dmrowe
Registered
Well I had promised back in January that would write up a review on the GPS tracking device commonly known as MiBike and marketed by Talon. This device is supposed to be able to provide a page to your cell phone if your motorcycle moves or triggers one of three alerts (Low Priority, Medium Priority or High Priority). The Medium Priority Alert (MPA) functions if there is any movement detected or if the power is disconnected. The other two alerts (Low & High) function with normally open circuits and can be hooked up to various types of switches, i.e., your alarm, a tilt or reed switch to indicate tampering. First of all let me say that in theory this is all well and good but unfortunately this device does not even come close to operating in the theoretical realm. In my humble opinion (and this is only my opinion based on my experience), it is a waste of money only fit for target practice or taking your frustrations out on with a 16 oz. ball peen hammer. But here is my review for what it is worth pictures included:
1. Initial Assessment – Advertised as the size of a black board eraser. In fact it is approximately twice the size measuring 5-3/4†long, 3†wide and 1-1/4†thick or about twice the width of a black board eraser with a wt. of approx. 318 gr. or just over 11 oz. (it’s big). This particular device had sat so long on the shelf that I had to send it to Teydo (the provider of the GPS service) to have the SIM card updated.
2. Installation – Couldn’t find any place to ‘bury’ it on the bike, won’t fit under the nose, side or tail fairing. The only place this would fit is in the boot. When I contacted the owner of Talon regarding installation locations I was told he had never installed one on a Busa and that he himself did not have one on his motorcycle. I probably should have asked if he had ever installed one period! During the installation process is when I found out that this device had to be installed in a specific manner. The blue node of the device has to be pointing upward and in a location where it could transmit & receive a signal. This was accomplished by trial and error after activation ($100) and the purchase of a tracking ‘bundle’ ($42) through Teydo via Locationxs.com
3. Customer Support – You can’t talk to a live person, you get your technical questions answered by live chat or emails. Being on the West Coast and only home on weekends this proved impossible and resulted in the exchange of at least 75-80 emails. Now don’t get me wrong they try, but they just don’t get the job done.
4. Operation – Now according the operating parameters I wired in a mercury tilt switch and a cut off switch (to disable the tilt switch) into the HPA circuit so that if the bike was tilted upright it would close the circuit and send me an alert. This function never worked and after 3 months of trying I finally find out that the selection of notifications is for email only and even then I never got one alert to my email. The device when moving will send you continuing alerts based on your selection of the time frame of reports ranging from every 10-15 min. to 10 hrs. This never worked either as I could never select anything other that 10-15 min. This has the potential of being very, very expensive at $.50 an alert. You also have the option of selecting ‘battery save mode on’ or ‘battery save mode off’ so you can ping the unit to get its current location, could never get this to work although I was able to get current location, even when it came back as ‘location unknown’. This occurred many times when I was riding the bike, I was told this was a software glitch.
5. Results & Conclusion – MiBike is a POS, save your money. Yeah I feel a lot lighter in the wallet but I chose to be the guinea pig so I am not going to complain. Although when I think about I could have spent the money on a $500 an hour hooker and gotten some enjoyment out of getting screwed.
Now there are other GPS products out there that may function in the manner desired, i.e., provide an immediate alert if your bike is lifted and allow you to track it via your PC through a GPS website so you can get it back in one piece or even better notify the police that you are about to smoke a couple bike thieves and to come and collect them before they wind up in the compost heap.
1. Initial Assessment – Advertised as the size of a black board eraser. In fact it is approximately twice the size measuring 5-3/4†long, 3†wide and 1-1/4†thick or about twice the width of a black board eraser with a wt. of approx. 318 gr. or just over 11 oz. (it’s big). This particular device had sat so long on the shelf that I had to send it to Teydo (the provider of the GPS service) to have the SIM card updated.
2. Installation – Couldn’t find any place to ‘bury’ it on the bike, won’t fit under the nose, side or tail fairing. The only place this would fit is in the boot. When I contacted the owner of Talon regarding installation locations I was told he had never installed one on a Busa and that he himself did not have one on his motorcycle. I probably should have asked if he had ever installed one period! During the installation process is when I found out that this device had to be installed in a specific manner. The blue node of the device has to be pointing upward and in a location where it could transmit & receive a signal. This was accomplished by trial and error after activation ($100) and the purchase of a tracking ‘bundle’ ($42) through Teydo via Locationxs.com
3. Customer Support – You can’t talk to a live person, you get your technical questions answered by live chat or emails. Being on the West Coast and only home on weekends this proved impossible and resulted in the exchange of at least 75-80 emails. Now don’t get me wrong they try, but they just don’t get the job done.
4. Operation – Now according the operating parameters I wired in a mercury tilt switch and a cut off switch (to disable the tilt switch) into the HPA circuit so that if the bike was tilted upright it would close the circuit and send me an alert. This function never worked and after 3 months of trying I finally find out that the selection of notifications is for email only and even then I never got one alert to my email. The device when moving will send you continuing alerts based on your selection of the time frame of reports ranging from every 10-15 min. to 10 hrs. This never worked either as I could never select anything other that 10-15 min. This has the potential of being very, very expensive at $.50 an alert. You also have the option of selecting ‘battery save mode on’ or ‘battery save mode off’ so you can ping the unit to get its current location, could never get this to work although I was able to get current location, even when it came back as ‘location unknown’. This occurred many times when I was riding the bike, I was told this was a software glitch.
5. Results & Conclusion – MiBike is a POS, save your money. Yeah I feel a lot lighter in the wallet but I chose to be the guinea pig so I am not going to complain. Although when I think about I could have spent the money on a $500 an hour hooker and gotten some enjoyment out of getting screwed.
Now there are other GPS products out there that may function in the manner desired, i.e., provide an immediate alert if your bike is lifted and allow you to track it via your PC through a GPS website so you can get it back in one piece or even better notify the police that you are about to smoke a couple bike thieves and to come and collect them before they wind up in the compost heap.
