Comments on: BikeSpike: The Best Idea Yet for Recovering Stolen Bikes

By: Maciej

Maciej — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 12:33:44 +0000

Well, there’s even no need to mention Facebook here, really. We all have our mobile phones, which can be tracked easily, even the old ones, not-so-smart, without all those GPSes and other fancy things, which can be triangulated with enough precision. So we are actually already tracked all the time, or at least could be if needed. (Also, Find My iPhone, anyone?) Some even say that mobiles could be used to eavesdrop on us without our knowledge… Now how’s that for a conspiracy theory, eh?

By: Ted Johnson

Ted Johnson — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 19:31:37 +0000

I totally understand. Whenever I start to feel paranoid about the privacy implications of some new and unfamiliar thing, I stop and remember that I am on Facebook. If that's my bar for privacy protection, then it's a pretty low bar. If I want to raise my standard of privacy protection (even a little) I don't see how I can justify staying on Facebook. So I end up exactly where I am -- in a love-hate relationship with technology I find kind of fun and useful. So with BikeSpike, I'd have to ask myself whether or not they at least exceed the privacy morass that I accept with Facebook, and do I trust the company to continue to meet or exceed that muddled standard. People who currently use GPS devices with social sharing have already resolved this problem (if the ever stopped to think about it at all). Companies such as Garmin are forging ahead promoting this concession to privacy as value added on their new devices, such as their Garmin Edge 510 and Garmin Edge 810 -- neither of which offer a theft recovery benefit.

By: Cullen Carter

Cullen Carter — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:50:44 +0000

Though, I am an honest person, a device like the Bike Spike makes me paranoid.

Just the idea of allowing your bike – thus allowing YOU – to be tracked wherever it is sounds like a chapter ripped out of a dystopian scifi novel.

It would be very helpful, when people start using Bike Spike, to have REAL stories of bike-retrieval.

By: Andy

Andy — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 22:20:55 +0000

It looks great, but I definitely hesitate to purchase something that doesn’t exist. That’s the difficulty with Kickstarter – they say they can make a great product, but especially with gadgets, it’s easy to claim wonderful things that don’t pan out. I think they said it would have a month of battery life – can you really expect a GPS with cell phone tracking abilities to last that long when we all know that other GPSs last at best 2 days (like a Garmin Legend) and even a basic cellphone is a stretch do expect 3 days of use. I’m eager to see how it pans out, but until then, there are other alternatives that 1) exist now, 2) claim to have an essentially free data plan. Google SpyBike to see one that hides in your headtube. I’ve been considering it, but I’m not yet sold on a device run on cell phones, as most of the riding I want tracked is outside of coverage areas.

By: Lance

Lance — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:26:50 +0000

It would be alot more awesome if they had a unit that fit in the downtube under the seatpost so as to hide it from the bike thieves.