Anyone tried an alarm pager?

Bendy · Mrs Sensible Joined: 10 Jun 2002 Karma :

Been having a trawl around the net and I've come across several things like this - https://www.datatool.co.uk/productA.asp?ProductID=239

Has anyone tried one of these? I'm thinking it wouldn't be a bad thing since having an alarm is all very well, but not much use when you're not within earshot, but any personal recommendations would be useful.

Deano · World Chat Champion Joined: 17 Feb 2003 Karma :

You can get alarms so that they txt your mobile but they are about £500 from what I can remember. If I had the money I certainly would buy the system.
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Bendy · Mrs Sensible Joined: 10 Jun 2002 Karma :

Yeah, and there are some that let you call your bike back and set off the alarm wherever it may be. All it needs is a speaker under the seat so you can hurl abuse at them Laughing

Pagers start at about £50 though, so a bit more in my price range.

Deano · World Chat Champion Joined: 17 Feb 2003 Karma :

LMAO

at the speaker idea.
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EMRA 2012 final standings, Formula 600s 3rd, Superstock 600s 3rd.
www.triplesevenracing.co.uk: www.ljmotorcyclerepairs.co.uk www.gettaylored.co.uk BN RaceScience, Now officially run out of money to carry on racing Sad

Danny · Ask Me About Stoppie School Joined: 26 Jan 2003 Karma :

I've heard that the range is really crap on it, unless your outside and have a relatively clear line of site to the bike, in which case it's rather pointless. Laughing

Korn · Admin Joined: 01 Feb 2002 Karma :

zaknafien · Joined: 25 Mar 2002 Karma :

Steve H · World Chat Champion Joined: 18 Oct 2003 Karma :

I've got the Datatool Pager and it's OK I suppose.

Mine came free with my alarm package and the range is approximately 400 yards (although I haven't paced it out!).

It does the job that it says it's gonna do in that it goes off if you're within the specified signal area when your alarm goes off.

Whether it's worth the best part of £100.00 is open to debate. I very rarely use mine as invariably within 5 minutes of parking up I'm out of range anyway. If it hadn't have been a freebie I wouldn't buy one. I'd rather spend 100 quid on something that i'd get more benefit from like a decent chain for example.

Bendy · Mrs Sensible Joined: 10 Jun 2002 Karma :

Basically, my bike'll be parked on the ground floor and I'll be living on the 2nd floor above it. I just like the idea that I could hear the alarm (that they set off while working on my hefty chain).

Does it cope ok with walls and things, and is the pager loud enough that it would wake you up?

I've seen an identical pager (claiming a bit more range than Datatool claim) for £50, and got my eye on a couple on ebay sitting at £30 - 40, but I'm curious to know if it'll do what I want it to.

Steve H · World Chat Champion Joined: 18 Oct 2003 Karma :

I park my bike at work sometimes and I'm on the second floor of an old building approximately 200 yards from the car park and it works fine. The Datatool pager informs you when you're out of range which is helpful.

It emits a noise and vibrates but if you're a heavy sleeper it may be worth keeping it in your 'jim jams' at night!

It can be quite disconcerting when you're sat at work and it's on your desk just poised to bleep and vibrate. I've done a few 'test drill' sprints to the car park to see if I can get to the Bike before some swine attempts to haul it into the back of a van. So far I've managed 14.58 secs and a failed attempt when I overshot a corridor and landed in a confidential waste sack Wink

Bendy · Mrs Sensible Joined: 10 Jun 2002 Karma :

Cool - thanks for that. Reckon I'll get one and give it a go when I move house.

Has to be better than sleeping with the window open all the time so you can hear the fecker (like I did here when the swines tried to pinch it).

P_J · Nearly there... Joined: 24 Nov 2002 Karma :

TiN · Pocket Tin Joined: 14 Feb 2002 Karma :

I assume that you've already got a Datatool alarm then, Bendy? I think that companies are starting to make universal pager systems that work with any alarm.

Bear in mind that if you're going to go all vigilante (on your own) then it'll be good to invest in a good baseball bat or samurai sword. Some guy in RiDE magazine got beaten up when answered the call to his pager...
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Bendy · Mrs Sensible Joined: 10 Jun 2002 Karma :

Yeah, I've got a Datatool but was looking at a universal for half the price.

However, I just landed a baby monitor on ebay for a tenner so I think I'll give that a go first. Smile

Rather large sword living behind my front door as we speak. Whether I would actually go and do anything or not is another matter, but at least I could look out the window and see what was up. Confused

dainesefreak · World Chat Champion Joined: 04 Apr 2003 Karma :

I've been toying with the idea of a pager for a while now, but I haven't got a Datatool alarm so it will have to be a universal. I've seen the Acumen pager but it's around the £100 mark it is supposed to have a 1km range and three different alert modes though. The only problem with having a bigger range that I can see is that your bike could easily have gone by the time you get there. I also looked at the GSM Bikeguard version which contacts you on your mobile and you can control it from there, they also offer tracking for about £25 a year which seemed quite reasonable. If I remember It's about £299 installed, I quite fancy the idea of the tracking, probably be more useful than the alarm.

stooz · Two Stroke Sniffer Joined: 23 Dec 2003 Karma :

went to a bike show yesterday, and was chatting to the accumen guy about the pager.

Its triggered by any current making device, so very universal on alarms, but for instance you can:

connect to a light sensor in the garage to detect the door opening.
A seat switch to detect anyone sitting on it...
A seperate movement sensor..
Possibilities are endless..

Without trying to breach posting guidelines, I know a way for BCF to get a bulk buy discount if there is enough interest >5?

dainesefreak · World Chat Champion Joined: 04 Apr 2003 Karma :

I would be interested. I've had one bike nicked and another nearly go, so anything that helps and all that.

Steve H · World Chat Champion Joined: 18 Oct 2003 Karma :

stooz · Two Stroke Sniffer Joined: 23 Dec 2003 Karma :

Bendy · Mrs Sensible Joined: 10 Jun 2002 Karma :

Yeah, I'd probably be interested.

Astrodon do a universal pager for £50 though, so it needs to be a good discount. Smile

Steve H · World Chat Champion Joined: 18 Oct 2003 Karma :

TiN · Pocket Tin Joined: 14 Feb 2002 Karma :

Annabella · Like a person, only smaller Joined: 03 Feb 2002 Karma :

Personally I would say a pager would have trouble waking me up.... but I'm a fairly heavy sleep when I do eventually get to sleep.

There must be ways you can make the range larger with a pager?
IMO anything extra is good security and better than nothing. Also a pager would be more specific to you, I know that in Cardiff, there are a lot of sirens and alarms going off regularly and it is tough recognising your own, or even hearing it above the din of city living. Something in your own home is much more noticeable. I would say it has got to be worth trying.
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dainesefreak · World Chat Champion Joined: 04 Apr 2003 Karma :

Diging this one back up again.

I bought MCN at the weekend and it's got an M&P Direct "Best Selection" flyer with it. I noticed they have got a pager system in there for £69.99 called PageAlert. It comes with the bit you stick in the bike and the pager, they claim "Police Tested", "Developed in conjunction with the Police Authorities", "150 meter range", "No existing alarm required" etc . . . It's not on the Fastone site yet but it's on the mandp site for £66.49 inc VAT, there are no details on the site yet as they claim it's new in the flyer, but it's orderable from there item no. 540186.

Anyone seen this yet or any details? I've had a quick look around on the web but haven't found anything yet. I may order one to see what it's like, I'm more interested in a pager than an alarm. No one takes any notice of an alarm these days.

Bendy · Mrs Sensible Joined: 10 Jun 2002 Karma :

I've got an Acumen pager system sitting on my desk waiting for Kev to install it for me - will let you folks know how it goes.

Had a quick shufti at that M&P one but the range sounds a bit pony - the acumen claims up to a kilometre and can be got cheap on Ebay. Not that knowing someone's fiddling with your bike a kilometre away is all that useful, but I figured the better the range the more chance there is of the signal making it through the several walls between myself and it.

Partly agree and partly disagree on the alarm thing. Yes, a determined bike thief will be unphased by a screaming alarm and will most likely have your bike in the back of the van before anyone has a chance to notice, and people don't exactly rush to see what's happening when they hear one go off. However, when some less-professional thieves tried to take my bike, it was the alarm that scared them off. People in the street actually did bother to go to their windows and look as four of them told me what colour the van had been. For what it's worth, I'd always have an alarm.

Just need to get my ground anchor sorted out now.