Datatool System 4

[Malki]

Hi folks
Does anybody have any experience of this new alarm system, good points, bad points, is the texting your mobile phone thingy any good, is the tracker thingy any good? My insurance company are biting my ear to have me fit this system. Fitted at my home for £349. Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks
Malki

[Woolly]

I have no chew off my insurance co. , but £349 seems very steep - I've got my LT insured with 'ebike' and I don't need a tracker, or any after market anti-theft system.

[Malki]

@ Wooly - My insurance is only recommending it, not enforcing it, although there have been several 'heavy duty' phone calls and mail from from Carole Nash because of the value of my new bike, but bloody hell, this IS the wrong time of year to spend that kind of of money on anything other than the wife and kids :D
Can I ask why you don't need an alarm of sorts....It's saved my bacon a few times with previous bikes while abroad...folks trying to nick helmets and stuff that were attached Etc.

[beemerlt]

No personal knowledge, I'm afraid.

System 4 seems to be an alarm/immobiliser, which your bike might already have installed from the factory. It sounds like your insurance company is talking about the Datatool Snitcher (http://www.datatool.co.uk/consumer/products/products/index.php?product=snitcher). Also here:

http://www.datatool.co.uk/snitcher/index.html

I like the low battery warning capability. Since you work for the Police, I'd be interested to know how you think they would respond if a member of the public called them with "a location and a radius of the bike location", after having their bike stolen. Sounds like a good idea, depending on the accuracy of the location mapping. A half mile radius of uncertainty might not be very useful in an urban centre, for example. It obviously also relies on good signal strength using the Orange mobile network. I can't see prices anywhere for the Snitcher, although the Bike Location option apparently costs £29.99 per year.

Another system advertised on the Datatool site (but seemingly run by a separate company) is Tracker (http://www.tracker.co.uk/motorbikes/) Retrieve or Monitor (see attachment).

[Malki]

David - My LT is an 02 and has no alarm or immobiliser. The snitcher is an add-on and costs around £199 (not fitted) plus tha annual charge as you point out. I understand it can be as good as a 500ft radius for locating the bike via the phone if it was stationary. Tracker can pinpoint it to an individual lock-up or garage and is much much better should the police pick up the signal while the vehicle is moving.
The police would respond favourably to either tracker or owner info via GSM on location of a stolen bike. Most police vehicles are fitted with Tracker locators and each police office has a Datatag detection tool.

The £349 deal includes a battery tender, and Datatag and fitting of the System 4 at your home, which IMHO would take over 2 hours to install on an LT. So it's maybe not such a bad deal after all. The full amount is refunded should the bike ever get stolen. Carole Nash are offering 10% off the premium if fitted, which in my case would take me about 12 yrs to recover the cost, so I am still thinking about it.

[Woolly]

@ Wooly - My insurance is only recommending it, not enforcing it, although there have been several 'heavy duty' phone calls and mail from from Carole Nash because of the value of my new bike, but bloody hell, this IS the wrong time of year to spend that kind of of money on anything other than the wife and kids :D
Can I ask why you don't need an alarm of sorts....It's saved my bacon a few times with previous bikes while abroad...folks trying to nick helmets and stuff that were attached Etc.

Hi Malki, when I said I don't need an alarm, I meant the insurance company have not stipulated an alarm or tracker. I have the standard BM alarm, plus a 'far too heavy' Abus padlock & case hardened chain which I use on overseas trips (the weight of it probably knocks about 5mph off the top speed :o )

[beemerlt]

Tracker can pinpoint it to an individual lock-up or garage and is much much better should the police pick up the signal while the vehicle is moving.
The important word here for me is 'should'. I just wonder how strong the signal is likely to be, especially having read about the hoops people with CB's have to jump through to achieve good results. And that's with their CB antenna out in the open, so the signal is likely to be severely attenuated if the thieves do as the Tracker publicity bump says: "The VHF technology enables the police to track a stolen motorcycle even if it is hidden in a van, garage or container." The Tracker site also says: "The Tracker unit is a small device that is fitted to your motorcycle. Once activated, this unit emits a silent signal that can only be tracked by the police. Based on proven VHF land based radio technology". Being slightly cynical, you might substitute "proven" for "old". Would the thieves have to drive past a Tracker locator-equipped police car to be detected?

And, no disrespect, but we've all heard the stories about delays in police response to burglary-alert calls (no doubt due to overstretched resources), so how high a priority would they assign to someone's bike being stolen? Within a short time, the thieves and your bike could be miles away and in another police district altogether.

Unless you can be confident that a strong signal will be received by the police and that they will be able to respond quickly, you may well be paying for something of very limited use in the real world. In my view, deterrence is the most effective means of preventing crime, so maybe a Tracker sticker on your bike would be enough to deter many thieves, in the same way as Brian's heavy chain and padlock. I have the factory alarm/immobiliser installed, and maybe the blinking red light would make some thieves think twice. Our bike's very size and weight are also a good defense against theft (if not vandalism).

Another important factor reducing the risk of theft is owning a 'niche market' bike, which will be more difficult for the thieves to sell on. Much more demand for pocket-rocket-style bike's, so these would be the principal target for most thieves, I would guess. Pure conjecture on my part though - I'd be interested to know the stats for bike theft in the UK by brand/model, if these exist in the public domain.

A long ramble I know, but hey, it's Christmas morning! Have a great day you all. :)

[Malki]

I used to work in the police control room in Glasgow and can assure you that Tracker is very effective. Once a vehicle fitted with tracker is reported stolen we contact Tracker who activate the system on the stolen vehicle. We found that it was usually no more than 10 minutes before several police vehicles picked up the signal. The Tracking device in the police vehicles show the distance and direction of travel, so its not long before several police vehicles are able to pin it down. From what I remember most stolen vehicles were recovered within the hour. Biggest problem we had was too many police vehicles picking up the signal and none of them wanting to stand down because of the high chance of getting 'a body'
I remember one case where 10 police vehicles converged on one lock up garage in Glasgow and caught 4 guys stripping a Transit van, so the system does work. As you point out, this system is probably more suited to Transit vans and Subaru's Etc. than LT's. If memory serves, the system was able to be tracked from 10 miles or more.
Pity i never found a System 4 in my Xmas stocking this morning :rolleyes: