Alarms
Confusedboy
Posts: 287
I was in my local Maplin's yesterday and impulse-bought a 'Rolson' (thier own brand) bicycle alarm. Not sure if this is a good idea, but it was cheap enough to take a punt on, at £3.99.
It is a large and ugly beast, though I am in no position to criticise it on those grounds, and comes with a lamp bracket type, but the size and shape of the thing makes finding a suitable place to put it a bit of an issue. I eventually put mine on the seatpost, which meant re-positioning my rear lamp bracket to a seat stay. It works by your inputting a 4 digit code which you then use to disarm the alarm, having armed it by a single button push. It is motion sensitive, and will make a noise if it detects movement, the main alarm kicking in if the motion is continuous for 2 seconds. The alarm shuts off after 30 seconds, and then I assume restarts if the bike is still moving 2 seconds after that.
I will use it, as it seems daft not to, but I am under no illusions about the need to lock the bike whenever I leave it out of reach. If I were a thief, I would not be that much impressed with it, and there is no method of preventing it being unscrewed or smashed off; it claims to be made of toughened plastic, but the bracket seems as flimsy as they always are.
It is difficult to assess how effective these sorts of things are, as one can only be certain of it's ineffectivness if the bike is stolen, and the bike's not being stolen does not mean that the alarm was responsible. It remains to be seen if there are problems in using it, but I will report back in a while.
It is a large and ugly beast, though I am in no position to criticise it on those grounds, and comes with a lamp bracket type, but the size and shape of the thing makes finding a suitable place to put it a bit of an issue. I eventually put mine on the seatpost, which meant re-positioning my rear lamp bracket to a seat stay. It works by your inputting a 4 digit code which you then use to disarm the alarm, having armed it by a single button push. It is motion sensitive, and will make a noise if it detects movement, the main alarm kicking in if the motion is continuous for 2 seconds. The alarm shuts off after 30 seconds, and then I assume restarts if the bike is still moving 2 seconds after that.
I will use it, as it seems daft not to, but I am under no illusions about the need to lock the bike whenever I leave it out of reach. If I were a thief, I would not be that much impressed with it, and there is no method of preventing it being unscrewed or smashed off; it claims to be made of toughened plastic, but the bracket seems as flimsy as they always are.
It is difficult to assess how effective these sorts of things are, as one can only be certain of it's ineffectivness if the bike is stolen, and the bike's not being stolen does not mean that the alarm was responsible. It remains to be seen if there are problems in using it, but I will report back in a while.
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Comments
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Alarmed padlocks are the better choice, its already a sturdy lump of metal, put the alarm inside that and your sorted, if you have disc brakes you can use motorbike disc lock/alarms as well......
SimonCurrently riding a Whyte T130C, X0 drivetrain, Magura Trail brakes converted to mixed wheel size (homebuilt wheels) with 140mm Fox 34 Rhythm and RP23 suspension. 12.2Kg.0 -
I used to have a remote control Luggage/laptop alarm that was motion triggered. It was far too sensitive and caused no end of trouble at an Italian airport in 2003.
Damn good idea if they don't just go off at the slightest knock.Giant Escape M1....
Penny Farthing
Unicycle
The bike the Goodies rode
Pogo Stick
Donkey on Roller skates.......OK I'm lying, but I am down to one bike right now and I feel bad about it,0 -
Zombie_donkey wrote:I used to have a remote control Luggage/laptop alarm that was motion triggered. It was far too sensitive and caused no end of trouble at an Italian airport in 2003.
Damn good idea if they don't just go off at the slightest knock.
Seems ok so far, though it's early days, and it only sounds for 30 seconds, then presumably shuts off if the motion has stopped, so people knocking the bike around while it is parked in racks will, with any luck, be dissuaded while the noise will not be continuous.0
