GPS Locators

[nickjdavis]

My 11yo grandson was robbed of his bike at knifepoint a couple of weeks ago. Due to the uniqueness of the bike and the power of social media (working for good for a change) the bike was recovered a couple of days ago, even though it had been "moved on" and eventually wound up in a town 40 miles away from home.

We are now looking at making the bike ”more traceable" should it go missing again.

I'm aware that there various GPS devices that can be covertly fitted to a variety of things to enable it's location to be determined....possibly by waking it up remotely by mobile..but not sure how well they work, reliability battery longevity, signal strength ( I'm assuming such devices would need to be buried within the bike frame) , subscription fees are all stuff that immediately spring to mind that might make the idea a non starter.

Does anyone have any experience of such devices? Point me in the direction of reliable models?

Thanks.

 

[Tashyboy]

The I tag is a thing of beauty. Probably the size of a 2 pence coin. Thing is you need an iPhone to track it. A one off payment to buy it. The ideal place would be to try and put it in the seat. We have one for the FIL who has dementia and is ideal for knowing where he is.

 

[Rooter]

Apple airtag.

 

[Tashyboy]

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&r...m/uk/airtag/&usg=AOvVaw1UqLD_puY5cmAAU39cwgiY

 

[Rooter]

the downside to airtags, they need people near them. They do not broadcast GPS signals, how they work is they piggyback off other peoples iphones without anyone knowing about it.

So if your airtag was lost in the middle of your yorkshire moors, you would not find it. Until a rambler with an iphone walked near it and woke it up.

Just something to consider. I used mine racing Ironman so my wife could track me on the bike course. Now its over, i have hidden the airtag in the seatpost of my bike.

 

[full_throttle]

The National Cycle Database | BikeRegister

OK, so not a gps but the unique number is registered to you, so if found it's supposed to be easier to return in the event of theft

 

[larmen]

Just something to consider. I used mine racing Ironman so my wife could track me on the bike course. Now its over, i have hidden the airtag in the seatpost of my bike.

This seems so much more clever than the tracking apps in races. In my last Berlin marathon my dad missed me at all 6 stations he tried ;-)


With AirTags, they will tell the thief there is an AirTag nearby. It’s the anti-stalker feature they have.

Tile is the original bike tracker. No idea how useful it is these days.

 

[rulefan]

We used early Tiles until recently when the contract expired. We found my wife's keys many times. I think the new ones are bigger.

 

[nickjdavis]

Cheers for the replies. My OP was made whilst waiting for a bus to take me to the Airport in Turkey....thanks to French Air Traffic Control and Stansted Baggage Handlers I arrived home at 6.30 this morning some 5.5 hours later than anticipated.

The fundamental flaw with AirTag from what I can see is (as highlighted by Larmen), that if a person's iPhone detects that someone else's AirTag is moving with them (eg a thief riding a bike with an AirTag) then the phone will alert that person that they (or something they are carrying or travelling with) are being tracked. They may then search for, find and dispose of said tag.

Might go and have a word with the local bike shop but the register linked to by Full Throttle seems it could be useful in providing a unique identifier....even though it was the very uniqueness of the bike itself, that lead to it being found and returned.