So, this bike lock thread (and upcoming trip) reignited my interest in tracking devices.

Ruling out GPS trackers for a variety of reasons, there seems to be 3 options: (1) go with Apple's airtag, (2) go with Samsung's smart tag, (3) go without tag.

The idea of being, perhaps, able to locate a stolen bike has its appeal, but it is not clear at all in my mind how things would work. I mean, if I am touring, how long will I wait hoping to locate the tag, hopefully still attached to my bike? And if located, what then? Etc.

I've read tons of posts about performance or mount options, but can't remember reading how a tourer (as opposed to a commuter or a sedentary cyclist) was able to resume his/her journey thanks to a tag.

FWIW - I have a few Tiles. Used them on keys and wallet and eventually stopped. For no good reason other than having to reconfigure the app after a phone upgrade, or to replace a dead battery. Fact is that I rarely use keys (electronic locks) nor wallet (Google pay) anymore...

There are many reasons you might want a tracker apart from recovering a bike from a thief. For example, you might be flying somewhere with the bike, and it is nice to know it is getting put on the right airplanes, etc. You might stay in a hotel where they make you put your bike in a luggage/ski storage room, etc.

Also, if someone grabs your bike, they might not have time to hunt down your tracker. They make a water bottle cage that hides the air tag, which could help also.

There are many reasons you might want a tracker apart from recovering a bike from a thief. For example, you might be flying somewhere with the bike, and it is nice to know it is getting put on the right airplanes, etc. You might stay in a hotel where they make you put your bike in a luggage/ski storage room, etc.

Also, if someone grabs your bike, they might not have time to hunt down your tracker. They make a water bottle cage that hides the air tag, which could help also.

Figure out where you would put it so that the radio signal is not blocked by metal.

I have never really paid attention to these devices existence. Is there a risk or downside other than cost to using one on your bike or in your gear when touring?

I could see sticking one into a pannier lining or seat wedge lining. I usually have one of those little tool wedges with a stiff liner it could be tucked under. They are small enough, cheap enough, and light enough to consider if there isn't some downside.

The usefulness of a tag depends on proximity to another phone running the tile/apple/samsung app. If the bike isn't in range of such a phone its location is only the last known location. My experience with Tiles are that they only work in crowed public spaces with lots of people. You could get lucky and the thief is running the appropriate app where the bike is located, you never know.

My brother gave me a couple of Tiles a couple of years ago. When I travel, I put one in my camera bag. I've also put them in my panniers. I haven't had to recover a lost or stolen item yet. But I have used them to find my keys and it's kind of cool to look at the app and see my backpack, tablet, and etc... findable

Word is that the Tile network is smaller than the Apple network so theft recovery isn't guaranteed. But it's a cheap plan b for me.

Reading reviews (for Samsung Smart tag), it feels like the most frequent use case, by far, is air travel. Tags allow to track luggage, fairly accurately, in near real time. One review mentions being able to retrieve apparently lost luggage that had been left away from the carousel. Others claim that you can track the luggage from the tarmac to the carousel. Since a lost bike is certain to ruin a trip, perhaps useful to have tag to let you know that your bike is at JFK while you are at SFO. Could speed up recovery.

That, in and of itself, could be enough to justify the expense. Still undecided...

If flying with the bike much it may well be.

I assume this is for your Europe and UK trip. I think if you fly a major airline with larger planes (not a regional contractor to the major with small planes), and if your layovers have adequate time for the big box to get from one plane to the next, you should be in good shape. Even better if you can do it without a layover so there is less opportunity for mis-handling in an airport.

Smaller short haul planes on rare occasion have too much luggage to be able to get everything onto a plane, the biggest box might be the first thing that gets left behind.

Psychological/behavioural.

The Washington Post had an interesting piece on this (can't link. Worth searching). The argument is that people tend to take justice in their own hands. For good reasons possibility since police department will usually not be useful, but there's a significant potential for tension if you confront the person that you think has taken whatever was tagged. Something which is strongly discouraged (you'd be supposed to contact law enforcement telling them that you've located stolen goods).

Notice that these devices are marketed as tools to find what you've lost. Never as anti theft devices.

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I use AirTags mostly so I can locate my stuff if it gets lost rather than stolen. I have one in my wallet, one on my bike and one in my saddlebag. If an airline misplaces my baggage I’ll be able to tell them where it is and if I forget something I’ll be able to find it.

This isn't about air tags, but the same idea could apply. Years ago, I was in Portland visiting my kid. My wife was back home in Central Coastal CA. I noticed her phone was in an unusual location, and she was messaging me from her laptop at home. I asked why her phone was where it was.

She said it was right near her. Turned out I was right, she had dropped it out of the car somehow, and someone had found it and taken it home, not aware that it works the same way as an air tag (which didn't exist at the time).

She and my youngest kid went to the police, and they actually had a cop knock on the door. The people answered and denied they had a phone. Without a warrant, there was nothing to be done.

At least that was the case until the younger kid, who was with my wife, pinged it from his phone, and then all hell broke loose. Someone ran out of the house with the phone and tossed it to the cop and ran back in.

My wife got her phone back.

You can also ping an Air Tag. I assume that is also true for the Tile.

Wait. You are the thread starter. So have you decided on the #notag option? I've never thought stolen bike tracking was a good idea. Anti-theft security strategies are where you should be putting your time and energy. If you are flying with a reputable airline and they lose or misplace your bike somehow they will have to find it or $$$ come your way. If your bike is lost any other way you likely would not find it while on the move on an international journey. So do not let that bike out of your sight unless it is under the airlines custody.

On the fence, leaning on the no tag side.

It is a case of better-safe-than-sorry. Even though I disagree to some extent with statements suggesting that reputable airlines don't lose luggage (baggage handling is done by independent crews. Post COVID had been major mayhem. Google "Pearson airport problems"). Yes, they'll most likely be able to deliver it to you within a few days in the event of a missed connection.

So it seems to boil down to spending 40$ so I know 2 minutes earlier that my bike is about to show up at the oversize luggage door, vs wondering.

For the record, my handbag was once forcibly stolen from me, by 2 teens, daylight, busy street, plain sight, lots of witnesses. Pushed to the ground, brief struggle. Nobody cares. Part of the world where "rich white people" are a resource for the locals. Tags wouldn't have made a difference. Part of the world I was familiar with and had good friends. Stuff happens. Otherwise life sold be boring...

So, yeah, leaning on the no tag side of the fence.

There is a reason that I always take a photo of my luggage before I check it, I can explain to the lost luggage staff in much better detail what my luggage looks like if I can show them a photo on my camera screen.



Above was my Iceland trip, the big black and olive green bags were checked. Below my Canadian Maritimes trip, the big black bag and the orange backpack were checked. Other bags were carried on the plane.



I even had a gate checked bag disappear. Some moron grabbed mine instead of his. He realized it later, and came back to get his instead. I have no clue how he got my medium blue backpack that also had wheels confused with a dark blue daypack that lacked wheels.

That said, airlines are much better now that the tags they put on bags are really hard to tear off of a bag. A few decades ago the tags that listed which airport it went to were easily torn off, at which time the airline could take a long time to figure out where a bag was supposed to go once their airport tag was ripped off.

Last year, I taped a Tile to the underside of the saddle. It tracked fine while flying. As others have said, it needs other users to pick up so I don't know how well it would work in a rural area. Tailwinds, John

Yeah, me too. I figure that $25 or so per tag isn't a big deal though so the investment is one time and small. Given that I could buy one or two on a whim. If I were planning to fly much I'd be leaning the other way. In recent years I have not flown much and probably will continue that way. These days I am flying less and driving or using other surface transportation more. Being retired and having the time a drive across the country is kind of fun in it's own way. From what I hear flying is kind of a mess these days.

I find comfort in knowing your bike is where it is supposed to be. Simple as that. There are times you are forced to be separated and it’s good to know it’s where it is supposed to be within the limits of the technology.

Keep in mind folks AirTags are for lost items they are really not for theft and many folks have gone into great depth on the subject of why these aren't ideal for theft. Yes it is true there are a lot of companies jumping on the make some money train with AirTag holders for bikes but their efficacy as a theft tracker aren't great and if the thief has an iPhone they can just find and remove the tag and know someone was tracking and get a better chance of getting away. Plus out in more rural areas it will be less effective with fewer iPhones or no cell towers.

I would try to keep the bike closer and maybe not all places but a good number of places I have been with my bike especially while touring are pretty nice about letting me bring the bike in. Most people hearing you cycled with stuff are pretty amazed. I took a trip to visit a friend and her new baby and it was maybe 30 miles and everyone who also came over was shocked and stunned wow you biked all the way here with stuff (I was spending a few days) heck even when I went about 1.5 miles from work on my road bike that had a seat bag to hold clothes and stuff for work to eat a favorite restaurant they were amazed even when I said it was 1.5 miles here and maybe 7-8 miles home. Not in every situation mind you some people don't like bikes but if you are nice and friendly people will return in kind if they can. Obviously a little lock could prevent the quick theft and they might allow you to bring just bags in and still you are in a bit better shape.

Eh, not so much. Anytime you take luggage out of the "normal" flow, you stand a higher chance of losing it. Bikes are not normal baggage and they usually are handled manually. Bottom line, if they are going to lose anything, the most likely thing to lose is special handling item. A Delta baggage rep once told me that they could tell me where my bag was but it was no guarantee that it was going to be at the airport that I had just arrived at.

Then there was the disaster last year in Amsterdam Schipol (major hub in the EU especially for Delta and KLM). The baggage system for the airport went down and tens of thousands of bags piled up in enormous piles. A lot of stuff was never connected again with owners or it was weeks later. Delta sent a plane over and loaded it up with a fw thousand bags, flew it back to Detroit to sort it out and then sent it back to AMS. Icelandic airlines flew in their own baggage crews to take baggage off their planes and put it on the right planes completely bypassing the AMS baggage handling system. In that case, AirTags would have been a huge advantage and would give you a fighting chance of getting your big bike trip back on track.

We have AirTags in both our bike cases. You always know where they are and when they arrive on the plane. It's a good system and it makes it impossible for baggage handling claims people to ignore that you know where your bag is even if they don't, and that they have it. Highly recommended. They work.

Another side benefit is that when you special luggage is in the terminal, it's not always near the carousel. With the AirTags, you know where it is and when it's there typically.

Knog is also making a pretty cool thing called a Scout - it uses Apple's AirTag technology and it is incorporated in a bike alarm. You can set it up so if the bike is jostled or messed with in a rack or when locked up, it gives a warning and then sounds an alarm. It also is trackable in the same way an AirTag is. Pretty cool little product.

Ended up ordering a smart tag (my phone is a Samsung). But not intended as anti theft. Two reasons.
(1) perhaps useful in transit, to track luggage;
(2) perhaps to assist in group touring - have each "group leader" (ex: me and my wife) a tag so we won't wonder if a group is lost or stopped along the way.

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One (obvious in hindsight) detail -- the reported tag location is that of the device that captured the tag's signal, and NOT the location of the tag itself. I noticed that my bike was located at bus stops near my home while I was away. My phone was no longer updating the paired tag location, so other Samsung phones coming at a short distance (50 - 100 meters) pick up the lonely tag's signal and relay the tag ID + their location to Samsung, and back to my locator app upon request.