DIY GPS tracking system for motorcycles
I wrote an article for my other website The Weekly Gripe a few years back after having my motorcycle stolen from my garden. This wasn't the first time this has happened to me and it wasn't the last either, but the fact is I was so annoyed at the time I just had to do something. Since then I have had hundreds of comments on that page from fellow bikers who have had their beloved bikes nicked by some unscrupulous tea leaf. Bike theft is extremely common and the cops don't seem to be all that interested in catching the culprits.
What options do you have then? You could give up riding a motorcycle and have a car instead. They go missing too but they're not nearly as nickable as motorcycles it would seem. You could splash out on all the locks and security systems out there and make it hard for the thieves to take your bike. Well to some extent that's a good idea. You should have some sort of lock or security on the bike to deter would-be thieves. If I'm honest I'll say that in some part I am to blame for a couple of my stolen bikes by not nailing them down with a lock of some sort. I've made the stupid assumption that if it's in my back garden then it's going to be awkward to get out, so it should be safe. I've been proven wrong on this more than once, so I won't make that mistake again. Bike thieves are persistent and ingenious in what they do it would seem.
Having seen the comments pouring in on my article I had a bit of an idea recently. As I mentioned earlier, the police aren't all that interested when you're pride and joy is stolen. This is probably because they know that it's either well hidden or broken down and sold within 12 to 24 hours of it going missing. Recovered motorcycles are about as rare as jailed bike thieves. It just doesn't happen enough - the exception being joy riders perhaps, in which case your motorbike will probably be in a right mess if you do get it back and to add insult to injury you'll probably have to pay for it to be recovered as well! Right... back to this idea that I had.
Where is my bike right now?
Quite simply - be informed of the location of your bike at all times. If it moves from where it's supposed to be you want to know about it. When it's on it's way down the road in the back of a transit van you can ring up the cops and give them a running commentary telling them exactly it's position! The lazy sods then have absolutely no excuse for not high-tailing after it and arresting the crooks that have your baby. How's this all achieved?
Well you don't have to spend a fortune on a state of the art tracking system. Most people have mobile phones these days they are becoming quite sophisticated. They've got built in GPS as well as other forms of location awareness (WiFi, cell tower triangulation etc.) and you can run custom applications on them. They're also small enough to hide on a bike somewhere. Best of all though, this technology is becoming very cheap. You can sometimes pick up an Android smartphone for less than £50 on eBay. I'm focusing on Android because I'm a bit of a fan, but I'm sure there are other phones out there that would be up to the job.