As a follow up to the post on – Registering your bicycle, I bought an electronic ImmobiTag and fitted it to my commuting bike.
It me cost £14.99 (from immobilse.com) and seems good value for what it promises to do. I later found out you can buy it for £10 from Wiggle
Firstly, it only fits standard seat tubes (i.e. most road bikes). Unfortunately, it did not fit my Trek Madone 6.9 because it is an unorthodox shape.
Unusually, the seat post goes over the seat tube, rather than other way. Therefore, it doesn’t fit.
Also, it did not fit my aero seat tube on my time trial bike. So I ended up putting it on my (cheap commuting bike).
I was disappointed it didn’t fit my best road bike. But, you are unlikely to have a problem (unless your seat tube is outside the 25.4mm to 32.0mm diameter).
You put the black electronic tag down the seat tube, and then push it in with a stick or seat post. Once wedged into the seat tube, it’s pretty much impossible to remove. If the police recover your bicycle, they should pick up the radio signal from this tag system with a simple electronic scan. This means that even if thieves manage to remove outer labels, the bike can still be identified as yours.
You need to register the bar code and numbers on the site immobilise.com – but this is free and easy.
(By the way, before trying to put it on my best road bike, I did weigh it at 8grams – I don’t like adding unnecessary weight to bike!)
Then after installing the electronic scan you can put stickers on the bike to show it is registered. These stickers may prove a minor disincentive for thieves, I don’t know.
I have to say, I would have some reluctance to cover my beautiful road bike with barcodes and stickers, but the benefit of greater peace of mind should outweigh the aesthetic values. The irony is I’m happiest putting a tag on my cheapest bike!
Alternative Bike Tags
Kryptonite Bike Tag system
The Kryptonite Bike tag system is just three bar codes, but no electronic tag inserted into bike. Therefore, in theory, it is vulnerable to having tags removed or painted over. The manufacturers claim that the tags are very hard to remove, as reviewers seem to agree. I might try this for my road bikes, where I can’t fit the radio tag.
- Kryptonite bike tag systems – £8.49 at Wiggle
Compulsory Bike Tags?
Voluntary police schemes are good, but is there case for universal tagging of bicycles?
Given the widespread extent of bike theft (In the UK a bicycle is stolen approximately every minute of the day) and low bike recovery, I feel there is a good case for all new bikes to have electronic bike tag fitted. It would increase cost of new bikes (I’m sure it could be done for less than £10. But, it would mean every new bike could, in theory, be traced.
- This would discourage bike theft.
- It would make it easier to prove the bike has been stolen.
- It would make it harder to sell stolen bikes second hand.
- Those buying second hand, would have an opportunity to test if it was on list of stolen bikes.
- The police could go around scanning for stolen bikes.
- It would make it easier to give retrieved bikes back to the rightful owners.
A really comprehensive bike tagging scheme could make a serious dent in bike crime. I doubt bike companies would be too keen on the idea. But, then if a major manufacturer implemented its own scheme – this would be a major selling point.
It’s taken me 12 years as a cyclist to get round to getting bike tags. But, I’d be happy to pay an extra tenner when buying a bike for an automatic electronic bike tag and register.
The electronic bike tagging is an excellent idea and I think I will now take the plunge and buy one. Having had 3 bikes stolen in as many years and having probably written half a dozen letters now to various London Boroughs to try and persuade them to improve bike rack provision – ideally with a Bykebin like this http://www.theworkplacedepot.co.uk/bykebin-secure-storage – but too expensive and the London Boroughs don’t really care less! Thanks for the article
there is a really good GPS tracker you can now buy for around £120 that you insert in your steerer tube it takes a sim card with appropriate internet bundle (£5 a month on most networks) you swipe a fob over your replaced topcap an if the bike is moved it will automatically send text messages every 5 mins to your phone with GPS map locations and when it can’t do that it’ll continue work off of standard gprs signal system, I would post a link but I’m no good with computers.
sounds good. what’s it called?
spybike covert bicycle GPS tracker available from http://www.integratedtrackers.com/
also I could be wrong but it looks like the price has come down to £97.50.
excellent thanks for pointing out, I didn’t see that, but looks good for road bike
Today I bought the Datatag for the bike
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/datatag-security-kit/
but from Evans on a price match. Apparently it is the size of a grain of rice and you stick it inside your frame – I will let you know how the process goes – then maybe you can add it to your Trek.