Alarm and Tracker

dceire

I've a new bike on the way, and was looking at getting an alarm and/or tracker for it.

Can anyone recommend anything to me? I am on a bit of a tight budget however. I also see that you can now get alarms with tracker abilities, anyone know much about these?

Wossack

I'd be after a fitted alarm & immobiliser with some sort of pager function (a nice to have)

Dont think tracker ones are that good unfortunately - bikes are a bit too easy to take indoors, or put inside a van/40ft container etc etc, which would typically block the gps signal. Big money too..

Wonda-Boy

I would personally be after a META alarm......if you need one fitted PM me I know a lad who fits them.

blastamasta

Personally I would go for proper chain instead of alarm and maybe add it at later stage. Like Wossack said it is really easy to put bike in to the van and they dont even need to deal with alarm on site. I can recommend this one http://www.almax-security-chains.co.uk/product.asp?s=Ydmfym336801&strPageHistory=category&numSearchStartRecord=0&strParents=73&CAT_ID=73&P_ID=128&btnProduct=More+Details

You can find a youtube video where they fail to break this chain.


Follow that I heard good reviews about SPY Alarms. Check it out here:
http://www.motorbikealarm.co.uk/shop/advanced-v3-motorbike-alarm-and-immobiliser-system/

Wonda-Boy

They need to deal with the alarm if its a good one, if my bike is taken from side lean to upright when armed its screams the high heavens.

carsQhere

An alarm is only any use if you are there to hear it. Nobody else will give it a second glance. I got one similar to this through an IBF group buy years ago. It saved the CB500 when two of Dublin's "disadvantaged citizens" cropped the chain and stood the bike upright setting it off. This alerted a colleague in my office, and the disadvantaged duo did a runner two up on whatever stolen bike they'd rolled up on.

Thing is if you do fit one, keep it stealthy. No flashing LED's or labels to give advance warning to the poor underprivileged lads. The clever ones will bump the bike to check so don't set the sensitivity too high either.

Trackers are kind of pointless. The whole gig here is to prevent your bike admiring neighbors from leaving with it in the first place. I can heartily recommend Almax chains as I own two of them, one of which was been put to the test by a member of the South Inner City motorcycle redeployment corps. He (at least I presume it was a "he") managed to make a mess of the fabric covering, nothing more.

Spend wisely. I'd suggest chain/lock (+anchor if needs be), then alarm, then tracker. Worked for me.

Edit: Just to clarify, the chain that was cropped was a generic lightweight thing I was only using because it was handy to carry.

Bikerguy

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

They need to deal with the alarm if its a good one, if my bike is taken from side lean to upright when armed its screams the high heavens.

gary that meta alarm has horrible reviews. actualy the worsest from all. how do you find it?

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews68693.html

dceire

I have a heavy chain and lock that I used on my old bike. Wasn't sure that the bike would fit around the back of my house, turns out it barely does, and an alarm would have been good if I would had to anchor it on the driveway outside my bedroom window; if it didn't fit around the back that is.

Del2005

Bikerguy wrote: »

gary that meta alarm has horrible reviews. actualy the worsest from all. how do you find it?

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews68693.html

I've one on my bike and never had any bother from it. Got a decent insurance discount when I told them it was installed.

RosieJoe

carsQhere wrote: »

An alarm is only any use if you are there to hear it. Nobody else will give it a second glance. I got one similar to this through an IBF group buy years ago. It saved the CB500 when two of Dublin's "disadvantaged citizens" cropped the chain and stood the bike upright setting it off. This alerted a colleague in my office, and the disadvantaged duo did a runner two up on whatever stolen bike they'd rolled up on.

Thing is if you do fit one, keep it stealthy. No flashing LED's or labels to give advance warning to the poor underprivileged lads. The clever ones will bump the bike to check so don't set the sensitivity too high either.

Trackers are kind of pointless. The whole gig here is to prevent your bike admiring neighbors from leaving with it in the first place. I can heartily recommend Almax chains as I own two of them, one of which was been put to the test by a member of the South Inner City motorcycle redeployment corps. He (at least I presume it was a "he") managed to make a mess of the fabric covering, nothing more.

Spend wisely. I'd suggest chain/lock (+anchor if needs be), then alarm, then tracker. Worked for me.

Edit: Just to clarify, the chain that was cropped was a generic lightweight thing I was only using because it was handy to carry.

I've heard this said before but cannot understand why you'd want to hide the fact that it is alarmed? Any reasons why you prefer this way?

carsQhere

RosieJoe wrote: »

I've heard this said before but cannot understand why you'd want to hide the fact that it is alarmed? Any reasons why you prefer this way?

If they know it's alarmed they'll come equipped to deal with the alarm.

RosieJoe

Fair enough. I suppose it will always boil down to if they want it they'll get it somehow.

carsQhere

RosieJoe wrote: »

Fair enough. I suppose it will always boil down to if they want it they'll get it somehow.

Best you can do is take reasonable precautions.

Trackers are fine for what they are, but the money is better spent on prevention than recovery IMO.

Wonda-Boy

Bikerguy wrote: »

gary that meta alarm has horrible reviews. actualy the worsest from all. how do you find it?

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews68693.html

I dont know if they only do one type of alarm, I doubt it but for me its very very good and never had a moments bother. You can leave it on the bike for a month and no probs without starting it. After 7 days on no activity it goes into power saving mode....has a panic button built in also.

JH_raheny

Cyclone does some very good alrms for very little money, when it comes to trackers you might as well not have one as buying a cheap will make **** all difference, any GOOD tracker that will be any use will cost a small fortune