Lojack is an anti theft device you can have installed in your car. If your car is stolen, the police can activate LoJack and follow a radio signal emitted by LoJack to recover the car within hours.

For bikes the device would have to be small and light, as well as hidden inside the frame or somewhere undetectable by potential thieves.

There are many factors to be thought out here including what role the police would play. Maybe the design could include a personal tracking component so you can hunt down your bike and take it back without police involvement.
-- computerface2, Dec 06 2000

Danish city uses active RFID to locate cyclists at corners. http://www.treehugg.../rfid_lights_up.php
Shouldn't be too hard to modify for limited theft recovery purposes. [ye_river_xiv, Jun 16 2008]

RFID them BIKES! http://www.stolenbi...gs_for_the_win.html
Probably won't locate anything well, but can clearly help return stolen property once confiscated. [ye_river_xiv, Jun 16 2008]

How about if the bike is pedalled away without entering the secret code (rear brakes twice, backpedal one revolution, then front brakes once) a spike shoots up out of the seat. Wouldn't have to go very far at all to retrieve your bike then...
-- PotatoStew, Dec 06 2000


I have trouble remembering login passwords as it is(which is why computerface is now computerface2). I wouldn't want to forget that combination!
-- computerface2, Dec 06 2000


[Admin: If you have trouble logging in, try sending email to bakesperson@halfbakery.com first.]
-- jutta, Dec 06 2000


About 20 years ago, about two months after my bike was stolen (in New York City), I got a call from a bike shop that found the note I had hidden in it.
-- mab, Dec 06 2000


Mab: good call. I think this LoJack system for bikes is a bit too much cost for the benefit especially since a stolen bicycle may be covered under a home-owner's insurance policy.
-- Vecini, Dec 07 2000


Vecini - Maybe, maybe not. Even if you can get your insurance company to pay up, you probably won't get enough to completely cover the costs of a new bike and all the accessories you may have lost with it (custom seat, etc). You'd be amazed at how much a top-quality bike can cost. Plus, with Bike LoJack (BikeJack?) you have the added benefit of nailing a thief.
-- redshift9, Dec 07 2000


I like PotatoStew's idea the best where the thief is impaled upon the seat's hidden spike though I'd worry that like computerface2 I'd forget the password...do you suppose they could install a system that implements the use of 'gator' via a small keyring type interface that you ran past or clicked onto to release the activating code of the deadly 'up your bum spike' ? Or would this just create a new wave of (bicycle) hackers ? Masochists ? Or maybe even suicide merchants?
-- beefcake brain, Dec 07 2000


Redshift9 I agree with you. And Vecini... is it ok for someone to commit a crime as long as your insurance covers it ??? You have a twisted idea of what insurance companies are for. (I bet you voted for Clinton). Anyway, the sollution could be as easy as hiding your own micro receiver/transmitter in the frame (with a good battery) and locating the bike yourself with a direction finder (and baseball bat). The bike receiver/transmitter can be controlled by a separate remote key chain transmitter which automatically activates the bike transmitter if the bike exceeds a certain distance from the key chain.
-- ybnvs1, Jun 02 2001


There are a bunch of anti-car-theft schemes which could be adapted to bikes.

What about a system where the bike device contains a radio receiver (listening to the pager network, say). When your bike is stolen, you send a signal (e.g. a page to the bike's number), which activates the LoJack-style transmitter in the bike.

I bet the device could cost as little as $20, which is well worth it if you have an expensive bike. The hard part would be powering it. Maybe it could have a tiny generator hidden in the pedal bearing which charges up a small battery. You wouldn't want it to be very obvious, or else the thief would just disable it immediately.
-- wiml, Jun 06 2001


I especially like the diy pursuit. I don't see myself as someone who wants to be featured on the citizens arrest channel (is that in the bakery and/or world yet?), but I don't like the idea of information about any of my property's whereabouts becoming someone else's property.
-- LoriZ, Jun 23 2001


face it, the police are not going to give two craps about a bike. even the $3000 'specialized' suv's of bikes...we have to rely on ourselves to bodger up something to make it unstealable or unwantable. even things as simple as tacks under your seat cover (remove & pocket before use) deflating tires- it doesn't take long to re pump!, locking up through the pedal gear & lower frame -they won't risk the damage. my sister's bike was recently stolen. she found it a few blocks away re-locked up. a nearby officer would not let her take it back. so she returned a while later and destroyed the bike with bolt cutters and a hammer. it was a goodwill bike anyway.
-- trav2, Jul 25 2001


If she had bolt cutters, why did she not just take the bike back?
-- StarChaser, Jul 27 2001


A bike is one item you can guarentee will be stolen. Police have used radio beacon bikes to identify a thief, and find his lock-up store. When they raid the garage, they recover many other items of stolen property and solve a whole slew of burglary crimes in one swoop.
-- MichaelW, Feb 04 2002


How about a WiFi antenna that displays a big red: -ALERT- THIS BIKE WAS STOLEN FROM 505-555-1243 on the screens of any nearby WiFi device.

It can be placed in the downtube and powered magnetically by pedal cranks. The rapidly fleeing perp will charge the heck out of this device boosting signal strength to max when it is needed the most.

When the perp goes to a Star%ucks, everyone in the shop will apprehend via cunning conversation until the owner is notified and can retrieve said bike.
-- subflower, Aug 05 2005


I could make a professional career out of stealing bikes with an EMF and or Zap checker if this is done. I could easily disable any and all electronics without concequene. Unless there are live pyros onboard which would be redicuously retarted and impractical. also retaliating an attempted bike theft with death is not so cool in court... and really wouldnt be cool if it was a cop jackin it to chase a dude down, or a citizen arrest or rush to the ER etc... Bikes dont need electricity to run. Any mechanical measure would have to be built in and simply rely on the criminal not getting the combo or pickin the lock style mechanism. If its not built in it can be dismantled and reasymbled removing the device. Essentially My advice is to get a bike with the pom poms and pink paint. and lock front and back wheels and the frame to something like a big tree. (ive seen lonly bike tires locked to a bike parking rack once. shoot. wait until you find one locking the backwheel or the frame and take their front wheel lol and your good!)
-- wuhisn, Jun 17 2008



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