I’m guessing most bike riders have experienced that gut-punch, sickening feeling of having their bike stolen. A truly awful moment, leaving you full of revengeful thoughts and questions of how you could have prevented it from happening in the first place.
This happened to a friend of mine recently after he’d spent months lovingly building up a dream bike. A Campag Record groupset, deep-section carbon wheels, the full works. It was by far the best bike he’d ever owned and he’d ridden it just a handful of times.
Since that night he’s gone on a mission to turn his garage into a mini Fort Knox, and as he talked me through all the security gadgets that are now available to buy online, I thought I’d better up my game.
It was a good start, but it doesn’t take a genius to know that most, if not all, thieves cover their faces when mid crime. So he also went for a infrared driveway alarm.
Again it charges through a solar panel, but some also have a USB port. The range is around 800m and it claims motion detection can be adjusted to avoid being set off by small animals or falling leaves. There are several versions of these you can purchase, depending on how many motion sensors you need, but we found the eMACROS set starting at $44.99 for one sensor and an alarm.
The video camera wasn’t quite right for me as I didn’t have anywhere to place it that a) put it out of reach, and b) didn’t record the front of my neighbours house. I instead went for a Yale PIR garage/shed alarm. At just £12.99 it offers some peace of mind. I’ve mounted it in the garage and as soon as it detects movement it sets off a piercing alarm claimed to be 100db.