Bike Tracker

Hi All,

I recently did some research on bike trackers and set up a solution, which may be of interest.

I knew I would need some hardware for the bike which would receive GPS signals and could send a location over a mobile network. Therefore, I was looking for a discrete, light piece of hardware and a mobile plan with an inexpensive voice, text and data plan.

I researched some of the bespoke bike solutions including one which fits into the handlebar drops, which looked promising but having read the reviews of the app on the app store, I dropped it as an option. I found this GPS tracker linked below on Amazon which is quite small and light, takes a SIM to connect to mobile and will send a location to your phone. I've set it up as follows:

1 - It's attached to my bike where it receives GPS. This is of greatest concern as receiving a mobile signal is much easier. I did play around a bit to ensure it would work effectively
2 - I used a Lyca mobile SIM. There are plenty of options to choose from here, you just need a voice & text tariff or a data tariff
3 - You do need to plug the tracker in via a micro USB so choose an accessible position for the tracker on your bike
4 - I'm using the tracker as delivered - I ring the SIM number and it texts me back an SMS with its location (lats & longs), battery % and google maps link. You can enable the tracker app which would track the unit in real time but I'm unsure if you can revert to SMS if that's your preference

Experience

This is not an ideal solution but does provide some peace of mind.

- The tracker has about a 1 day standby time. It does need to be charged ahead of a long spin. This may reduce if you enable real time tracking
- It works well when the bike has little obstructions to the sky but doesn't work indoors or when under an overhang of a building
- It is a relatively inexpensive solution, STG £46 for the tracker + whatever tariff you go for
- It does need to be weather sealed. The door for the SIM is very basic and the USB is exposed

I'm sure this hardware will be improved in future, employing 2G/3G/4G for triangulation rather than GPS and hence working indoors, which would be ideal.

Drop me an email with any queries
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.

James.


www.amazon.co.uk/TKSTAR-Tracker-Device-E...id=1599661699&sr=8-5

A Gego tracker would work too. www.gego.io/

I have one that I put in my luggage or in my bike box when travelling (back in the old days when we travelled). Works really well all over the world. It reports its position to an app on your phone using a built-in sim card to communicate with a central system, and it can use bluetooth for direct communications to your phone when it's nearby (great for knowing that it's on your plane, or is coming up the delivery belt in the airport).

Rechargeable battery lasts days at least, longer if you put it on a low power setting.
No extra sim needed, it's built-in.
A service plan subscription is required, cost around the same as a Lyca sim plan.
Size is like a fat credit card, so probably not easy to hide on a bike.

It's available on Amazon uk I think.

As an aside, I've never lost anything that was being tracked by my Gego but a family member managed to lose just the tracker itself around the luggage carousel in Dublin airport arrivals (it fell out of an unzipped suitcase pocket). The bluetooth function told her it was somewhere under the carousel but she couldn't get it. Next day, it reported a new location, at an address a few miles from the airport. I went there, knocked on the door, and got it back. The person worked in the airport, and said they had found it there but didn't know what it was.