Still, I suppose it's a belt and braces thing isn't it, doesn't harm to have too many security measures in place just in case.
In the end I went with:
Datatag
Datatag are a company that sell various security measures for bikes (amongst other things). The primary security device they sell for bikes is a tiny transponder chip that you glue inside your frame somewhere discreet, the point being that if the bike is ever stolen and recovered by police, they can then scan the bike with a special RFID scanner and hopefully detect the transponder - and in turn look it up on the Datatag registration database and contact you as the owner to return the bike.
The kit also comes with:
- 1 large + 4 small labels (including registration number) - obviously you stick these on the bike frame to warn would-be thieves that the bike is tagged, the hope being that that will put them off a bit. Plus if the bike is ever recovered then the stickers with the reg number let the police look up your details to return the bike easier.
- 1 registration form - you complete this and send it off to register your bike on the Datatag system - the transponder is linked to the registration number which in turn is then linked to you once you register the bike with them.
- 1 transponder - a tiny RFID(?) transponder that you hide somewhere within the frame
- 1 tube of epoxy resin - glue to stick the transponder in place inside the frame
Picture of the kit is below:
The Transponder
You can see the transponder if you look closely in the picture above, it's basically the same size as a grain of rice and if you look at it very closely you can see it's a long strand of copper wound around a core. Basically an RFID transponder that will 'ping up' it's ID on a suitable RFID scanner as it passes close.
Fitting the Transponder
Good luck with that!
Always a bloody hassle as I remember back on the last time I did it. Actually it wasn't so bad last time compared to this time, because last time it was an alu frame (so generally a lot larger / chunkier frame size so more space to work in), whereas this time the Surly LHT frame is a lot more narrow with it being steel.
Basically you have a 1 inch round (or even less) area to work in, and plus the lug holes (if that's the right word) inside the frame where the tubes are welded together are a lot lot smaller as well - eg the top tube to head tube lug hole was about 0.25" or less - AND still, the lughole is about an inch down the frame tube as well!:
So... after lots of annoyance I managed to secret the transponder inside the frame, hopefully should be impossible to get to short of cutting the frame apart with an angle grinder.
FWIW and if anyone else is stuck, I got a ball of epoxy and waited for it to dry a bit so it was semi-solid and held together on the end of a seal pick (other options are ear buds with the cottom wool removed or teeth picks bent to shape etc), then rather clumsily poked the snot ball of resin down one of the holes. You're doing well if you managed to NOT have it come back out on your applicator and drop on the floor. ;)
Pros and Cons
As I said above I think the cons are quite highly stacked against the pros. The only time you'd be swearing blind the thing is a genius idea is if the bike ever got nicked and only got returned to you because of the datatag. Which is obviously something that hopefully never happens (or rather, hopefully something you never want to be in a position where it can happen)! Bit like a parachute I suppose... ;)
So, Pros:
- Stickers - put tealeafs off the bike.
- Centralized DB - with your details registered, it should make it easy to contact you if it gets nicked and then found by police.
That's about it really, peace of mind as well maybe? I suppose? Meh.
Cons though:
- PITA to install the transponder - that said it's probably a lot better than some of them - particularly the system where you install the transponder inside the seat tube, so it's so easy for a thief to smash the thing to bits with a broom handle if they nick the bike to disable the transponder.
- PITA to register the bike - they include a paper form you have to complete ('oi, the 80s just called, they want their paper form back?!')... seriously though, how much simpler and less hassle would it be to just have an online system?! ffs it's the 21st century... lol AND they don't even include a prepaid/freepost envelope.... meh. PS the registration confirmation letter is also prone to failure as well given it relies on the postal service... at best it takes 2-3 weeks to get the confirmation letter, but if it didn't arrive there's a good chance you might forget anyway, so if the bike was nicked and it hadn't been properly registered, you'd be scoobied.
- Not great value for money? - the kit costs £20+, and I'm not too sure how much that represents good value for money. I can't see the bits in the kit itself actually coming to £22, even factoring in things like maintenance of the registration database / infrastructure to do with that. They could at least afford to stick a freepost envelope in there. :p
- How reliable is it? - There's no way to tell basically - there's anecdotal evidence that police, when asked, will look at you blankly and say 'Data what?' when you ask about their provisioning for Datatag detection. So not only are you relying on your stolen bike actually being recovered, you're then relying on the police actually having a Datatag scanner to scan the thing with.
- Does the Datatag transponder actually work in practice on a 'physical' level? Again there's no way to 'test' that the way that you've put the tag into the frame is actually reliable and will be picked up later if it's scanned by a scanner. I read one comment somewhere along the lines of 'wtf, so you're basically putting a tiny transponder inside what is essentially a Faraday cage... how's a scanner supposed to pick that up?!'... whether they have a point or not I don't know, would really like to get the thing scanned just to satisfy my curiousity as to whether the tag will be picked up or not.
- One of the stickers is too 'fat' for sticking on a 'normal' frame - OK, silly thing, but one of the stickers is so fat it just doesn't practically stick onto any frame, unless it's a VERY fat frame tube or it's a flat surface. Which a lot of bikes don't have. Waste of time... meh.
Chrissakes then... why didn't I do that^ before I bought the damn thing... lol. Pretty damning case against getting a datatag. The one key thing that overrides all of those cons though of course is the thought that it MIGHT make a difference. It might be the ONLY thing that allows you to be reconciled with your bike if it gets nicked. And that alone makes it worthwhile perhaps.
(Better?) Alternatives to Datatag
Annoyingly, after purchasing the Datatag, I found another scheme called BikeRegister that allows you to register your bike on the site for free, and then alternatively you can also purchase other security devices/measures - one of which sounds like it's just a Datatag but rebranded / whitelabelled as a 'BikeRegister tag'. An annoyingly that tag only costs £20 or so!
So you could miss out on the hassle of having to send off the registration form (it's all done online with BR), plus pay less for the privilege as well (no stamps required :p).
One of the other features of BR is the ability to upload photos of the bike online - you have to pay to do that but it's probably worth doing though (and it's included in one of their 'packages' I think anyway). This has the benefit that, combined with the fact that you can mark your bike as 'stolen' on their site if it is stolen, others can see / check for bikes stolen within a certain area and your bike would show up if you'd marked it as stolen.
How useful that is... well again I suppose it depends, it's another belt and braces thing isn't it... IF someone was offered a bike at a knockdown price and they happened to know about BR, they MIGHT check on the site and see if a bike like that had been reported stolen. Quite a long shot I suppose but still...
BR do say that they have good links with the police though and their database is accessible by the police with as much 'coverage' as the other systems out there, if not more... so that's a good thing.
In future I think I'd be inclined to go for BR over Datatag, just for the simplicity of it / being able to do it all online - plus having the option to upload photos. ALTHOUGH I have actually registered this bike on BR anyway since it is free. I might purchase some photo upload slots as well and stick a few photos up there, can't harm (apart from a few quid missing from the old pocket ;)).
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