Trackers

Gents, any one here use a non contract tracker?

If so which, is it insurance approved, and are they any good?

Been looking at the DB1-lite, but from what ive seen none of the non subscription trackers appear to have any Thatham rating?

Thanks.

Hi, the first problem with any tracker is it’s power source, I’m many cases our bikes are being stolen to be broken or shipped abroad so thieves will lift your seat and cut all the wires to and from your battery as it’s not a concern to keep it usable. Also they will scan it for gsm signals in an attempt to find and remove your tracker. Many trackers struggle to work if shielded within a metal box and as such shipping containers and the like make great places to take a bike to work on it to get at the tracker. All this is negative and should not put you off as you really should do what you can to try and deter thieves.
In my opinion there are some good trackers out there but the high cost does not justify the paltry returns on your insurance premium which I’m lead to believe is around 5%. In this respect you can only justify a tracker for piece of mind.
I purchased a tk303b tracker from China and fitted my own pay as you go sim. These are pretty good and as there is no cost for subscription you only pay for the texts it sends and they are really quite surprisingly good if a little difficult to understand the English instructions, my thoughts are that this is there to do a tracking job but also as a tracker for your thieving scum to find wired to the battery. I also have a dan tracker/oxford unit which is totally self contained buried within the bike and placed so you have to do a fair bit of work to get at it. This is a more expensive device but comes with no external power source and you can sign up for lifetime battery warranty replacement. It does have a yearly subscription but it’s not expensive.
Both trackers are set to passive mode and will tell you where the bike is when asked so they are not tracking live all the time. The oxford one will tell you every time the bike has been stationary for five minutes. Both can be armed to live track but this is really only for when it gets stolen.
One question to ask your self is “if it gets stolen do you really want it back”
My thoughts are that if I can get it back within the first 24 hours then all well and good but after that I would sooner it exploded and killed whoever is around it. This isn’t a feature of the Chinese tracker yet but I’m sure it would play havoc with your premium.
Also another thought is if you do have a tracker, do you fit stickers all over the bike advertising the fact that it has one fitted? Obviously it should deter your basic scrote but does it alert someone to having to remove it quickly? I’m no thief but my thoughts are not to let on and try and catch them with it before they know it’s there.
In the end I personally think that they are a good thing, but be aware that they have shortfalls and will only be as good as the thief stealing your bike.
One other point is that I use mine to track journeys and also my missus knows she can find my bike if I don’t come home

One other point is that I use mine to track journeys and also my missus knows she can find my bike if I don’t come home

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Old mobile phones can be used to make a cheap tracker.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/gps-enabled-smartphone-tracking-device/

Good points, thanks chaps.

ninjarich1971 said:

I purchased a tk303b tracker from China and fitted my own pay as you go sim. n

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I have one too, Mine's set up to send me a text if the bike is moved slightly and if the power supply is removed, It has it's own battery.

vRSG60 said:

I have one too, Mine's set up to send me a text if the bike is moved slightly and if the power supply is removed, It has it's own battery.

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Yes that is the case but you will find that if you disconnect the power source it has a very short life span until it is recharged by the main power supply.
As for value for money I think they are fabulous. I have fitted them to several bikes and ride on mowers. If you go for the c, d and above models they have the ability to kill the engine, sound the horn and other little tricks. They have a ring fence mode, start up alarm, shock alarm, low power, movement alarm and emergency settings. For the money and the price of a sim they are pretty good value

I've been looking into this and reluctantly came to the conclusion that a contract tracker was the only type of tracker that provides a realistic prospect of recovering a stolen bike, so I am getting a BikeTrac fitted.

The reason is that once you report the bike as stolen the tracker company's recovery team takes over and will liaise with the police on your behalf. With the DIY type of tracker you locate the bike yourself and then either risk trying to recover it yourself or try to persuade police, possibly in a different area, to work with you, and from what I have heard this is unlikely to be successful.

A recent case I heard about involved a bike hijacked with an iPhone in the top box which the owner was able to use to track the bike and give the local police the nearby location of the bike. Despite this the police did not intervene and the bike wasn't recovered.

Fred

fred_jb said:

I've been looking into this and reluctantly came to the conclusion that a contract tracker was the only type of tracker that provides a realistic prospect of recovering a stolen bike, so I am getting a BikeTrac fitted.

The reason is that once you report the bike as stolen the tracker company's recovery team takes over and will liaise with the police on your behalf. With the DIY type of tracker you locate the bike yourself and then either risk trying to recover it yourself or try to persuade police, possibly in a different area, to work with you, and from what I have heard this is unlikely to be successful.

A recent case I heard about involved a bike hijacked with an iPhone in the top box which the owner was able to use to track the bike and give the local police the nearby location of the bike. Despite this the police did not intervene and the bike wasn't recovered.

Fred

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This is a good point, I never really gave it a thought about who was going to recover the bike. I suppose if it’s on one of the Pikey sites I’ll be nipping down with my jacket and helmet and telling them to enjoy the bike, lol

fred_jb said:

I've been looking into this and reluctantly came to the conclusion that a contract tracker was the only type of tracker that provides a realistic prospect of recovering a stolen bike, so I am getting a BikeTrac fitted.

The reason is that once you report the bike as stolen the tracker company's recovery team takes over and will liaise with the police on your behalf. With the DIY type of tracker you locate the bike yourself and then either risk trying to recover it yourself or try to persuade police, possibly in a different area, to work with you, and from what I have heard this is unlikely to be successful.

A recent case I heard about involved a bike hijacked with an iPhone in the top box which the owner was able to use to track the bike and give the local police the nearby location of the bike. Despite this the police did not intervene and the bike wasn't recovered.

Fred

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Good move Fred, I have BikeTrac fitted to two bikes and it is a great product, mines has activated enough for them to phone me when I roll it forward a couple of feet when washing it, so the control room staff are always on the ball.

You can also look at the routes you have taken as well as the speed you were doing, but no-one else can as this function is password protected.

Cheers JimmyMac

Last year I was on the NC 500 in Scotland when I had the misfortune to lose my top box off the back of may Crosstourer (securing nuts came loose) I did not notice the loss until my next stop, my iPhone was in the top box and using my friends iPhone we ended up tracking a moving top box (iPhone) about 80 miles across Scotland, stopping every so often to see where it currently was, it took me straight to the door of the couple that that 'found' it and strangely enough my iPhone was in her hand! It may sound unbelievable, but true.

Any one recommend an inexpensive SIM for a tracker. What do you use?

I've looked on the web and of the zillions of choices available most seem to need a regular 1/2/3 month top up, whereas given the likely infrequent use, I’m interested in something like 12 month or if any had a rolling SIM only.

Try GiffGaff. The best value I’ve found.


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I have Biketrac but it is expensive, and not a deterrent as you only know it has been stolen once it has been stolen, also Insurance discounts on biketrac is a joke used to be ok but Insurance seem to not care about anything we do to help retrieve or stop thieves, I would not bother fitting another one to any bikes I buy, just too expensive.

Got one of these on mine...


http://skytag-gps.co.uk

Originally used for Land Rover overland trips and rallys..

Nin said:

Try GiffGaff. The best value I’ve found.


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+1 for giff gaff

ninjarich1971 said:

+1 for giff gaff

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What is the best plan to use from Giffgaff

Have a look on their website - there are loads of options. Worth asking ontheir forum as well.


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Nin said:

Have a look on their website - there are loads of options. Worth asking ontheir forum as well.


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Cheers Nin, which one are you using to give me a head start.

I use th £5.00 a month goodybag. Order online and you get the sim within a day or two. You’ll possibly need to pop it into a phone to make sure it’s active.




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Nin said:

I use th £5.00 a month goodybag. Order online and you get the sim within a day or two. You’ll possibly need to pop it into a phone to make sure it’s active.




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Cheers Nin looking at a few local ones also, probably do the same job