Bike Alarm

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Bikermole

Bikermole

Wannabie Member
Because of life issues, I'm moving out of my parents house to a place of my own, However, Im going from having a secure garage to haveing it outside just off the road (behind a house)

I'm obviously worried about security, so Ive bought a new disklock, a cover and a chain to stick through the back wheel. There is no option of a ground anchor.

I was wondering, as the title suggests, about fitting an alarm to the YBR. I have no idea what types there are availiable to me, how much they are and whether they are any use or not.

So any advice would be gladly appreciated

Cheers
 
Chuckles85 said:
what can you chain your bike around then? Apart from itself?
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I havent had a look at the flat yet, but Ill probably just chain the wheel to the frame, or get a long chain and chain the two wheels together
 
I've been involved in quite a discussion on this subject on another forum and the consensus appear to be - get a disc lock alarm (I have a Xena XX10) and a good sturdy chain. That's enough to deter the opportunist thief, but if the professional thief wants your bike they'll have it virtually no matter what you do to it. Just make sure the insurance is accurate and deter the neds from nicking it is my view.
 
I think alarms are brilliant, much more convenient than a disk lock alarm and much more reliable as well. I gave up on my disk lock alarm in the end because it went off whenever the wind picked up, fitted alarm systems are preferable in my opinion. I had a Acumen Cat21 alarm on my 125, which was great, if expensive (around £229).
A cheaper option is the Datatool Demon which comes in around £80 self fit. I have a Datatool S4 Red on the Fazer which seems ok, shouldn't be too different.

Chuckles85 said:
A floor anchor through the bottom of a clever placed plant pot with no bottom would do the trick :P
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Good idea, as long as the plant pot is never moved...ever!
 
Bikermole said:
Chuckles85 said:
why an't you fit a ground anchor?
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Landlord wont have it, and I'd lose my deposit if I put one in anyway
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I have heard of someone that has got a very large flowerpot eg
Large-Ceramic-Flower-Pot-MT010-.jpg
which they filled mainly with concrete, attached a ground anchor and filled the top part with plants so the anchor was hidden. That way, without the chain in it, it looks like a flowerpot, and even if the landlord knows it is full of concrete he/she should be ok with it because when you move you just need to smash it into smaller pieces (which can be a bit hard to do) and take it down the tip. ie it is not perminant, but it is an immovable object which the bike can be chained to
 
Chuckles85 said:
A floor anchor through the bottom of a clever placed plant pot with no bottom would do the trick :P
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damn it, I need to learn to read replies before replying myself.

Didnt mean to steal your thunder, but my idea is slightly different :p :mrgreen:
 
I've toy'd with the idea of a home made bollard but a chain plus disk lock all locking a cover to the bike (you can get covers with holes in for it) is deterrent enough, anything more and they can have it, that's what insurance is for.

I have an idea though for a bike clamp, only it doesn't secure the wheels. It secures the frame.

Imagine:

\_/ the two flaps either side have prongs that move and lock into place to slide through holes in your frame.

You ride over the flat bit. Stand down. Flip up the sides and lock into place. Now your kickstand and it's safety kill switch mechanism is protected, your gear shift is protected so they can't change gear and it's all hidden under sheet steel and locked together with nice thick pins.

Add lead weight to the flat bit, so it's heavy to move, shape it into a ramp to ride up and over.

You can ride up, lock up and not have to worry to much about anchoring it to the floor.

Only problem is I can't weld. It'd be a bastard to market it universally to fit all bikes and it'd probably cost a fortune to prototype.

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
 
Disc lock alarms are the best bet for an alarm, you can also get car style alarms for less than $100USD installed, but the ones I've seen are easily set off and more of an annoyance than a theft deterrent.

It must suck to live in a place where you have to worry about your property and you can't trust the general public. My bike is under a gazebo with my helmet, jacket and gloves sitting on it and the keys in the ignition.
 
Get EYERTHING!

Alarms may deter most but pro's will be able to bypass it in seconds.

I had a chained and disclocked VFR750 (so not light!) carried from my driveway halfway down the street by two scrotes one night - so you NEED to get some kind of ground anchor in!

How much is your deposit, and it it worht losing that compared to losing your bike?

If not, go with the 'bucket o' crete' idea - even a bucket filled with cement with a bit of metal in there will do the job. I like the plant pot idea as they do look better.

They'll just unbolt your brake disc and tie it to the forks and wheel it away, if they're determined enough.

If you get a chain, I'd recommend getting an Almax chain - the links are too wide to fit in the head of a set of bolt croppers, hence the only way to break it is with a lot of noisy cutting equipment and some serious effort. ANY other chain, insurance rated or not, is able to be cropped in mere seconds. If you don't believe me there's someone on YouTube (I think he's called CaptainCropper) who has videos of him cropping all the 'top' brand chains - all except the Almax. ;)
 
alarms are okay but can get annoying and temperamental plus they drain your battery, i'd go with a ground anchor plus good chain and a disc lock if i wanted to be sure it was as secure as could be...

if you park your bike close to your house at night then i have a friend that rigged up a wireless doorbell to the sidestand, sounder inside the house and push unit contacts modified so when the sidestand is kicked up it rings the doorbell inside your home to alert you...
 
There are a couple of bad points with alarms - however, the newer type of them have little to no downsides. I personally went down the Datatool S4 (red) alarm, and am totally not regretting it. The thing is super-loud, actually has an immobiliser, and I've left the bike off for a month without noticing a battery issue.

However, alarms are not the be-all-end-all. Good thieves will lug your bike into a truck before the alarm has a chance to sound. Something that a chain (to a very immovable object) can solve.

The flowerpot-concrete solution is a really good one. Go to Homebase, buy the biggest flower pot you can get. Buy concrete. Load the concrete into the flowerpot, and let it solidify. You suddenly have a 100kg+ flowerpot anchor. Fit a mount on top of the concrete, add a bit of ground + flowers to mask it, and you suddenly have a camouflage anchor. You can also combine flowerpots by doing the same and chaining them to one another to increase the carry weight that a thief will have to lug off the ground.
Alternatively, find a ramp/immovable feature to lock it to. Bear in mind, though, that if they do want to steal your bike, they'll go for the chain instead of moving the bike.
 
About the bike alarm, if anyone is interested in a disc lock alarm there is a cheap £8.99 padlock available in aldi's at the moment, comes with a bloody loud alarm onboard.

I bought a long shackle one to fit around my disc and the wheel spokes :)

Just a heads up if you're looking for one.

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
 
Bloke said:
About the bike alarm, if anyone is interested in a disc lock alarm there is a cheap £8.99 padlock available in aldi's at the moment, comes with a bloody loud alarm onboard.

I bought a long shackle one to fit around my disc and the wheel spokes :)

Just a heads up if you're looking for one.

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
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Has it been Thatcham-rated or equivalent?

I personally tend to consider bike alarms the same way as pushbike locks - if it's not highly rated, no matter how cheap it is, I won't buy it. No point inducing yourself into a false sense of security, especially considering the horrors you can find in such deals (I once bought a pushbike lock and pulled hard on it - and it broke)

A well-rated disc lock+intrusion detection (it's not really an alarm) comes for about £70, by the way. Imagine how much Aldi probably slacked on the materials.
 
sebrenauld said:
Imagine how much Aldi probably slacked on the materials.
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But they do do nice Pizza :)

Personally I have a heavy chain through the back wheel attached to a drainpipe (yes easy to break drain pipe but as its attached to front of house I hope I would hear someone breaking it), alarmed disc lock on the front and an over sized cover to make it look like a crappy moped!
 
thunderous71 said:
sebrenauld said:
Imagine how much Aldi probably slacked on the materials.
Click to expand...

But they do do nice Pizza :)

Personally I have a heavy chain through the back wheel attached to a drainpipe (yes easy to break drain pipe but as its attached to front of house I hope I would hear someone breaking it), alarmed disc lock on the front and an over sized cover to make it look like a crappy moped!
Click to expand...

I've personally got a super cat1 alarm fitted on my bike, a chain through the back wheel, and a disc lock. The bike is also in a car park that is virtually inaccessible unless you happen to have the key, which about 5 people have.

Sadly, I can't do what I used to do last year. The house's gas mains was right beside where I parked my bike... so I got cheeky and chained my bike to it. Anyone daft enough to cut through the gas mains would turn into a fireball.
 
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