt the Tile network is big enough to be useful. Note the range (to be picked up by a phone) is fairly short too.

If you have a close friend with an iPhone, you could connect the Airtag to their phone.

The real failure, of course, was the bike being stolen in the first place. The likelihood that a bike will be detected might be 5% or much, much less.

I think all of them are too large for anything except under the seat. Note that they likely don't work surrounded by metal.

Unfortunately that likely wouldn't work well - AirTags that aren't near the person who registered them for "an extended period of time" will begin playing a sound when moved. Supposed to be 3+ days but have seen varied reports. Feature is aimed to reduce the ability to use AirTags to stalk/track someone without their knowledge.

Yeah, I read that afterwards. That said three days.

Tile (or whatever) is cheap but these things really won't help you.

I am not going to try the Apple one.

Agree that the best thing is if the bike is not stolen first. My titanium bike lock was over a hundred bucks. And I avoid parking a bike in high crime areas. I was thinking of it as a second defense. I would expect greater than 5 percent. My main concern is when on a bike tour in a campground in the middle of the night.

Under the seat is a good idea. I keep a jar with my spare tube, etc., in a bottle cage under the downtube, was thinking there to. But that might be the first thing that a thief removes.

WRT to the tag placement, one user wrote that he put his airtag inside the stem (Airtags are 1.23 inch in diameter, so they won't fit inside a typical steerer, but they just might inside your stem).

Problem is that pros carry battery-powered grinders that can defeat any lock in a matter of seconds. So I would think that the point is to deter the amateurs. An interesting solution might be to put a lock on a steerstopper. (scroll to the bottom). The device would be useful on its own (my bike fell more than once) and this type of lock might just work.

I’m not going to tell you untrustworthy bunch where my tracker is located. 🙂
Suffice to say, maximum range will be achieved if the tracker is not placed inside a metal or carbon tube.
These are interesting!

Barry

He also said that he hadn't tested it. Surrounded by metal isn't likely to work very well.

Good point. I searched a bit and found a video testing different mounting strategies. Located in a bottle cage bracket got the best result (range close to 30M!).

I do not have any carbon frame bikes. And all my stems are metal. I think putting a tracker inside a Faraday cage is not going to work very well.


A steerer lock might be a good idea. My old motorcycles all had fork locks, it would lock the fork at an angle, but that was built into the frame and fork. But, I get nervous about things that use keys, for example I would never want to use a Pitlock or anything like that as a skewer, I am sure I would lose the key. That said, on bike tours I use bolt on skewers that use a standard 5mm allen wrench. I usually have two multi-tools on bike tours, plus I pack an extra allen wrench with the spare tubes.

I am sure that the thieves are all well schooled on what these trackers look like. And that is part of the problem. If you attached it to the hub, the thieves would not assume it is part of a bike computer measuring rotations, they will know what that thing is and that it has to be cut off immediately. You will probably find your tracker a hundred yards (meters) away from where your bike was stolen from.

The few times I have heard of someone seeing their stolen bike show up on Craigslist or they see it somewhere, the racks and accessories are always removed. So, the thieves are looking for ways to remove anything that would make a bike look like a bike you might have a photo of. So, a tracker has to be on the bike where they will not see it, and that would be difficult.

They could tape it to a random car.

Even if the tracker isn't removed, one would have to be rather lucky for the tracker to do any good. Considering using a tracker requires being very optimistic.