BikeTag Review: On-BIke AirTag Storage

If you’re looking for a stealthy solution to hiding an Apple AirTag on your mountain bike, BikeTag is one of the more secure.

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By amandawishart

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Is there any way to use AirTags if you don’t have an iPhone? Such a great product, but unfortunately requires a ridiculously priced phone to go with it.

Interesting article. However what happens once you identify your bike is at scrotey house the other side of town?

I’m sure there are quite a few forum posts where people have tracked stolen bikes, told the police and the response is less than stellar.

So recovery of the bike still relies on us the owner, by whatever means we deem necessary/safe/proprtionate.

Edit: Ah I see why the bombers reviewed so well in the recent fork test. They were actually used to recover some stolen goods 😉

If you are using one to find a stolen bike, you might want to remove the speaker from it before installing it.

Is there any way to use AirTags if you don’t have an iPhone? Such a great product, but unfortunately requires a ridiculously priced phone to go with it.

There are fairly convincing rumours (e.g. https://twitter.com/Za_Raczke/status/1615062461744549888) that Google will release an AirTag-style tracker this year.

Won’t work with things like a Granite Stash multitool i think …. but apart from that, i like it.

Is there any way to use AirTags if you don’t have an iPhone? Such a great product, but unfortunately requires a ridiculously priced phone to go with it.

You can’t really separate the two as Airtags rely on approx 1.5 billion iPhones listening in the background 24/7 for Airtags and relaying their location back to Apple so you can find your bike…

Why would Apple want to let non iPhone users free-load on their infrastructure?

Why would Apple want to let non iPhone users free-load on their infrastructure?

I think it’s probably as much security as anything. If they opened it up to Android I’m sure someone would figure out how to spoof them pretty quick. They have actually allowed 3rd-parties to produce their own tags which use the network (still require an iPhone though!)

Such a great product, but unfortunately requires a ridiculously priced phone to go with it.

I wouldn’t say the basic SE was “ridiculously” priced these days vs. other brand phones, maybe it is though if you don’t want/need any of its other features 🤷‍♂️

that Google will release an AirTag-style tracker this year.

I have absolutely no doubt they’re working on something! More tracking = more data = more £££ for Google 😂

for information, they won’t work with Fox 38s as the hole they need to fit in to is a narrower diameter than on other forks (36s, 34s etc). Well I did get it to work but involved a lot of filing down of the air tag and a small amount on the biketag.

If you have a Samsung phone, Samsung have the Smarttag which is similar. It’s square shaped though so almost certainly won’t fit in anything designed for an AirTag unfortunately

I’ve got Air tags and use stealth under saddle mounts but i’ve just got a Knog Scout for my new gravel bike and I like it. Its more of a bike alarm and once armed sends a signal to your iphone if your bike is moved ( again iphone only) as well as an optional aubible alarm. Works out at same price as an airtag and a mount. Bike can be tracked using the ‘wheres my’ iphone app. Knog App is easy to use too.

If you have a Samsung phone, Samsung have the Smarttag which is similar.

with the caveat that it’s opt-in (unlike Apple) which probably means coverage is somewhat less!

Been using the Samsung Galaxy smart tags for similar job – but wish there was a stealthy mount (currently mounted up under saddles on each bike).

I did get to be on the plane at Denver airport with my luggage (also tagged) showing in the hold but my bike still showing somewhere across the airport. You do have the ‘fun’ of watching it bounce around the world until it catches you up a week or so later!!

If you are using one to find a stolen bike, you might want to remove the speaker from it before installing it.

Disabling the speaker is definitely useful, but if the scrote also has an iPhone won’t they still get the anti-stalker notifications to their phone? Sorry if I’m misunderstanding it, I’m still trying to get my head around all the ins and outs of using AirTags for bike tracking purposes.

I can see them being useful to find a bike immediately after it being taken, but doubtful after 12-24 hours.

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I can see them being useful to find a bike immediately after it being taken, but doubtful after 12-24 hours.

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Is that the typical time period before the anti-stalking notifications kick in?

I can see them being useful to find a bike immediately after it being taken, but doubtful after 12-24 hours.

yeah, it’s a cheap n cheerful solution that might help. You can get proper GPS trackers that use the mobile network, generally they require a monthly subscription though so much more expensive overall.

Disabling the speaker is definitely useful, but if the scrote also has an iPhone won’t they still get the anti-stalker notifications to their phone? Sorry if I’m misunderstanding it, I’m still trying to get my head around all the ins and outs of using AirTags for bike tracking purposes.

The anti-stalker stuff is iphone only but anyone with a smart phone can check for the presence of a tag as it transmits via bluetooth. Anyone stealing a bike professionally, rather than an opportunist, would do this as it’s so easy. Apple even provide an android app to do this.

Is that the typical time period before the anti-stalking notifications kick in?

It was but I think Apple have changed something recently, if I take my wife’s keys I now get a notification within an hour or 2 (and so did my mate in the pub last night). It used to take much longer before it alerted me.

I still plan to keep using airtags on the bikes (3 of ours have them so far) but they’re maybe not as useful as they were. Better than nothing.

gplama had a good take on how useful these are in differnt locations – always the trade off of visibility(aka removeability) v find-ability