Anyone use them? Just a thought after seeing another bike got nicked thread. I see the really cheap ones on eBay, but they only have a range of a few metres I think. In my mind a good one could be dropped down the seat tube and could then be tracked anywhere. Being in a metal tube could limit it I guess. Anyone with any real knowledge on this?

Think sbout how fast the battery drains in a phone with it’s huge battery when it uses GPS, thats the problem

What we need is something that wakes intermittently and sends position to w website. Shouldn’t be too hard for the right sort of person to build

Rather than comparing it to a phone GPS, consider something like a Spot Tracker. It sends a position update every 10 minutes and a set of 4 Lithium AAAs lasts a week or so (more if not moving much).

However the aerial needs a pretty good view of the sky so something inside the frame wouldn’t work well and would be even worse if in a van or building.

Cell phone triangulation might be another option. However I suspect that the purchase of a device and the contract associated with it would cost more than bike insurance.

It’s not the GPS radio that drains the battery but the screen. It just seems like it’s the GPS because you typically use GPS with mapping applications that leave the screen on for long periods.

I’ve used Greenalp on my Samsung before when friends or family wanted to track me on a long ride. it works just how thecaptain envisages. Leave phone alone and there’s minimal battery drain over not running it. The power it does use comes from sending your position updates out to the server over 3G/4G, so set a low update frequency if you need maximum battery life.

Gosh. More involved than I thought. I have decided to invent something and become mega rich.