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GPS Tracker for bikes/scooters

Old 07-04-21, 04:04 PM
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zilauk
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GPS Tracker for bikes/scooters

Hi everyone. Recently I had my e-bike stolen from my work place's parking lot and it was recently bought for 2 months. 3 years ago it happened the same and I had a small gps tracker installed on it, but the thieves noticed it, so it was useless.
Can anyone recommend my a good device that can not be noticed, please?
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Old 07-04-21, 06:14 PM
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Originally Posted by zilauk
Hi everyone. Recently I had my e-bike stolen from my work place's parking lot and it was recently bought for 2 months. 3 years ago it happened the same and I had a small gps tracker installed on it, but the thieves noticed it, so it was useless.
Can anyone recommend my a good device that can not be noticed, please?
Slight hijack of the thread, but I'd be interested in hearing people's experience with finding and reclaiming GPS-tagged property. Are the police interested in helping? Last year my brother has his attache case swiped while at the car rental desk at Barcelona airport. He lost a laptop, iPad, phone, watch, cash, passport, pilots license and training documentation. Thievery is so rampant in large European cities that the police are generally not interested if there are no injuries or weapons involved. Even though my brother could actually track his iPad to a specific location in the city, he couldn't get the cops interested, and in fact they advised him in no uncertain terms not to try to track his stuff down, because he had no idea what/who he could run into when he got there.
So what happens when you follow your GPS signal? It's one thing if you find your bike sitting out there in plain sight, but what happens otherwise? Do you knock on the door and accuse whoever answers of theft (assuming, of course, that the GPS was accurate to direct you to the correct street address)? In this country*, where every second joe is armed, this seems like a recipe for disaster.
*talking about the US, the OP appears to be in Germany, where things are likely a little different.
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Old 07-04-21, 07:30 PM
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I use this one. All but undetectable:

https://www.sherlock.bike/en/
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Old 07-04-21, 07:46 PM
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The local infestation of rent-able e-scooters are all being tracked in real time. Some users get cut off if they leave the boundary set by the companies. The company seems to know where they all are, even those that were tossed into the local river. I'm sure the gps is "built in", not some added on item that can be spotted and removed. You just need to hide it better.

I run a local bike coop where bikes get stolen. One recent bike was a nice Sun recumbent trike. We had the serial number recorded and photos of the bike. The responding officer said unless we had video of the perp taking the bike there was little they would do. If found we'd get the bike back but no charges would be filed. A couple months later a customer told me the name of the thief and I sent that info to the reporting office. No response ever.

For other thefts, I call the station to report it and if we don't have the serial number, they won't even take the report. I tell them I have the serial number and I get the "oh well, I guess I file the report" kind of attitude.

I have a friend who does construction and plumbing on large projects that get burgled quite often. He traced one stolen generator on ebay. His neighbor is a state patrolman so he tells the neighbor cop and the item gets returned across 2 states in record time. The two states' highway patrol men did a relay to get it back to the owner.

Same friend had other stuff stolen. He asked me to buy it on ebay which I did. The perp put his return address on the package which got a judge to issue a warrent. 3 garages full of stolen stuff, a meth lab and the wife was running a day care in the house. Not any more. Many of the contractors mark their items or put company stickers on them so they had little trouble identifying their stuff.

There is a new generation of gps trackers that work directly with the cell towers instead of trying to use nearby phones with bluetooth or wifi. One is being sold as dog collars. Much cheaper than paying full cell service. But any battery system will die off soon.

I'm still waiting for all carbon fibre bikes to have rfid tags built in the layers of carbon during layup. At least those could be scanned and detected if they ever went in to a shop for repair (or a vet). If we had a single registry for bikes nation wide, every bike shop and police department could scan every bike...
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Old 07-04-21, 09:45 PM
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Originally Posted by terrymorse
I use this one. All but undetectable:

https://www.sherlock.bike/en/
Hmmm. When I hit shop, I get "there's no product... or whatever"

Do you have to first join before finding out the price?
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Old 07-04-21, 11:30 PM
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Check this link:

https://www.merlincycles.com/en-us/s...rs&ucpo=123753
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Old 07-05-21, 08:15 AM
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Originally Posted by terrymorse
Have you had occasion to actually use it in "real life" - I hope not.
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Old 07-05-21, 08:36 AM
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Hmmm. When I hit shop, I get "there's no product... or whatever"

Do you have to first join before finding out the price?
They have a find a dealer page.
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Old 07-05-21, 08:55 AM
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There have been a couple YouTube reviews of using a $30 Apple airtag on bikes.
Best part, cheap and the battery lasts ~1yr, no recharging just a CR2032.
yes it can beep, and there are YouTube’s to help with that also.

Barry
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Old 07-05-21, 09:26 AM
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Originally Posted by kahn
Have you had occasion to actually use it in "real life" - I hope not.
I installed it after my bike was stolen but recovered the next day. The thieves rifled through the saddle bag and dumped the bike.

Thanks, Santa Clara County Deputy:


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Old 07-05-21, 09:59 AM
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Originally Posted by terrymorse
I installed it after my bike was stolen but recovered the next day. The thieves rifled through the saddle bag and dumped the bike.

Thanks, Santa Clara County Deputy:


Wow. Lucky in a way. Not keeping the bike or mangling it. Looking for quick cash or similar.
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Old 07-05-21, 01:15 PM
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Originally Posted by rickpaulos
The local infestation of rent-able e-scooters are all being tracked in real time. Some users get cut off if they leave the boundary set by the companies. The company seems to know where they all are, even those that were tossed into the local river. I'm sure the gps is "built in", not some added on item that can be spotted and removed. You just need to hide it better.

I run a local bike coop where bikes get stolen. One recent bike was a nice Sun recumbent trike. We had the serial number recorded and photos of the bike. The responding officer said unless we had video of the perp taking the bike there was little they would do. If found we'd get the bike back but no charges would be filed. A couple months later a customer told me the name of the thief and I sent that info to the reporting office. No response ever.

For other thefts, I call the station to report it and if we don't have the serial number, they won't even take the report. I tell them I have the serial number and I get the "oh well, I guess I file the report" kind of attitude.

I have a friend who does construction and plumbing on large projects that get burgled quite often. He traced one stolen generator on ebay. His neighbor is a state patrolman so he tells the neighbor cop and the item gets returned across 2 states in record time. The two states' highway patrol men did a relay to get it back to the owner.

Same friend had other stuff stolen. He asked me to buy it on ebay which I did. The perp put his return address on the package which got a judge to issue a warrent. 3 garages full of stolen stuff, a meth lab and the wife was running a day care in the house. Not any more. Many of the contractors mark their items or put company stickers on them so they had little trouble identifying their stuff.

There is a new generation of gps trackers that work directly with the cell towers instead of trying to use nearby phones with bluetooth or wifi. One is being sold as dog collars. Much cheaper than paying full cell service. But any battery system will die off soon.

I'm still waiting for all carbon fibre bikes to have rfid tags built in the layers of carbon during layup. At least those could be scanned and detected if they ever went in to a shop for repair (or a vet). If we had a single registry for bikes nation wide, every bike shop and police department could scan every bike...
Yes, indeed I saw on Youtube one of these trackers that use cell towers and 4g technology to track your bike
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Old 07-05-21, 01:20 PM
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Originally Posted by terrymorse
Check this link:
Thank you for your suggestion! And how is the real time of the battery? Since you might forget to charge it sometimes
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Old 07-05-21, 02:41 PM
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Originally Posted by zilauk
Thank you for your suggestion! And how is the real time of the battery? Since you might forget to charge it sometimes
I don’t know how long the battery lasts. I plug it in after each ride.
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Old 07-06-21, 04:29 PM
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Originally Posted by terrymorse
I don’t know how long the battery lasts. I plug it in after each ride.
ok I see. thank you
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Old 07-06-21, 04:58 PM
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Thank you guys for the answers. Today, I visited a local bike shop searching for a new bike and asked the seller the same question about the trackers. He told me that in his shop, they use a tracker hidden under the seat for the "test" bikes and showed me the phone app that he has for them. Even though some bikes were in the shop, the accuracy of tracker was of about 1M which is decent. I asked him for one of these trackers and he said that I can buy them online on their website: https://www.gps-tracker.info/produkt...acker-bicycle/
What do you guys think? Anyone used any device from this company?
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Old 07-08-21, 08:22 AM
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Originally Posted by Litespud
Slight hijack of the thread, but I'd be interested in hearing people's experience with finding and reclaiming GPS-tagged property. Are the police interested in helping? Last year my brother has his attache case swiped while at the car rental desk at Barcelona airport. He lost a laptop, iPad, phone, watch, cash, passport, pilots license and training documentation. Thievery is so rampant in large European cities that the police are generally not interested if there are no injuries or weapons involved. Even though my brother could actually track his iPad to a specific location in the city, he couldn't get the cops interested, and in fact they advised him in no uncertain terms not to try to track his stuff down, because he had no idea what/who he could run into when he got there.
So what happens when you follow your GPS signal? It's one thing if you find your bike sitting out there in plain sight, but what happens otherwise? Do you knock on the door and accuse whoever answers of theft (assuming, of course, that the GPS was accurate to direct you to the correct street address)? In this country*, where every second joe is armed, this seems like a recipe for disaster.
*talking about the US, the OP appears to be in Germany, where things are likely a little different.

I've always had the exact same thought/conclusion. I seriously doubt my local big-city police department would spend a second trying to track down or recover a stolen bike, even if I showed them a GPS location of it. My guess is that even if they had the exact location, they'd claim they can't do anything without a warrant.

A GPS tracker would definitely help locate a stolen bike. Getting it back is an entirely different matter, and probably not something I'd be willing to DIY.
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