Bike tracking and tagging

aba2005

I bought Datatag under the impression that it was a tracking device, i now know this is incorrect.

My question is, is there a relatively cheap (<£50) tracking device for bicycles? Failing that, is there a universal tagging device that the police use?

Thanks for your help.

OllyUK

The local police where I live tag bikes for free, I dont think its a tagging device but they attach a code to the bottom of the downtube linking it to you. And then if its stolen it apparently makes it harder for thiefs to sell and easier to claim it if its found.

Edit: I think its similar to microchipping a pet.

hastings

most bikes if you look on them have an unique code somewhere on it (mine is on the bottom of the bb) when you buy them so that if it is nicked the police can track it so look out for it before you go to the police

although be aware that some can be sanded off although some are hugely embedded into the frame and it would affect the frame a lot if you took it out and so is impossible to do so

IanR1981

It would be cool if there was some way of planting a tracker device on or in the bike that could be picked up via the net or a scanner of some sort.

I need to stop watching Bond movies!

OllyUK

IanR1981 wrote:

It would be cool if there was some way of planting a tracker device on or in the bike that could be picked up via the net or a scanner of some sort.

I need to stop watching Bond movies!

I have seem a device of that sorts advertised somewhere, but I cant remember where.
All bikes have the unique frame id on the bottom of the bb, its just when I got my last bike stolen, the police said they can't do much with that number, its much easier for them if you get it tagged at a station.

jimmyp1873

OllyUK wrote:

All bikes have the unique frame id on the bottom of the bb, its just when I got my last bike stolen, the police said they can't do much with that number, its much easier for them if you get it tagged at a station.

i know that when i bought mines and the the 2 kids spesh bikes i was told to registar them with spesh, i think it goes into a sort of database. if your bike is stolen then recovered i think it wold depend on the plod if he could be bothered trying to find the owner.

forgotrafe

When I rode London to Paris (in 2 days!) last year, we had live tracking.

Rather handy when I got lost on the outskirts of Paris. Phoned my wife back in Blighty and asked her where I went wrong!

Did mean having to carry a mobile computer with me - but well worth it as everyone on the ride (30ish) seemed to have their friends and family glued to the internet watching our progress.

Rafe

IanR1981

forgotrafe wrote:

When I rode London to Paris (in 2 days!) last year, we had live tracking.

Rather handy when I got lost on the outskirts of Paris. Phoned my wife back in Blighty and asked her where I went wrong!

Did mean having to carry a mobile computer with me - but well worth it as everyone on the ride (30ish) seemed to have their friends and family glued to the internet watching our progress.

Rafe

Rafe,

Can you go into more detail about the kit you needed to achieve this?

Ian.

forgotrafe

Hi Ian,

I've got a mobile solutions company - you've probably seen the sort of thing we do meter readers, couriers, proof-of-delivery, sign-on-screen etc. - so my solution was "commercial" rather than "consumer". But I'll explain how I did it anyway.

I took a CN3 rugged mobile computer (see here). It's got built-in GPS & mobile phone (GPRS), an 8hr+ battery life and runs Windows Mobile. There are cheaper/lighter devices that I could have used but I knew I could rely on the CN3, it wouldn't get damaged or stop working even when shoved into a frame bag and the battery life is superb.

We do have a "black box" tracker that we could of powered from something like a bottle-cage or frame battery for lights (e.g. a Lumicycle one), but as this was a once-only event I really wanted something that gave me feedback as to how well it was working. And to be honest the CN3 wasn't any heavier, and cost wasn't an issue for me

Onto the CN3 we put a bit of software that logged my position every minute and uploaded it to one of our servers every 10. We then produced a small web application that plotted the data onto a Google map (see here, map link is at bottom of blurb). I also produced a Google Earth file at the end of the event.

Appreciate that whilst it's bread-and-butter stuff for us, and we've CN3s & Internet servers a plenty, it's not a very consumer friendly solution. So here are some other thoughts:

SportsDo have developed similar software, except it's hosted for you (so you don't have to worry about servers etc.), prettier and has lots more functionality than just live mapping.

The choice of suitable hardware at consumer level is plentiful, but battery life for a consumer PDA or a mobile phone based solution would be a problem for events that lasted more than a few hours. I reckon a car-charger rigged up to a Lumicycle battery might be a solution to that though.

Of course, if anyone out there is doing a charitable event with reasonable coverage then I'd be happy to consider sponsoring the tracking side of it.

Sorry, long post and I guess of limited interest. But any questions then do ask.

Rafe

IanR1981

Sounds good mate thanks for the post. I have got a PDA and a GPS receiver which I use for TomTom in the car. Can I use that to track where I have been? It would be great if I could either upload it to a server or save it for later download.

Was the software you used for this custom or can you get it from somewhere?

forgotrafe

The software we used was entirely custom and requires some stuff that most people wouldn't have.

However, if you've got a PDA & GPS receiver that you use with TomTom then you've got the kit needed for SportsDo and that's probably the easiest way forward. I don't think it's very expensive. If you throw your mobile phone into the mix too, you'll probably find you can do live tracking on the internet as well.

If you didn't want live tracking then MemoryMap might also be worth a look as that will show your position/route on a map as well as record it for later analysis. It'll also allow you to plan a route in advance and follow it (a bit like satnav for bikes).

For day-to-day tracking/routing I use MemoryMap with a Garmin Edge 205.

Rafe

Old Git On A Bike

This might be of use to someone, I found this site today, you can use GPS to track where you are, your routes, distance travelled, heart rate etc:

MotionBased is a web application that translates GPS data into functional analysis and online mapping for endurance and outdoor athletes.

http://www.motionbased.com

Demo here:

http://www.motionbased.com/info/product ... oduct.demo