this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2024
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Bicycles

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Best tracking device for a stolen bike? (lemmy.world)
submitted 10 months ago by SpiceDealer@lemmy.world to c/bicycles@lemmy.ca
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I plan on riding bike for often and while I have invest and will continue to invest in the typical security measures (D lock, wheel lock, etc.). However, in the extreme case that it should get stolen I want a way to track it down. I was thinking about getting a Tile tracking and place it within the frame of my bike but there's a better way please suggest it. Thanks in advance!

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[–] FinishingDutch@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I use an Apple Airtag mounted in a bicycle bell housing. You can buy those on Amazon, they’re quite cheap. The Airtag bell looks just like my regular bell. So, I just put it on the opposite side of my handlebars. Means I’ve got two bells, but that’s not uncommon on mountainbikes anyway.

You can track the bike using your iPhone and the Find My… network.

There’s some caveats to it, obviously. You need to have an iPhone for one, and the tracking works best if you’re in an urban area with lots of other iPhone users nearby. It’s not an actual GPS tracker, but rather gets pinged by bluetooth from nearby phones which report the location. Another caveat: they start to chime after x amount of hours away from your phone, as an anti-stalking measure. But you can just disable the speaker on them if you want to.

The overall benefit is that they’re quite cheap and require no additional data plans or sim cards.

[–] jadero@lemmy.ca 6 points 10 months ago

One thing to watch out for is that anyone with an iPhone or using something like Air Guard on Android can easily discover that your bike is tagged. If well hidden or inaccessible, that might deter the thief. If not well hidden, it might take only a moment to deal with.