Thieving scumbag defeating device: I’ve made something you might like.

First things first, mods please delete this if you think it’s inappropriate.

In the spirit of threads gone by (I’m thinking mostly about Trout’s lights and the m970 endcap project, although I’m sure there are others!) I’ve been working away on a bike tracking solution for quite a while now, and on Christmas Eve finally took delivery of the parts for the first proper batch!

The basic idea is to conceal an Apple AirTag as discreetly as possibly inside your bike (in a location where the signal can still escape) so that if your bike is stolen you can easily track it down and get it back. It turns out that the bottom a tapered steerer tube is the ideal place, and so the BikeTag Trail was born. It’s a simple plastic widget with an expanding washer that installs securely into your steerer tube, holding the AirTag in place. It also stops it filling up with muck.

The AirTags are really great for this purpose as they have a mega battery life (>1 year) and don’t require an expensive subscription to run. In years gone by I’ve looked in quite some detail (knocking up PCBs etc) at making a GPS based tracker, but the physics of GPS make it very hard to conceal on a bike, and that’s before you get into subscription costs and battery life. When the AirTag came along I knew it was perfect.

Anyway, you can find them on eBay.

Hope everyone’s had a great Christmas and is getting out on the bike today!

Certainly a lot more concealed than some of the alternative designs on eBay. Nice, I might have a look at the air tag as a cheap tracker device. I haven’t got an iPhone, but my missis does.

But if the thief has an iPhone doesn’t it warn them that an airtag is nearby?

Not for three days, and even then doesn’t tell them where it is. I think it needs to be travelling with them consistently to trigger the warning too – plausible if they’re actually using it for transport, but I suspect most get stored and sold on.

Problem is if this becomes a normal thing to use, it will be the first thing the scrotes look for and remove. Nice idea though.

Can you not just Air Tag all the scrotes so we can keep an eye out for where they are lurking?

Doesn’t it rely on being in bluetooth range of another iphone?

Not for three days

might want to double-check that

Would an airtag inside a frame tube (maybe stuck inside a washing up sponge pushed into the top/downrube via the headtube or BB area. … a be less obvious than a repurposed crud bung.

An RFID tag would also be easy to hide for tracking if found….. they are the size of a paracetamol tablet reliant on being scanned obviously but if fitted right hard to remove without destruction of frame…… (Dip in epoxy and push into a frame tube somewhere)

Is there a decent Android equivalent of the airtag that’s worth looking at?

Problem is if this becomes a normal thing to use, it will be the first thing the scrotes look for and remove. Nice idea though.

That would be a nice problem to have but with over 3 million bikes sold in the UK each year I think it could be a while 😅

Would an AirTag inside a frame tube (maybe stuck inside a washing up sponge pushed into the top/downrube via the headtube or BB area. … a be less obvious than a repurposed crud bung

This is a great idea but sadly wouldn’t work as there’s nowhere for the signal to escape from – even deep inside an open ended tube won’t work very well, let alone fully enclosed. You’re basically locking the AirTag inside a Faraday cage.

Is there a decent Android equivalent of the AirTag that’s worth looking at?

There are quite a few alternatives out there, but most of them are too big to conceal nicely on a bike. Tile have just released the Sticker which looks like a good alternative and is significantly cheaper than an Airtag (you can get four packs for about £50), and is iOS/Android compatible, but it doesn’t have a user replaceable battery (boo e-waste).

The trouble with the Android equivalents if the size of the userbase – all these devices work by having everyone in the userbase “listen out” for the tags – all iPhones now do this in the background without the user realising, so the userbase is very large and the AirTag only needs to come within 20m or so of an iPhone to be picked up and report its location to the AirTag owner. For a stolen bike, this is very, very likely to happen. If you’d used, say, a Tile, the chance of it coming in range of an Android phone with the Tile app installed is much slimmer. I think Tile also charge a subscription for their remote premium service.

You’re basically locking the AirTag inside a Faraday cage.

Indeed how ever it would preferable than tracking your “bike” to a ditch …as the scrotes removed the obvious and easily removed tracker….

Unfortunantly if it’s a popular device it’ll be a victim of its own success…..the best defence would be to have a device that could be mounted in several different place so the scrote has to invest time in looking for it rather than checking the one obvious

They look really good. I was looking for an AirTag mount a while back and ended up buying a couple of 3D printed ones that sit behind the bottle cage. They work really well but yours are much more discreet (if a little pricey).

Very top of your seat post ….. Sheltered by the saddle. Or a replacement seat post top plate where you fit it inside the very top of the post but that requires dismantling to find it.

Inside the stuffing of the saddle it’s self.

@trail_rat – not quite, but not far off:-

https://www.freewheel.co.uk/laut-bike-tag-saddle-mount-for-airtag-black-laut0002

An RFID tag would also be easy to hide for tracking if found….. they are the size of a paracetamol tablet reliant on being scanned obviously but if fitted right hard to remove without destruction of frame…… (Dip in epoxy and push into a frame tube somewhere)

That’s exactly what an Immobitag is, but it’s a passive device that relies on the police finding your bike then scanning it to match with the real owner. This is much more active, and having read up about the airtag, definitely something I’m thinking about getting.

I think it’s a cracking idea to attach an airtag, or similar.
Serious thief will probably scan a bike first and give up if one is found, as it’ll be too much hassle to remove it before stealing.
A scallywag scrote looking to quickly move on a nicked bike will probably not be arsed to look for a tag and dispose of it.

gplama did a review of an airtag mount disguised as a reflector on his youtube channel, which looked about the best option I have seen.

not perfect, but the ‘whatabouts’ are pretty much inconsequential, especially considering the nominal cost. Might even be worthwhile installing two on a frame- most people looking for a tracker won’t look any further after finding the first one.
Reckon these’ll become pretty much universal in some shape or form in a few years, probably even oem.
Maybe worth contacting someone like Cotic or Bird who seem quite flexible and responsive, they might be willing to take it on and add to purchase options/install at purchase.
EDIT or even Charlie on here- might be willing to add it to the shop on here.

I do think it’s better than nothing, and a suitably cheap option, but the more recent privacy updates make them really limited. Apparently even within 24 hours of being apart from their owner they start beeping to alert anyone nearby of their presence, and any iOS device that travels with it will fire up an alert. So it might give you some info in the first day or so after a bike has been stolen, but anything beyond that is optimistic.

what testing have you do on it?

what testing have you do on it?

I’ve been running the various iterations of it on my bike and a few others for about 4 months now (everything takes longer to develop than you think…) and it’s performed faultlessly. I’ve sent friends off to hide bikes around the city and see how long it’ll take to find them on the app and then locate the bike – quite a boring game as they always showed up right away and you just follow the dot on the map right to the bike. I’ve also done tests comparing the signal strength of the airtag in the steerer tube compared to the airtag in the air – the difference is certainly measurable but not enough to make a big difference. In fact when my van broke down in Glen Shiel and I had to leave it for a week or so, I was constantly getting location updates on the airtag in my steerer of the bike in the back of the van.

where abouts are you?

where abouts are you?

Lancaster way

This is much more active,

But also much more likely to be removed.

Two separate things. One would be proving a bike was stolen (ergo a prosecution )

The other for possibly getting back your bike within the first 24 hours or less…..

The idea of multiples is a good one though as you say unlikely to look beyond the first

They’re called ‘BikeTag Trail’ if anyone wants to find them on ebay

Well done for developing a product. Doing it properly always takes longer than you think.

Has an airtag ever been used to recover a stolen bike or any stolen property? Just wondering if the police would act if it tracked it to a house?

They look good and I’ll have a look on EBay. I have a couple of very low profile bottle cage AirTag holders from WooCycle that come with secure (ish) Allen key bolts. I’m sure a serious thief will find them and remove them it’s just not a bit more of a deterrent. I have also heard of a friend of a friend getting their bikes back due to AirTags.

Has an airtag ever been used to recover a stolen bike or any stolen property?

apparently a colleague of a friend used one to retrieve a stolen Land Rover! Thieves had disabled the installed GPS tracker but there were some keys or something with an AirTag on inside. Managed to find it parked up a few miles away!

See post above yours! Yes bikes recovered with AirTags. Stolen in S.London recovered in Hampshire

excellent, I was looking at this recently. I thought the bottom of the steerer was the only place. I/we have a few top end racers that I have them in the little saddle pack but where to put them elsewhere. not a clue…

I have disabled the sounder.

I’ve got a few Tile trackers, one on each set of keys. My oh left her keys somewhere and they kept popping up in the app quite frequently. I’d imagine apple are even better

Samsung also do some that are located by any Samsung phone and there are a lot of those.

I think they are a great idea for tracking a bike until someone build a GPS tracker into an ebike.

If I used apple stuff I’d check out the ops steerer option.

Can the apple ones be used on android?

That looks pretty decent. I think I’d quite like a plug similar to that without the AirTag just to fill the hole.

Thieving scumbag defeating device

Disappointed, was hoping for some kind of cellular-activated dropper post based arse spike, or self-destructing stem/grip bolts.

Could be used as a Fork Cork? It’s £10 cheaper.

Can the apple ones be used on android?

Can’t set them up or put them in lost mode. Can read them with NFC or detect if one’s following you.

I’ve ordered four, brilliant idea, now just need to order some airtags 🙂

I’d say the first few hours after your bike is nicked will determine whether you get it back or not.

Ordered one – Not sure of the name though.