GPS Trackers or security systems

[idealhobbies]

I used the search function, and most of the topics were pretty dated. As this subject can be related to any bike, I thought that this was the most appropriate spot. Is anyone out there using a tracker or anything else on thier bike? My best friend thinks that full coverage is his protection, and while many may agree, I can't subscribe to that. If my bike is stolen, and I have to make a claim, ---- they'll NEVER pay me what the bike is worth. Not really. They never pay full price for replacement, all the things that I have added, etc... and... my rate is bad enough and after paying my claim, they'll jack up my rate or drop me all together. Thefts are through the roof in my area, so I'm thinking about taking some extra precautions. While nothing is perfect or works all the time, doing nothing is asking for it.

Is anyone using some sort of security? If so, what, and how do you like it? I tried an invoxia gps tracker by putting in the little lady's car, hanging from the mirror.... sucked is an understatement, so it was returned. It saw the car at home, alert when it moved, but it disappeared for 5 miles, to reappear and disappear again. Well, she was at work, 22 miles from home, and the tracker had her 10 miles north. 2 hours later, she appeared at work...

Youtube is so full of compensated click bait that I take it with a grain of salt. Bennets UK puts out some great reviews, but most of their stuff is UK only. A question sent to progressive insurance came back with garbage about lojack. They don't have lojack for bikes, they discontinued it.

So, again, how about an updated thread? What ya got, and how's it doing? Details as far as subscription etc would be nice....


Allan

 

[dustyNC]

I admit I subscribe to your friend's idea of protection being full coverage, but I wonder if an Apple AirTag would be worthwhile. I have no experience with them and I believe they need to be within bluetooth range of an Apple device. Maybe the criminal or a cohort would have an iphone?

 

[idealhobbies]

I have 2 Apple tags. Not a reliable security item. Thieves can see them on thier phone. Also, they chirp. Too many people were using them to stalk people, so Apple made them easy to find.

 

[mzflorida]

I used the search function, and most of the topics were pretty dated. As this subject can be related to any bike, I thought that this was the most appropriate spot. Is anyone out there using a tracker or anything else on thier bike? My best friend thinks that full coverage is his protection, and while many may agree, I can't subscribe to that. If my bike is stolen, and I have to make a claim, ---- they'll NEVER pay me what the bike is worth. Not really. They never pay full price for replacement, all the things that I have added, etc... and... my rate is bad enough and after paying my claim, they'll jack up my rate or drop me all together. Thefts are through the roof in my area, so I'm thinking about taking some extra precautions. While nothing is perfect or works all the time, doing nothing is asking for it.

Is anyone using some sort of security? If so, what, and how do you like it? I tried an invoxia gps tracker by putting in the little lady's car, hanging from the mirror.... sucked is an understatement, so it was returned. It saw the car at home, alert when it moved, but it disappeared for 5 miles, to reappear and disappear again. Well, she was at work, 22 miles from home, and the tracker had her 10 miles north. 2 hours later, she appeared at work...

Youtube is so full of compensated click bait that I take it with a grain of salt. Bennets UK puts out some great reviews, but most of their stuff is UK only. A question sent to progressive insurance came back with garbage about lojack. They don't have lojack for bikes, they discontinued it.

So, again, how about an updated thread? What ya got, and how's it doing? Details as far as subscription etc would be nice....


Allan

I don't have the answer for you but I have two suggestions on where to ask. You can call your police department or sheriff's office vehicle theft division and try them. The second, and potentially more productive, place to try is the National Insurance Crime Bureau. If the NICB does not have a recommendation for a specific device, I would bet they have the specs that are recommended for vehicle trackers. I worked with them in my law enforcement career, and they were a bunch of really sharp men and women. I did a quick search and saw that Georide and Monimoto seem to be pretty robust, Georide being more feature rich and has more frequent geo registration than others. Having installed many trackers on many bad guy's vehicles and vessels, I can say that we preferred those that had cell phone plus satellite capabilities.

 

[idealhobbies]

Thank you. Georide looks good. A bit costly. I'll have to do a little research into them. And MZflorida... Salute from a "brother" LEO

 

[mzflorida]

Thank you. Georide looks good. A bit costly. I'll have to do a little research into them. And MZflorida... Salute from a "brother" LEO

Hey! Not a lot of us on the forum. Chicago PD, retired, then down here in Florida with Lee County for 7 years. Now I lead and anti-fraud and compliance investigations program in the private sector.

You'll understand this...It took everything in me not to tell a tracker install story when we got an ex parte to break into a boat repair yard, and install a tracker on a boat that was being used in human smuggling/trafficking ( I had the DOJ grant to lead the human trafficking task force). Nothing went right! We got them in the end.

 

[Ajay750]

Mate of mine (U.K.) had his bike stolen this week. Fortunately he had fitted a Monimoto Tracker & traced his bike about 10 miles away. Police attended & he got his bike back. So, Trackers can help! Website suggests Monomoto is available in US Monimoto

 

[dustyNC]

I have 2 Apple tags. Not a reliable security item. Thieves can see them on thier phone. Also, they chirp. Too many people were using them to stalk people, so Apple made them easy to find.

idealhobbies, you've got me interested in trackers- I'd like to have them on all my vehicles if I could keep the cost down. tile by Life360 has a unit with anti-theft mode and no subscription fee. Maybe you or mzflorida could tell me if these would be effective? https://www.tile.com/blog/tile-anti-theft-mode

 

[idealhobbies]

idealhobbies, you've got me interested in trackers- I'd like to have them on all my vehicles if I could keep the cost down. tile by Life360 has a unit with anti-theft mode and no subscription fee. Maybe you or mzflorida could tell me if these would be effective? https://www.tile.com/blog/tile-anti-theft-mode

"All Tiles emit a secure Bluetooth signal. So when A PHONE WITH THE TILE APP passes by your lost item, you’ll get a location update — automatically and anonymously."

No. It would not work. It depends on a phone with the tile app on it to pass within a few feet (bluetooth range). The odds are VERY slim that someone who just happened to have that app would pass by your bike. The Apple tags, in their original form were great because they used ANY Apple Iphone that passed within its bluetooth range to create a "ping". With so many iphones in the world, you had a fairly good chance someone would pass by. However, because of a few creeps using it to stalk people, they dumbed it down, and made it easy for people to find. It still works, but anyone can detect it in the area now. It wouldn't hurt to throw one on your bike, better than absolutely nothing, but don't throw all your hopes on using one to find your bike. The thieves will detect it, find it, and throw it out the van window.

 

[dustyNC]

"All Tiles emit a secure Bluetooth signal. So when A PHONE WITH THE TILE APP passes by your lost item, you’ll get a location update — automatically and anonymously."

No. It would not work. It depends on a phone with the tile app on it to pass within a few feet (bluetooth range). The odds are VERY slim that someone who just happened to have that app would pass by your bike. The Apple tags, in their original form were great because they used ANY Apple Iphone that passed within its bluetooth range to create a "ping". With so many iphones in the world, you had a fairly good chance someone would pass by. However, because of a few creeps using it to stalk people, they dumbed it down, and made it easy for people to find. It still works, but anyone can detect it in the area now. It wouldn't hurt to throw one on your bike, better than absolutely nothing, but don't throw all your hopes on using one to find your bike. The thieves will detect it, find it, and throw it out the van window.

Thanks for the explanation, I get it now about the limitations of bluetooth. I thought I had something with the available anti-theft mode for the tile since it allows users to track their items without notifying thieves through audible alerts or pop-up notifications. Sorry, the link I added didn't work for some reason.

 

[GregC]

If you’re not fully insured I wonder what the tracker will do for you. You going to track down the bad guys yourself? Will the LEOs go after them if you tell them where they are? If the bike is damaged by the bad guys, aren’t you in the same position re insurance?

Seems to me that trackers are only a deterrent if the bad guys know there’s one on the bike but they can’t disable it.

 

[dustyNC]

If you’re not fully insured I wonder what the tracker will do for you. You going to track down the bad guys yourself? Will the LEOs go after them if you tell them where they are? If the bike is damaged by the bad guys, aren’t you in the same position re insurance?

Seems to me that trackers are only a deterrent if the bad guys know there’s one on the bike but they can’t disable it.

Good points.

 

[potter0o]

Perhaps the tracker helps get the bad guys caught or the property returned.

 

[mzflorida]

If you’re not fully insured I wonder what the tracker will do for you. You going to track down the bad guys yourself? Will the LEOs go after them if you tell them where they are? If the bike is damaged by the bad guys, aren’t you in the same position re insurance?

Seems to me that trackers are only a deterrent if the bad guys know there’s one on the bike but they can’t disable it.

Good points. @potter0o is right on the tracker helping LEOs find the bad guys; and hopefully it results in a few less dirtbag thieves being free to roam the streets. LEOs will always respond to a stolen vehicle tracker hit if cars are available; actually they'll often break from a lower priority assignment to follow the tracker. We have vehicle location devices/services on both of our cars, understanding the vehicle may be damaged within minutes of being stolen, to aid LE in finding the bad guys first, and the vehicle second. That said, I think most civilians would try to track down the vehicle rather than the bad guys using a self-installed tracking device.

 

[GregC]

Agree with the comments on tracking generally, it's just that insurance is still the only real remedy for any damage to the bike. If you can recover it before it's stripped or crashed, then that's a win and insurance doesn't matter that much.

 

[idealhobbies]

I'd rather deal with a slightly damaged bike than a complete loss. We add a lot of things to our bikes, light bars, windshields, side cases, etc, and the insurance companies rarely cut you a check that will pay to put all that back on a new bike. I'd rather get mine back even with the locks drilled and maybe the seat torn up than start all over again on my dime.

 

[mzflorida]

Agree with the comments on tracking generally, it's just that insurance is still the only real remedy for any damage to the bike. If you can recover it before it's stripped or crashed, then that's a win and insurance doesn't matter that much.

Yup. I can't recall anymore exactly how long it takes them (bad guys) to cut up an load a car for shipment to wherever, but it's quick; more or less 45 minutes for an organized group. First cut and the car is totaled by the insurance company.

 

[MZ5]

A friend had a pickup stolen on the farm once, years ago. No tracker, but it was insured against theft. The insurance co. wouldn't pay until they had waited some period of time (2 weeks? A month? Two?). The border patrol found the pickup within 2 or 3 days of the end of the waiting period for insurance payout. It was partially stripped (to haul more illegals or drugs) and wrecked, so the insurance company declared it a total loss. The friend must not have had full coverage, because he got either considerably less or no money from his insurance company (I can't recall that far back) than what he would have received had it not been found.

That experience illuminated how trackers are often good for people other than the vehicle's owner.