Weight Weenies

Reading this story convinced me to add an Apple Airtag to my bike

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/cycl ... the-window

TLDR: Guy uses Airtag tracking to recover 3 Bikes (worth 15K) stolen from his house

The challenge is how/where to mount these on the bike, you can buy holders that fit to the seat rails or bottle cage bolts, but kind of obvious to remove for any clued-up thief.

Thought I would share my approach as food for thought for using these and hiding in the frame.

Airtag with 'pull' O-ring (for retrieval purposes) and bubble wrap.


In place in frame, a tight fit (this is using the old mechanical cable access on the Cervelo, not used since switching to R9200)


Vinyl wrap cover over to hide it (it is sticky on the inside, so also adds to keeping it in place)


For any thief, they would have to be on the ball to spot this and remove it before I could find them!

Total weight cost was 3.1g, (deducting the no longer used bb guide), the Airtag is waterproof and the battery needs changing on a yearly basis, so no problem to remove the wrap and replace.

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That chap is my friend / team mate.

I literally told him (and the team) about 3 days before he was burgled to put an AirTag in his Spesh.

Goes without saying I'm now owed a fair few beers!

I have one in my SL7 and one in my Open. They're not perfect but obviously work.

same here, have them in all my bikes, everthing helps.

also my summer bikes go in the loft, my winter commuter is locked in a asgard metal box, which if they try and break into will make a racket + its locked inside to an anchor..... if the cretins want something they will take it but make life hard for them...

I plan to do this as my son works for Apple and can get me a deal. Thank you Steve for doing the research and posting results on how to mount.

But if the thieve is using an iphone as well, wouldnt he be notified that the bike is "airtagged" after a few minutes?

eins4eins wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 14, 2021 10:13 pm

But if the thieve is using an iphone as well, wouldnt he be notified that the bike is "airtagged" after a few minutes?

Yes that is the general flaw with this air tag stuff.

It takes a while to get notified , you'd surely have it tracked by then, plus they need to be travelling with it for that long time. Presumably most theives move them on quick or get them and store them so they wouldn't get a notification.

ryanw wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 14, 2021 8:20 pm

That chap is my friend / team mate.

I literally told him (and the team) about 3 days before he was burgled to put an AirTag in his Spesh.

Goes without saying I'm now owed a fair few beers!

I have one in my SL7 and one in my Open. They're not perfect but obviously work.

How are you mounting them on the bike? Keen to see other tidy solutions.

I put them in the downtube with a bit of bubble wrap and cable ties to pull them out if necessary. I had to remove the forks for that (especially nice on my SL7 and Venge) since the ones from Samsung are too big to put them in the downtube via the bottom bracket.

Saw a couple of tidy options on Adam Blythe's Instagram feed, linked below

https://www.freewheel.co.uk/laut-bike-t ... k-laut0002
https://www.freewheel.co.uk/laut-bike-t ... k-laut0001

Alex222 wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 15, 2021 10:02 am

Saw a couple of tidy options on Adam Blythe's Instagram feed, linked below

https://www.freewheel.co.uk/laut-bike-t ... k-laut0002
https://www.freewheel.co.uk/laut-bike-t ... k-laut0001

The saddle one is class, ill order that now.
I find the Airtag great. I live in a little village and we are 5 mins from the school and we let the boy walk, so i have an airtag on his coat and make sure he gets there and back.

Could someone clarify this.

I put an airtag on my bike. This tag uses any Apple phone [that is capable] in the area to let the owner of that tag where it is. I get that but why would it allow any Apple phone there is an airtag around. Wouldn't that get annoying? Why would you care if someone elses tag is close by?

Yes, I get that thieves would like to know but I'm talking about regular consumers. I can see a setting that would allow you not to share that information but I cannot see why there would be a setting that would allow you to see all the airtags around. As these become popular, it would get annoying to know that information.

Sorry if it's a stupid question, just would like to know the logic behind this device.

Sorry forget everything i said.

Its a shit anti theft device:

https://support.apple.com/en-ie/HT212227

Apparently it hours before the alert thing kick in though

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