Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 13,140
Likes: 2,162
From: Ann Arbor, MI
Bikes: 15 Kinesis Racelight 4S, 76 Motebecane Gran Jubilée, 17 Dedacciai Gladiatore2, 12 Breezer Venturi, 09 Dahon Mariner, 12 Mercier Nano, 95 DeKerf Team SL, 19 Tern Rally, 21 Breezer Doppler Cafe+, 19 T-Lab X3, 91 Serotta CII, 23 3T Strada
E-bike manufacturers should be integrating anti-theft systems, since they can, electronically, make a bike unridable when an alarm is triggered. DelFast e-bikes have an excellent alarm system and disabler; adding a Lo-Jack type GPS tracker would be easy and might be nice, but personally, I wouldn’t bother. The bike is heavy enough that the odds of anyone picking it up and loading it in a van (while it’s screaming at 120db) is awfully low.
Knog have an aftermarket bicycle alarm system called Scout, that, while not e-bike specific, not only integrates Apple Find My tracking with a motion alarm, it also sends an alert to the owner’s iPhone app when in Bluetooth range. That’s pretty perfect for my typical scenarios, like a quick cafe stop or end-of-ride biergarten hang.
I really like the idea of deterring a theft a lot more than tracking one.