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Unfortunately Ms AD had her Beefy Brown 456 stolen from Broadmead yesterday, within sight of the Police station. Fortunately it's insured.
Is it possible to attach some sort of tracking device to a bike? I downloaded the YoBike app and it shows the locations around Bristol of all of the yellow bikes. That got me thinking about whether if would be an effective deterrent or way of catching thieves if we attached similar devices to our own bikes?
I get that the Police arent going to cover the cost of doing that, but I'd pay a reasonable amount to fit one myself, if I thought it might make theft less likely or lead to the recover of a bike and hopefully the thieving ****s getting nicked.
Or am I missing something obvious?
Battery life?
Lack of signal when indoors/back of a van?
Scrotes removing the trackers?
Not sure how the tracking works on the YoBike, but they've been around a while and I dont think batteries are being replaced that often (or at all yet).
And my Garmin watch manages to pick up a GPS signal indoors quite often, and always does in a van. Not sure though if it was hidden in the frame.
If I was going to be stealing bikes that had GPS trackers in them then I'd make sure my van walls/roof blocked any signals
I'm assuming the Yobikes have a dynamo to power lights and tracking function.
Sorry to hear your news, don’t give up hope, I had a bike recovered by the police in Bristol
Although it needs a deep clean as it was found in a drug dealers...
That's true, they do have dynamos.
Not sure GPS proofing the lock up is that easy, and everything helps.
They're really not very accurate. They may point you to an area but if they are in a city they could still be in one of many dozens of properties. To further focus in on a location a second device is needed (RF device usually) which needs a hand held locator device which will only work once you're within 50m or so.
I have access to this type of equipment at work. Ours are industry standard devices costing upwards of £1k each. Even then stuff occasionally doesn't get recovered.
Edit
not sure GPS proofing the lock up is that easy, and everything helps.
GPS signal jammers are widely available for about £150. Granted that would be outside of the scope of the casual bike thief but perhaps for the more organised criminal.
Thanks, interesting