It belongs to each cyclist. Nightmare: You approach the spot where you carefully locked your bike and all that remains is the shattered remains of a padlock.
Nothing can guarantee that those evil scum won’t take your prized vehicle, but the guys at BikeSpike in Chicago have launched a Kickstarter to make it a little harder for them to get their way. They’ve created a slick kit that notifies you the moment something goes wrong and tracks your bike’s whereabouts via GPS if some sleazeball has absconded with it.
In addition to a small GPS chipset, BikeSpike features an accelerometer and a GSM cellular chip so you can identify your bike’s location and monitor it via the web, iOS, or Android device. Once you’ve physically and digitally locked your bike, you’ll be notified if it moves beyond your geofenced location. You can even adjust the accelerometer settings to know if it has been hit or dropped.
If your bike is stolen, you can share your GPS location with friends and followers via social media to help recover it. It can also alert multiple people if you have been in a collision.
BikeSpike follows Spybike and Spylamp2 in the GPS bike tracking scene. The Spybike fits on the head tube, while the Spylamp2 fits on the taillight, and you can get them for about $130. But BikeSpike co-creator Harvey Moon found existing trackers like Spybike lacking.
“Installing the Spybike is difficult and not all bikes work with the product because it requires a specific handlebar,” Moon explained. It also requires the user to purchase their own data plan with the product and install the SIM card themselves. Recharging is also a hassle because you need to remove the device and then reinstall it.
Moon said BikeSpike is easy to use and set up. Two tamper-proof screws keep it attached to the bike, and you can even hide it inside a custom-designed carbon fiber bottle cage to maximize stealth.
The BikeSpike team has spoken with Windy City government officials about using the data collected by the device to track bike usage in the city; Such data could be used to determine where to install bike lanes and the like. The team also plans to open the API so developers can integrate BikeSpike data into their applications. A software development group is interested in using accelerometer data to locate potholes.
