
LoJack for bikes - speek
http://weft.io
======
ChuckMcM
Sigh, the idea has merit, this seems like its just a landing page to collect a
mailing list of people who might buy one if you happen to make it.

Here is an "easy" answer, make a reflector with a simple RFID tag embedded in
it. Make them look like all the reflectors you normally have on your bike.
Create a repository for registering reflectors and give a free reader to every
bike shop that wants to combat bike theft.

Will determined thieves swap all the reflectors? Sure. Does it raise the
'cost' of stealing a bike? Yes.

Alternative idea, put the tag in the bike seat. You can re-use pet tags, you
can then re-use pet tag injectors and pet tag readers.

~~~
joe_the_user
Bike thieves often strip the bike to the frame. Through dumb luck, I got back
a bike that was almost nothing but a frame by that point. Reflectors and seats
are easy to remove, something dropped into the frame would be really difficult
to remove and bike thieves don't bother doing something like that.

This is a good idea, actually. Just taking email addresses _for_ an idea might
well still be sketchy but that's as may be. Someone should do this even if
that someone doesn't my email in the meantime.

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northisup
Can we stop posting landing pages that are simply fishing for interest in a
non-existant product?

~~~
fieldforceapp
I think this type of A/B testing (assuming these kind folks are doing that) is
valuable for early stage product design.

If not posting to HN, where would you advise to post?

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samps
Bike theft is a huge problem precisely because there's no good way to track
stolen gear. I'll buy one of these in an instant if it works well.

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damianpeckett
Now how are you going to power the transmitter, that is my question, sure you
could add a little dynamo but it's not quite so elegant then.

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rheide
Very interesting. I've been thinking about buying a topcap tracker from
spybike-gps.com after my previous bike was stolen, but haven't committed yet
as it's damn pricy. If you need any help testing or developing for it let me
know. I'd be glad to give you a hand.

~~~
agumonkey
Had a nice napkin design to hook an old cellphone to an accelerometer to
trigger text messages through a cheap plan, unfortunately I'm not an EE nor a
hacker so it's only unicorns at this point.

This could be a nice national/college project, anyone coming with a cheap
design could help a lot of people.

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savrajsingh
It's a great idea and it's one that I've had too. The hardest problem you have
is pricing -- making it all inexpensive enough for it to be worth it for you
and your target market. Is this a subscription / is this a one-time purchase /
is this pay-per-use?

Price too high, and only high-end bikes will have it. And high-end bikes have
smart thieves / are already stored safely, etc.

Otherwise, I can see how this would work. GPS, batteries, low-power design,
goes inside your frame and is visually undetectable, M2M deal with jasper
wireless (or sprint or whatever), etc. It'll take a while to make it reliable
and have a great user experience, but its totally possible.

Good luck and make it happen!

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georgemcbay
"It's like LoJack for your bike, but better."

IANAL (and as far as I can see this isn't a real product), but..

While this phrase gets the message across very nicely, it is likely legally
problematic.

Not only is it coat-tailing a trademark, but it is making a claim of
superiority which is not a wise thing to do unless you have some strong
objective proof.

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handsomeransoms
Minor design quibble. The "we'll keep you posted" banner that appeared after I
submitted my e-mail does not fit in with the (otherwise very elegant) design
of the rest of the page. #FFFFFF on #FF0000 out of nowhere is jarring.

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slajax
As someone who rides dual suspension bikes religiously on the north shore of
vancouver bc, and has had expensive bikes stolen in the past, I would
absolutely buy this for all of my bikes. Especially since it helps you to
track the thief down. Nothing sucks more then bike thieves.

Don't steal bikes bro.

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dyeje
What happens when everyone is checking for them? Security by obscurity doesn't
really scale.

~~~
hnruss
Thieves are dumber than you think. One time, they stole my front bike wheel
because it had a quick-release, but left the back wheel even though it also
had a quick-release. (The back wheel is worth more because of the gearing
system on it.)

~~~
agumonkey
Let me guess, it also takes a few seconds more to untangle the dirty wheel
chain ?

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acallahan
For the interested, there was a pretty good article earlier this year by
priceonomics about bike theft:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4444708>

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speek
designed by HN's own kyro (<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=kyro>)

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wittjeff
Default bookmark is default.

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hnruss
where's the kickstarter?

