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tracking lost bike with gps


crazyt
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I use a tile on my bike to hopefully track it if it is stolen. The tile creates a bluetooth mesh network which depends on someone using tile nearby.

There is a new device from ping gps which uses cellular and GPS to transmit location which means you are much more likely to find your stuff.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/ping-bluetooth-cellular-gps-tracker/

 

the trackers are selling for $90, not sure if they are shipping yet.

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looks like the crowdfunding campaign happened two years ago and according to their updates they started shipping in mid-2018 but there are people commenting that they still haven't seen anything. The company stated that they're not responding to comments on indiegogo because it's a "time suck" and to go to their FAQ/website for info. 

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57 minutes ago, AustinBike said:

Yes, I found that out the hard way one time on a rental bike. WAY too much front brake going over a ledge. Let's just say it was the longest I have ever held a nose wheelie in my life.

Same here with a rental in India.  I didn't go off-road but it still took getting used to.

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23 hours ago, AustinBike said:

That thing is pretty big, where would you put it, under the seat?

I would have to find a way to attach it to the frame; I'd be pretty pissed if I tracked it down only to find the seat on some other bike parked outside a convenience store...

Maybe find a way to attach a loop to it so that it can be fished out of a seat tube with a coat hanger...

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13 hours ago, gotdurt said:

I would have to find a way to attach it to the frame; I'd be pretty pissed if I tracked it down only to find the seat on some other bike parked outside a convenience store...

Maybe find a way to attach a loop to it so that it can be fished out of a seat tube with a coat hanger...

It being an RF device, surround it with metal and it may not work very well.

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1 hour ago, AustinBike said:

Yes, and based on the size of the device you'd need a huge seat tube. Mine is 30.9, not sure I have seen a bike with a seat tube larger than 100mm, but maybe they exist 😉

The one in the pic was a little bigger than a quarter, I figure they'll only get smaller.

Unless you can hide it, preferably in the frame, they're kinda pointless. If I were a thief and I saw something like that stuck to the outside of the bike, it would be removed without 2nd thought. And, as these become more common, thieves are going to know to look for them before taking it far.

Someone needs to come up with a bolt-on device that looks like it could be part of a bike component, or even make it a bike component (headset cap, crank arm bolt, etc).

Edited by gotdurt
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The one in the pic was a little bigger than a quarter, I figure they'll only get smaller.
Unless you can hide it, preferably in the frame, they're kinda pointless. If I were a thief and I saw something like that stuck to the outside of the bike, it would be removed without 2nd thought. And, as these become more common, thieves are going to know to look for them before taking it far.
Someone needs to come up with a bolt-on device that looks like it could be part of a bike component, or even make it a bike component (headset cap, crank arm bolt, etc).
There were ones made that went into stem. I don't think they were successful.

I keep a tile on my bike

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

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I think one that fits in the seat tube but has a remote stick-on antenna on the bottom of the seat would work.


Theoretically you could put the whole thing in the post held in by a bar plug type expanding bolt. Or like OneUp’s tool carrier under the stem cap in the fork steerer. Heck from the bottom in the steerer would be pretty invisible and there’s tons of room for a decent size battery.


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Yeah, both of these are better options than a tile because they hide in the bike and provide GPS. The biggest holdback on tile is that you have to be nearby another tile device and because they are not as prevalent, it could be months before that happens (or if it happens at all).

$150 seems like a cheap price if you lived in a city and were worried about having your bike nicked. For me, I use a $300 urban single speed for all of my city riding, that seems to be a slightly more expensive option, but id greatly decreases the probability of theft. On the car I use a big lock or two that would be obvious. Mine are locked as well at home, but if you break into a garage, you're going to have unlimited access to bikes with all of the tools in the garage, so my locks are lighter, mostly to keep people from easily wheeling it away. A determined thief will have it, no questions asked. If insurance covers it, I might be more interested in a new one anyway 😉

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I had an extra Tile, so I put it in my bike. I have Stumpy with the SWAT frame storage compartment, which made it really easy to hide in the frame. I live way out in the sticks, and the only times it picked up the Tile network was when it was in the big city shop for a couple of days. After about a year, I started getting notices from the Tile saying it was low on batteries and the whole thing needed to be replaced. If it ran on a replaceable watch battery or something, I'd probably keep using it. It's wasn't worth it to me, and I now have a dead Tile jammed in my frame.

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10 hours ago, AustinBike said:

Mine are locked as well at home, but if you break into a garage, you're going to have unlimited access to bikes with all of the tools in the garage, so my locks are lighter, mostly to keep people from easily wheeling it away. A determined thief will have it, no questions asked. If insurance covers it, I might be more interested in a new one anyway 

Excellent, thanks for the info 😁

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