I need a good recommendation for a tracker for a bike
 

This bike tracker and alarm ( knog scout )

I was considering this as a tracker which is the main thing I'm after as someone steals my bike I can track its location track it down have the cops go and get it and deal with the culprit and then have them arrested

But this customer review has

Has made me consider otherwise
Especially for the main feature I'm after the tracking I didn't fully understand what it was telling me but I got this since that it wasn't great

So I'm asking if anyone knows of any trackers for bikes whether it's a just a simple tag like an air tag or one that is meant for a bike
It would be helpful if you could give me some tips I would prefer one that is none subscription can track it to a location within 5 or 10 ft
The battery thing I can deal with but I would prefer rechargeable
Also I had a Motorola 2022 g stylus
I would prefer something other than an air tag from Apple iPhone

What do you guys recommend oh also if it's not clear I need to track it over the distance of a city or two because I've already had four bikes stolen and who knows how far they took the bike they could have taken it like three or four cities over distance wise

Locks no longer work, The very best ones can still be cut, some quickly, but even the best can be cut in a couple minutes, or cut what the lock is locked to.

Airtags don't work. Inside the frame, the metal tube will block the transmission. Under the seat or on the handlebars is obvious, they will cover it with a Faraday Cage bag, metal mesh that blocks radio waves. Inside the tire may work, but cause imbalance, and may get crushed when hitting a pothole.

My city is VERY HIGH bike theft. What I now do:

NEVER leave the bike unattended, not for even 1 second, that is enough for someone to grab the bike and ride off. Never let ANYONE put a hand on your bike. A street guy here had a flat tire, I let him use my pump, then at end he said it was HIS pump. I had to get angry with him, ready to fight, before he backed off. My mistake to let him use the pump, and if I pumped it, my bike would be left standing alone. Nope. I now evaluate the situation and the person.

NEVER leave the bike chained outside, not for 10 seconds even.

BRING THE BIKE WITH YOU, WHEREVER YOU ARE GOING. Food shopping, the store knows me and the bike theft rate here, and lets me wheel through fine. My doctor, my dentist, I lock the bike to a chair in the waiting room; No one is going to cut a lock there with the receptionist watching.

A SMALL-WHEEL FOLDING BIKE, like mine, can often get you in when other bikes are banned; You fold the bike and put it in the shopping cart and wheel in. Some folders collapse and wheel on tiny wheels like a baby stroller, those get in.

WHERE BIKES ARE PROHIBITED: Such as government buildings with metal detectors and guards, no bikes, even a folder. I WALK THERE. If I cannot keep the bike with me, I DO NOT BRING THE BIKE. PERIOD.

If you need your bike to commute to work or other, talk to your employer about safe storage inside.

In my area new employer says you're going to store your bike outside in the discussion no negotiation

Sounds like either you leave your bike at home or look for another position elsewhere with a more flexible policy.

Or find a bike you can use for commuting that wouldn't be as appealing to a thief, but that might someday leave you looking for a ride home from work.

Unfortunately neither or an option for me so I need something

Scout uses Apple's FindMy tech, needs an app to enable / disable alarm feature. Faraday cage / bag'd defeat that function.

The 85db alarm ought to get some attention.

Okay but I didn't understand what I'm asking for more importantly more important than the alarm feature that goes off and has an 85 decibel is the tracking feature I want to know where my bike goes if it's stolen and where it is when they stop so the police can go get it and arrest the person who stole it

Let's be clear about police, a stolen bike is like someone stealing a french fry, they don't generally care. However that being said it is better to have as much data and get it to them to make sure if there is a chance of action they will have it. Alarms are neat and ABUS has a bunch of alarm locks as well as an alarm box.

The "Find My" stuff is for lost items but for theft it is not ideal as it is easy for anyone to access and easy to find and remove. A hidden GPS tracker will do better and if I recall Knog is more like an airtag than GPS Tracker but I could be wrong.

Read this

I tried that link. Got a "This Site Can't Be Reached" page.

I didn't want to do this but here

Knog Scout Bike Alarm and Finder review

tl;dr: Knog’s “Scout Bike Alarm and Finder” is a nice rechargeable AirTag with a motion-activated alarm but it has some limitations and currently some showstopper bugs unless you have the latest firmware (1.1.3)

I’ve been using AirTags to track my bicycles for a while. The Knog Scout is a relatively new Find My compatible device that adds two features that some AirTag users are interested in:

1. Motion sensor and 85 dB alarm
   
2. Rechargeable battery
   

There aren’t many user reviews out there so I figured I’d relay some observations because this early review from BikeRumor gives a misleading impression about the device’s notification and standalone abilities.

The Knog app

The AirTag features can be used without the Knog app, but the unique alarm features require a user registration and adding the Scout within the app. This also adds the Scout as a Bluetooth device within iOS.

Arming or disarming the Scout requires the phone to be within Bluetooth range and for the Knog app to be active. This renders the on-device arming/disarming button fairly useless because you will likely need to open the app on the phone anyway. At that point you might as well arm/disarm the Scout within that phone app interface rather than pressing the tiny physical button on the side of the Scout.

iOS 16 has recently removed the ability to view remaining battery capacity for AirTags but the Knog Scout has retained this feature, visible as battery bars (only graphical, no percentage) in both the Knog app and Find My.

Notifications

This is the big disappointment. BikeRumor’s review indicated that:
Once the unit is armed, Knog claims that any movement of the bike will trigger what they say is an “impossible-to-ignore alarm of 85 decibels”. The Scout will then send a text alert to your iPhone notifying you and giving the user the ability to track your steeds location by using Apple’s ‘Find My’ app. hopefully helping the user to recover their bike faster.
This is extremely misleading, because the alarm activation notification is not sent out over the Find My network (i.e. other people’s phones while you’re somewhere else). It is only sent if your phone is currently connected to the Scout via Bluetooth. It only notifies you when the bike is moved if the app is currently active or recently opened and the phone is within Bluetooth range of the scout. There is no retroactive notification either (which could be evidence of attempted theft or tampering).

This renders the phone notification useless in most cases, as the max ~30 m Bluetooth range (which is a best case with zero obstructions) means the user would likely have been within earshot of the alarm as it was going off. The only scenario where this might not be true is if the bike is parked just outside a storefront and the user is somehow within Bluetooth range but not within earshot of the alarm. To be fair, Knog does seem to have considered this “parked outside the cafe” scenario because the app allows for independent adjustment of (app) alert volume for headphones vs. speakers. So someone using noise canceling headphones and sitting close to their bike (but not within line of sight) could conceivably benefit from the app notifications.

Contrary to Knog’s claim (as stated by BikeRumor) I cannot imagine a scenario where the app’s alarm notifications would trigger leading to a user firing up Find My to find their bike, rather than running over to the exact location they parked their bike.

It would have been a marvelous addition to standard AirTag “Notify when found” functionality to include a “Notify when moved” function. But alas, this is not how the Scout works and there may be anti-stalking considerations that prevent Apple from allowing such messaging through the Find My network.

Alarm characteristics

There are 11 different alarm tones but they are only numbered 1-11 with no way to sample what they sound like other than to trigger the alarm repeatedly (neighbors will love you). The 85 dB max volume isn’t particularly loud compared to car alarms and the usefulness of the alarm suffers from the general public’s desensitization to such sounds. As I experimented with my Scout a stranger in the parking garage completely ignored the alarm while I messed with my bike. I doubt the low-fi speaker can manage it but a better alarm sound would have been pre-recorded messages like “This bike is being moved without permission” or “Stop stealing this bike. You have twenty seconds to comply.”

Once activated the alarm rings for about 60 seconds before becoming silent again when no further movement is sensed.

I think the 1-100 volume setting does not provide a wide enough range of volume. 1 still seems pretty loud. Edit: I misunderstood the app's volume settings. What can be adjusted in the app is the volume of the notifications on the phone, either from the phone's speakers or from headphones. The alarm volume on the Scout itself cannot be changed except for putting it in Silent Mode, which provides the same notifications to the phone when in Bluetooth range, but does not sound the alarm on the Scout.

Physical characteristics

The Scout is quite small and lightweight. The included high visibility yellow cover only weighs about 7 g but prevents mounting of a bottle cage over it and will slightly muffle the sound and cover up the lights.

There is a very small bump (protruding about 4 mm) off-centered on the underside that could possibly prevent flush mounting to flat tubes. Nothing a few small washers couldn’t fix.

The anti-theft bolts can be turned with the included tool (which for weight weenies weighs a hefty 12 g) or a small pin scanner.

Overall the physical package is very nice and discreet. It fits under my frame bags without noticeably reducing internal volume.

Find My considerations

While testing two Scouts I also had an AirTag placed within a frame bag on two different bikes (within inches of each Scout). During my testing I noticed the following behaviors:

• AirTags and Knog Scouts do not necessarily update at the same time, which is not surprising. Wake-up and sampling intervals have been documented elsewhere and I have no evidence that the Knog Scout is any different from a normal AirTag in this respect. In high traffic areas my AirTags and Knog Scouts are always located close to one another and updated within minutes of one another.
  
• What’s more surprising is that I observed that an AirTag had updated its Find My location at the same time as my Scout alarm going off (due to motion combined with the presence of an iOS device), but the Scout that was blaring an alarm did not update, instead indicating that it was last seen 72 minutes prior. The AirTag having updated rules out iOS device presence as an issue, and suggests that the Knog’s alarm going off does not necessarily put it in a mode more likely to report its location through the Find My network.
  

Bugs

Power failure bug

On firmware version 1.1.2 I have experienced bugs where a fully charged Scout became completely powered down and unresponsive as I attempted to disarm it, and only returned to life when I returned home and connected a USB-C cable and the device showed up again as fully charged. Neither the Knog app specific functions nor the AirTag functions were available; during the incident it looked like the device was completely without power. I informed Knog and customer support were quick to respond with a note that the dev team were aware of the issue and releasing a new firmware shortly.

First month update: I have now experienced this power failure issue three times across my two Scouts, each time happening as I interact with it in the app. This is incredibly inconvenient and I've now taken to carrying a portable power bank along with a USB-C charging cable to revive my Scout when it happens again. The new firmware has yet to show up but I have been assured that it will be available soon. The latest time literally happened while my parking garage neighbor was informing me that his double-locked bike was just stolen and to be careful because my bike was now the nicest bike in the garage!

Second month update: I experienced a Scout power failure in the absence of interaction with the Scout app, that is, it spontaneously stopped working on its own while the Scout was disarmed and on a bike sitting outside on my balcony at about 12 degrees C (54 F). As usual connecting the power cord restarted the device, but shortly afterward I received a Knog app notification telling me that the battery was low. The Scout had only recently been charged and the battery level was fine later even without charging so I suspect that there is something flaky about the power handling circuitry, which can manifest as abnormally low voltage during power demanding operations (such as feeding the DAC with samples to sound tones with while arming/disarming) or even spontaneously. If this is the case, I suspect that the device may be particularly susceptible to these power dropouts in cold weather and while the alarm is sounding.

Firmware 1.1.3 update: The new firmware has finally been released and appears to have fixed the power issue. However, it took Knog a few months to push it out to customers: their CS said it's releasing "tomorrow" on Sep 20, but firmware wasn't available until Nov 10.

App freezing

The Knog app becomes unresponsive while connecting to my Scouts about a quarter of the time, requiring me to close the app and restart it. One time while doing so, the app forgot both of my registered Scouts (they went missing) which forced me to physically detach and do a force reset of both Scouts back at home. I'm not sure whether it was necessary but the manual indicated that I should remove and re-add both of them in Find My. This was a real pain. Knog CS indicated that what I experienced may have been a server issue that has been addressed on their end.

The app has not been updated in the 3 months since the Scout was released, so it does not appear that fixing this app freezing issue is a priority for Knog.

Flashing LEDs

Knog informed me that currently the app's LED functionality is backwards: to make the lights flash during an alarm you have to uncheck the "Flash LEDs During Alarm" box.

Summary

I wrote this to put out some facts about the Knog Scout and how it works to balance the uninformative official documentation and bike industry previews from earlier in the summer. The best way to describe the Knog Scout is that it’s an AirTag plus a motion sensitive alarm in a very compact package perfect for mounting on bikes. The limitation is that the Scout does not transmit alarm activation notifications via the Find My network; the anti-theft functionality is not any more high tech than a securely-mounted AirTag plus a separate motion activated alarm. The US$60 price puts it close to the cost of buying both of those things separately, but the integrated theft-proof form factor is well-designed and worth it to me.

Yeah same issue as I had figured. In the end the AirTag stuff is for lost items not stolen goods. AirTags are beyond easy to detect disable and if they don't they still require everyone's iPhones to be effective and with no iPhones around they stop tracking. Plus they can make a noise which makes it easier to find them if the thief's haven't already been alerted to it.

The alarm is fine but the AirTag portion is useless.

Do you have any alternatives

Yes a GPS Tracker, LandSeaAIr makes a good one that I have tested in the past. There is/was company called Sherlock that made one that seemed like a great option and got some great reviews. The ABUS alarm box is great for the alarm side of it or just get an alarm lock from them which is also quite great.

For now I'll focus on tracker

That would make more sense, a good GPS tracker is probably better than an alarm. I find alarms more annoying than anything and in the end I just get pissed at people with them and almost wish their cars would get stolen.

This Sherlock is it a GPS tracker also the ambus alarm box is it a alarm that goes off or is it a tracker or both

Look at the front of a microwave oven; Behind the glass, you will see a screen of sorts, a sheet of metal with so many holes you can see through it. But those holes are small enough (smaller than the wavelength or half wavelength of the microwave energy source), that it blocks the radiation from escaping. Inside the oven, solid metals walls do the same, but the holes in front allow you to see inside. That screen in front is a Faraday Shield.

To completely shield a device, from emitting radiation or protecting it from radiation (including any "radio waves"), you completely enclose the device in such a shield, known as a Faraday cage. It can be like the microwave, rigid metal with tons of small holes. OR, it can be a flexible mesh, like metal window screens, as long as the holes in the mesh are small enough. These days you can buy, at low cost, a "Faraday bag" that will serve that purpose. Smart thieves (and they share information among each other) will use a Faraday bag to DEFEAT any airtag or similar device, by blocking all radio wave transmissions, to or from the device. Wherever this is impractical, requiring too large a Faraday bag, like in the frame, the metal frame tubes also block radio waves. Thus, I recommend NOT relying on any airtag/radiowave device to secure your bike.

If you are low-income (sounds like you are), you should investigate discounted rates for the shared/rental bike programs that are in MANY cities now. Here in my city, the homeless can use (at least one brand of) the bikes up to an hour a day for only $10 a month flat registration fee (so about 33 cents a day). You shouldn't make any assumptions until you ask. If your city has a general phone number for social services information, try there first. Otherwise, try calling each rental bike company. If your disability or diagnosis is on record, you probably qualify for a ton of free or discounted services.

I'll look into that ty but I still prefer to have my own bike one for personal freedom two it's really my only source of exercise at the moment

The Sherlock device is a GPS tracker. The ABUS alarmbox is just an alarm but they make locks that have alarms in them as well which would probably help you on two fronts

Okay I'll try the Sherlock device

Of course, so do I. I prefer my own bike for fit, convenience, etc. But this may be an unsolvable situation if you need to leave your bike outside. Battery operated grinders have made bike theft much easier. And, whereas a low-priced bike, locked up, used to be more trouble to steal than it is worth, no longer. Drug addiction has people stealing incredibly low value things; My car just had the hubcaps and *lug nuts* stolen, and one wheel and tire the next night, before I could put on new nuts and wheel locks. A professional thief would have stolen all 4 wheels and tires; This was probably a druggie on foot, only able to move one wheel at a time, to trade for drugs. I just picked up cheap at goodwill, what is a $300 knife set, was priced at $12, huge deal, but the biggest knife, scissors, and honing steel had been untaped and taken; What would someone do that when the whole set is $12? Because you can't fit the whole set with the block in your coat to shoplift; Someone grabbed the most expensive parts to shoplift, rather than spend the full $12 for a $300 set of knives.

If your bike is worth more than $10 and they are able, a druggie will steal it.

If you can use the rental bikes at a low rate (to be determined, you'd need to check as I said), that's less desirable than using your own bike, but less of a headache. And it's still exercise riding the rental bike. If it's an e-bike, that would help immensely with your other problems, if it's faster than you can ride on your own.

You might find out that even though you know where the bike is, the cops aren't going to waste their time. Depends on where you are.

Most thieves that do it as a business for themselves will know to look for trackers and remove them at some point soon after stealing it.

Also, you should talk to your insurance agent. Sometimes your auto or home insurance will cover it. Depending on the insurance company and the particular policies and coverage you purchased. But usually only for certain specific conditions of loss or theft.

Or you can just purchase a policy specifically for your bike and the type of loss you want it covered for. Though for me, I just self insure. If someone stole my bike or car, I wouldn't want it back.

Agree. Don't leave bike alone where it can be stolen. Ever.

A friend of mine left his bike in a car parked in Philadelphia. It got stolen. He had an air tag on it, but with the housing density in the city, he could only narrow it down to 3 possible addresses. The police did NOT want to be bothered unless he was certain of the address. And I am guessing even if he were certain, they would not do anything about it.

Don't leave it out of your sight.

I'm disappointed to see how many people don't realize how impractical this is for some folks. Some people don't have the resources to follow your recommendations.