Originally Posted by
PaulRivers
Yeah, unfortunately.
- Monthly cell network charges
- Battery on unit has to be recharged daily
- Battery runs down when not biking
- Unit has to be located on bike in a hidden way, but also has to be easily charged, and inside a metal frame is often bad for gps and cell reception, and system has to be designed to it's not a "obviously this is where the gps is let's rip it off" situation
It always sounds like a fun idea to me, until I looked at all the hassle and cost. I think dedicated bait bikes sound pretty awesome.
If they could get cell network cost to something reasonable and a decently designed system it sounds interesting (the amount of data it would use to send gps coordinates is tiny)...
But when I heard about gps systems, it's usually on devices that the thief has to power to use (cars, laptops), where it can be designed as hard to find or impossible to remove (built into the circuit board on a laptop, hidden in one of a million places on a car).
Cost is the thing that prohibits the wide use. I bet it can come down. Also its not so much getting it ripped off at home, I have security there too, but its on the street where if I leave it the chance is the biggest that it will be taken.
My Garmin has a battery life of over 12 hours (510) and I think that is better than my 700 lm gets.
One in need should work around difficulties to get to a reasonable workable situation. I bet it wont be long till bikes have the tech. Thanks for the replies
V