This kind of sounds like a fun bike club activity tbh. Get a few people to put their airtags in a hat, shuffle them around and hand them back out. Everyone goes for a ride and hides them. Meet back at the starting point, then owners go hunt for their tags. Like it was nice that "Jimmy" wanted to show you that lookout.
Thanks Shane. I’ve got two airtags, fitted to the kids when we go somewhere busy! Was considering one for the bike, but not yet decided where to fit it (I.e out of sight, but not out of range).
Thank you mate for all your trouble in making this video!! I had as much fun watching as you must have had being it in the Sun on the bike. You’ve proven to me beyond doubt that these little things are worth having. Thank you again.
Very much appreciate the updated video on this, but also I am extremely envious of that gorgeous gravel you have there! Since your first AirTag video last year I mounted one tag on my road bike and one on my gravel bike.
I was contemplating on getting these. We had some stuff stolen recently and this seems to be a nice fit to track those high price items. Thanks for this. Looks like I will be sourcing a couple for the bikes.
Moving in three months and we have a cat who likes to wander. Our vet said to keep her indoors for two weeks to get her used to the new house, but we're going the extra step to put an Airtag on her collar. It should be much cheaper than the emotional cost of explaining to a four year old why we can't find her kitty.
The location of the iphone that detects the airtag is used, so someone sitting at the picnic table had an iphone that detected the airtag 20+ meters away.
Forward facing on the bike is a GoPro HERO 10 4K/60fps (default everything else). Hand held is a HERO 9 with the Max Lens and Media Mod (with additional fuzz to stop the wind) 2.7k/60fps with Horizontal Lock. Both had Hypersmooth enabled too.
Nice video, thanks! Thumbs up. Waiting for the upgrade video with the XPLR parts on Von‘s bike 😉 I have a Rival 1x setup, looking into upgrading to XPR and AXS…best wishes from Germany
Thanks, that's a great update and useful to know. It's a shame the new features alert the thief but I suppose protecting individuals from stalkers etc. is more important.
Hi Lama, I would be interested to see how well the network works in areas with (far) lower iPhone market share (i.e. continental Europe). Perhaps the higher overall population density negates the lower ownership rate of iDevices in the population.
For Android users the #1 brand seems to be Tile. I would love it if you could try these out and see what you think Shane. The "Sticker" in particularly as the size compares to the AirTag.
The problem now (at least in the UK) is that theives have become aware of the use of trackers and remove them, so you need to be really good at hiding them (or have more than one).
@@gplama My guess is that the bright pink is intentional - so the thief sees the AirTag and decides to steal a different bike instead. Kind of like camping in bear country, you don't have to be faster than the bear, just faster than your friends.
Question. What if a thief set their home location as where they were when they took your bike? Would they instantly know there was an airtag next to them? Would there be a delay?
@@jamesengelsma3 trouble is they are smart. We have had work vans with high end trackers (professionally fitted) stolen, the trackers are removed part way along the journey it seems, very early on or even in the yard they were taken from. They also know the roads with ANPR and avoid those. I dare say bike thieves after decent bikes know people will use trackers and will think about how to bypass them. I remember when Strava was new and people logged their bikes in the app and it didn't try and hide your start point at all. Thieves used the platform to see what bikes people had and where they lived. So many top end bikes stolen from sheds due to that. Obviously if this is some drunk jumping on a bike for a ride home then you'll likely get your bike back quickly.
I’ve one question: how does it behave when you have your bike in the garage and leave it at home when you are not riding it? Does it ping you every time you leave home saying you left it behind?
@Shane Miller - GPLama Same question. And also, I live in an apartment building and leave the bikes in the garage. How will the AirTag behave with all my neighbours having the building location as their home?
@Alexandre Costa Your neighbours won't get any alerts/notifications as they won't be moving with your bike and returning home with it. If you were to go for a ride with them, they won't be alerted as you'll also be travelling in range of the tag.
After watching your last videos I used one on my bike on a recent foreign cycling holiday. But every time I moved my bike in the hotel room it would chirp. Also my friend was getting constant notifications that he was being tracked even though it wasn't his home location. I'm not confident that a thief would be alerted to it. It was useful to see if my bike had been loaded on the aeroplane though.
How long ago was this? Apple are rolling out new firmware to AirTags (with no notifications to users of these updates....) that might address a few bugs like this.
@@PaulioNZ I have a strong suspicion they'll be similar to Tile or Chipolo. Maybe even less useful. The Samsung SmartTag only works with Samsung Galaxy phones.
Just remember to take the AirTags off your bike when dropping it off for service. If your shop moves the bike, it’ll start chirping after a period of time
Kudos to Jim for a job well done, but I must say that my regard for him would have increased immeasurably had he actually taken a dump on the device. With that said, you might want to choose someone else to do the hiding should you ever repeat this experiment.
Just picked up an Airtag today; I've been meaning to ever since your first video. Now to figure out which mount to use for it. @Shane Miller - GPLama Has your mount preference changed recently?
Now that they have a warn when a foreign airtag is following you, isn't there a pretty large chance the thieves just see the airtag communicating with their own and find it?
As outlined in this video, it'll only warn when an AirTag is following you AND you take it to your 'home' location. 'Home' is defined by Apple as a frequented location such as your home, work, etc. They'll also need to have an iPhone/iDevice on them. It doesn't alert right away.
I’ve been experimenting with one of these for the past few days & unless you have an iPhone that supports the Ultra Wideband (I don’t unfortunately) tracing the thing is flaky at best & pretty impossible at worst. The maps app you have to use to locate it is pretty horrible & pretty inaccurate.
@@gplama I guess not. I want to use it when I’m flying with my bike so I’m not even sure how it would work inside a bikebox anyway. Only 1 way to find out I suppose.
If the thief has an iPhone then they will get a notification within 15 min telling them an air tag is tracking them and near by (in some use cases) , so they are almost useless as a tracker. (but may work in some cases)
Edit: That shouldn't be the case, and hasn't been in my testing with bikes (a lot) and in our car (limited). They will get an alert if they are moving with the AirTag and then return to their ‘home’ location with it. I explain my testing/results of this in the video.
@@gplama Have tested it mate we have about 30 or so on our HGV trailers in the US, we had to let our drives know that the trailers have air tags because the drivers with iPhones kept getting the notifications, the way we got around it was to place them at the back of the 50ft trailers as we found that if the Tag is more than 30ft away from the phone they would not get a notification. Maybe it works different on bikes because of the speed / distance but our drives with iPhone get the notification every time with out fail. (side note we have real GPS trackers for theft on the trailers but it cost us money to call for a geo-location we use air tags for dispatching not theft tracking)
@@magpieeuc4846 What location would the drivers get the notifications? If it's at a location their iDevice considers 'home' or 'highly frequented' (eg, work), that'd be as per spec. Alerting people randomly when moving in another location would cause major issues at airports, as per my example.
@@gplama We load for Amazon so the trailers are all over the US, drivers drop one trailer off at a depot, pick up a new one and haul it. Even when picking up the new trailer the driver would again get a notification that a tag was tracking. We think it might be how many pings the airtag gets from other users in relation to its position to a stationary iPhone. ie our tags our going down highways passing hundreds of iPhones each iPhone pings the tag when it passes by after a set number of pings has hit the network and it detects that a phone that it is "not connected" to has been near by the whole time it pings that phone to warn them a tag is present , this can happen in as little as 10 to 15 min and it does happen all the time.( to add to the airport thing it is easy to make an algorithm to "backlist spots" like airports ect ect from pinging phones?? maybe?? who knows apple are hush hush on how these things work.)
@@magpieeuc4846 This is really interesting and isn't in line with my tests. I appreciate your replies/info. I've also edited my initial reply - Apologies for it being abrupt.
Its a great idea in theory but theives just remove them. Frame mfg's should use the same tech to just embed them into the frame in a way that ruins the structural integrity if compromised.
Good information, but there are problems with this that have nothing to do with the technology. Even if you track your bike to a specific building, if that building is private, you will need to get law enforcement to obtain a search warrant from a judge. This can be very hard to obtain especially if there are multiple possibilities or some degree of uncertainty. Next, you would have to prove your ownership of the bike to law enforcement. Also, trying to "steal" your stolen bike back can be dangerous to you.
This kind of sounds like a fun bike club activity tbh. Get a few people to put their airtags in a hat, shuffle them around and hand them back out. Everyone goes for a ride and hides them. Meet back at the starting point, then owners go hunt for their tags. Like it was nice that "Jimmy" wanted to show you that lookout.
Wonder if I can find my IQ2 pedals this way?
Thanks for the effort gone into this, much appreciated.
Thanks Shane. I’ve got two airtags, fitted to the kids when we go somewhere busy! Was considering one for the bike, but not yet decided where to fit it (I.e out of sight, but not out of range).
Thank you mate for all your trouble in making this video!! I had as much fun watching as you must have had being it in the Sun on the bike. You’ve proven to me beyond doubt that these little things are worth having. Thank you again.
We live in PA and when we got them I put them out in the back yard and the kids and I made a game out of finding them.. we had so much fun.
Very much appreciate the updated video on this, but also I am extremely envious of that gorgeous gravel you have there!
Since your first AirTag video last year I mounted one tag on my road bike and one on my gravel bike.
You nailed it. I was thinking this is geo cache on steroids. I’m sold. Thanks.
I appreciate all your research and effort - I'll be getting one soon!
I'll use any excuse for another bike ride or two to make a video. :)
I was contemplating on getting these. We had some stuff stolen recently and this seems to be a nice fit to track those high price items. Thanks for this. Looks like I will be sourcing a couple for the bikes.
Love this vid! You should do it again. It's very fun to watch! 😄
Lama content that never disappoints! 🙏🏼💪🏼
is anyone else concerned about Jim & his ability to 'hide things' in the bush?
Watching you locate the AirTag is a lot of fun ;-)
Thanks Shane! I bought two airtags (one for my bike and one for my car keys) after watching your first video on it. 🙏
Google had your story about lost luggage. I have a bike and thought it would be cool to track. Thanks
I bought an AirTag for my bike because of your last video on AirTags. Thanks for the research and content, Shane!
That’s pretty amazing Shane.New bike waiting to be picked up in Geelong.I may have to invest in some AirTags I reckon.Thanks for the video.
Thank you for the English subtitles
Been using airtags for the same reason. Gets the job done
You have won your treasure hunt game!
Definitely going to mount one on my new Canyon. Haven't decided on which mount though.
That felt more like normal geocaching which is why we stopped. Much more fun orienteering in that forest!
+1 to doing that again. Fun thing to do with friends.
Hey Shane, great video as usual, any Android equivalent?
Moving in three months and we have a cat who likes to wander. Our vet said to keep her indoors for two weeks to get her used to the new house, but we're going the extra step to put an Airtag on her collar. It should be much cheaper than the emotional cost of explaining to a four year old why we can't find her kitty.
I have one on my emotional support billy goat.
I have one in my car, one on my motorbike, and one on each of my road bikes - for the sake of £20 each why not? Cheers for the update video 👍
Same. In the car. Both bikes and a drone.
This is a pleasantly 😃mesmerizing video
Soooo the important question is, did Jim take a dump while hiding the tag?
Thank you for another good video… I am certainly going to get one for my bike.
The location of the iphone that detects the airtag is used, so someone sitting at the picnic table had an iphone that detected the airtag 20+ meters away.
Yep, something I've discovered in all this testing. You can see it 'lock on' to my phone as I ride up the path.
I've got to get myself one of these
3:27 do you need the AirTag to be in "lost mode" for those pings? Or do they come automatically once the phone realizes you're not near it anymore?
Let’s call him Jim to hide his identity…although his name Jim 😂😂😂
great video, planning to buy them for our bikes. Muc-of have a nice airtag holders to mount on bike.
Great Vid and well covered topic Thanks
Wow the opening footage is so bright and sharp! What camera and settings were being used for that?
Forward facing on the bike is a GoPro HERO 10 4K/60fps (default everything else). Hand held is a HERO 9 with the Max Lens and Media Mod (with additional fuzz to stop the wind) 2.7k/60fps with Horizontal Lock. Both had Hypersmooth enabled too.
@@gplama thanks for taking the time to reply Shane, much appreciated! I’m in the UK but lived in Perth for 7 years as a youngster.
So the guy who had a dump had an iPhone. Thought it would have been an Android owner. Great vid!
Great explaination goob job mate
Great video. I throughly enjoyed it. An I do have air tags on my bikes and work tool bag
Nice video, thanks! Thumbs up. Waiting for the upgrade video with the XPLR parts on Von‘s bike 😉 I have a Rival 1x setup, looking into upgrading to XPR and AXS…best wishes from Germany
Von’s Aspero XPLR updates video: ruclips.net/video/NHOv_ojCkYY/видео.html
@@gplama thx, must have missed that…
Thanks, that's a great update and useful to know. It's a shame the new features alert the thief but I suppose protecting individuals from stalkers etc. is more important.
Hi Lama, I would be interested to see how well the network works in areas with (far) lower iPhone market share (i.e. continental Europe). Perhaps the higher overall population density negates the lower ownership rate of iDevices in the population.
Two resources that'll help answer this one:
- www.travelbyenvelope.com/
- ruclips.net/user/AirtagAlex
Are the airtags usable in any way with android phones?
No
Hi. I keep my bike with the AirTag in the basement. Would it bother my neighbors if I am away? Thanks
No. It'll only beep/chirp if moved and you've been away from it for 8-24hrs+
@@gplamathank you very much!
For Android users the #1 brand seems to be Tile. I would love it if you could try these out and see what you think Shane. The "Sticker" in particularly as the size compares to the AirTag.
but that is only bluetooth conenction right?
@@the_hasnat unfortunately yes, hopefully they come out with a BLE version
Tip for Jim’s next hiding:
I’ve noticed with my keys. It’s doesn’t track elevation/which floor.
The problem now (at least in the UK) is that theives have become aware of the use of trackers and remove them, so you need to be really good at hiding them (or have more than one).
UK sounds like a terrible place
Any insight into battery life? I think mine is a dud, need to change the CR2032 every month.
My original set are still over 50%. That’s after many months. I suspect you’ve got a dud.
thanks Shane for your videos. May I ask for your thoughts on the Muc-off airtag holders. i.e., cnc aluminium vs plastic 3D printed holders?
I haven't had one to test out. I've seen a bright pink one... which... isn't an ideal colour for being discreet.
I was looking at this too.
Concerned the aluminium would block some signal or affect battery life.
@@gplama My guess is that the bright pink is intentional - so the thief sees the AirTag and decides to steal a different bike instead. Kind of like camping in bear country, you don't have to be faster than the bear, just faster than your friends.
Question. What if a thief set their home location as where they were when they took your bike? Would they instantly know there was an airtag next to them? Would there be a delay?
My guess is that if they're that smart, they're not out risking getting caught by stealing a bike, they're hacking into bank servers :)
@@jamesengelsma3 trouble is they are smart. We have had work vans with high end trackers (professionally fitted) stolen, the trackers are removed part way along the journey it seems, very early on or even in the yard they were taken from. They also know the roads with ANPR and avoid those.
I dare say bike thieves after decent bikes know people will use trackers and will think about how to bypass them. I remember when Strava was new and people logged their bikes in the app and it didn't try and hide your start point at all. Thieves used the platform to see what bikes people had and where they lived. So many top end bikes stolen from sheds due to that.
Obviously if this is some drunk jumping on a bike for a ride home then you'll likely get your bike back quickly.
Wait, have you said that the AirTag was detected in that location at 1AM in the night??
Yes.
I’ve one question: how does it behave when you have your bike in the garage and leave it at home when you are not riding it? Does it ping you every time you leave home saying you left it behind?
@Shane Miller - GPLama Same question. And also, I live in an apartment building and leave the bikes in the garage. How will the AirTag behave with all my neighbours having the building location as their home?
You can set exceptions for "Notify when left behind" so it doesn't alert when leaving specified locations.
@Alexandre Costa Your neighbours won't get any alerts/notifications as they won't be moving with your bike and returning home with it. If you were to go for a ride with them, they won't be alerted as you'll also be travelling in range of the tag.
@@gplama thanks 👍
@@gplama thx!
Sucks that weather really impacts it. I had one on my bike when I was biking out in Dec and the battery died by the end of the month. Cold just kills
That's a function of the chemistry of Lithium batteries. Unfortunately, not avoidable.
Ok, I’m taking the leap.
...and that's a crap... er, I mean wrap. :)
Did Jim take the dump??
I bought an Alterlock for my Pinarello. Is this available in Aus, Shane? It uses Sigfox to really extend the range.
Not something I've looked into. I'd have to research if they worked here in AU and what the subscription cost is here if it does.
After watching your last videos I used one on my bike on a recent foreign cycling holiday. But every time I moved my bike in the hotel room it would chirp. Also my friend was getting constant notifications that he was being tracked even though it wasn't his home location. I'm not confident that a thief would be alerted to it. It was useful to see if my bike had been loaded on the aeroplane though.
How long ago was this? Apple are rolling out new firmware to AirTags (with no notifications to users of these updates....) that might address a few bugs like this.
@@gplama Ok, it was November 21. Will be trying it again at the end of the month.
You can very easily remove the speaker! Many videos on RUclips.
Big up the tracking kru, next level - get yourself chipped. You Aussies are almost there anyway.
The obvious question is how well this all works on android, I can see an app but apple normally limits everything.
They don't work on Android. See 8:06 for what I think of the Android 'Tracker Detect' app.
Samsung now has an equivalent gadget so perhaps time to test that one?
@@PaulioNZ I have a strong suspicion they'll be similar to Tile or Chipolo. Maybe even less useful. The Samsung SmartTag only works with Samsung Galaxy phones.
Just remember to take the AirTags off your bike when dropping it off for service. If your shop moves the bike, it’ll start chirping after a period of time
Kudos to Jim for a job well done, but I must say that my regard for him would have increased immeasurably had he actually taken a dump on the device. With that said, you might want to choose someone else to do the hiding should you ever repeat this experiment.
🤣🤣🤣
Just picked up an Airtag today; I've been meaning to ever since your first video. Now to figure out which mount to use for it. @Shane Miller - GPLama Has your mount preference changed recently?
Bottle cage or under the saddle seems to perform best (not on top of the seatpost as I tested)
@@gplama Thanks! :-)
The real question... why did it pink at 1am that far off the path? 🤔
Someone was out there with an iPhone at that time.
Would it work if I put it inside an alloy stem?
See my video linked in the description. In short, no.
I think the “crapper” triggered the AirTag, fitted in the bark of the tree he was crapping next to
Now that they have a warn when a foreign airtag is following you, isn't there a pretty large chance the thieves just see the airtag communicating with their own and find it?
As outlined in this video, it'll only warn when an AirTag is following you AND you take it to your 'home' location. 'Home' is defined by Apple as a frequented location such as your home, work, etc. They'll also need to have an iPhone/iDevice on them. It doesn't alert right away.
I was thinking Jim must have swallowed it… then….
Another great video and you found the tree Jarvis 🐻 hangs arround and it looks like yes he does 💩.
I’ve been experimenting with one of these for the past few days & unless you have an iPhone that supports the Ultra Wideband (I don’t unfortunately) tracing the thing is flaky at best & pretty impossible at worst. The maps app you have to use to locate it is pretty horrible & pretty inaccurate.
If the item is lost then it’s not your phone/UWB compatibility you need to worry about.
@@gplama I guess not. I want to use it when I’m flying with my bike so I’m not even sure how it would work inside a bikebox anyway. Only 1 way to find out I suppose.
I'd better put this in the tree in case someone takes a dump nearby.
I wonder if the bush-poo culprit was who pinged the airtag!
The phantom iPhone owning shitter strikes again!
If it was one of my friends hiding it, it would definitely have been squished into a turd 💩
If the thief has an iPhone then they will get a notification within 15 min telling them an air tag is tracking them and near by (in some use cases) , so they are almost useless as a tracker. (but may work in some cases)
Edit: That shouldn't be the case, and hasn't been in my testing with bikes (a lot) and in our car (limited). They will get an alert if they are moving with the AirTag and then return to their ‘home’ location with it. I explain my testing/results of this in the video.
@@gplama Have tested it mate we have about 30 or so on our HGV trailers in the US, we had to let our drives know that the trailers have air tags because the drivers with iPhones kept getting the notifications, the way we got around it was to place them at the back of the 50ft trailers as we found that if the Tag is more than 30ft away from the phone they would not get a notification. Maybe it works different on bikes because of the speed / distance but our drives with iPhone get the notification every time with out fail. (side note we have real GPS trackers for theft on the trailers but it cost us money to call for a geo-location we use air tags for dispatching not theft tracking)
@@magpieeuc4846 What location would the drivers get the notifications? If it's at a location their iDevice considers 'home' or 'highly frequented' (eg, work), that'd be as per spec. Alerting people randomly when moving in another location would cause major issues at airports, as per my example.
@@gplama We load for Amazon so the trailers are all over the US, drivers drop one trailer off at a depot, pick up a new one and haul it. Even when picking up the new trailer the driver would again get a notification that a tag was tracking. We think it might be how many pings the airtag gets from other users in relation to its position to a stationary iPhone. ie our tags our going down highways passing hundreds of iPhones each iPhone pings the tag when it passes by after a set number of pings has hit the network and it detects that a phone that it is "not connected" to has been near by the whole time it pings that phone to warn them a tag is present , this can happen in as little as 10 to 15 min and it does happen all the time.( to add to the airport thing it is easy to make an algorithm to "backlist spots" like airports ect ect from pinging phones?? maybe?? who knows apple are hush hush on how these things work.)
@@magpieeuc4846 This is really interesting and isn't in line with my tests. I appreciate your replies/info. I've also edited my initial reply - Apologies for it being abrupt.
Its a great idea in theory but theives just remove them. Frame mfg's should use the same tech to just embed them into the frame in a way that ruins the structural integrity if compromised.
soooo if you steal something... don't take it home LOL
Don’t steal things with tracking devices is a better idea. 👌🏼
@@gplama I mean of course...Ill go one further...don't steal stuff 🤣🤣
Good information, but there are problems with this that have nothing to do with the technology. Even if you track your bike to a specific building, if that building is private, you will need to get law enforcement to obtain a search warrant from a judge. This can be very hard to obtain especially if there are multiple possibilities or some degree of uncertainty. Next, you would have to prove your ownership of the bike to law enforcement. Also, trying to "steal" your stolen bike back can be dangerous to you.
You’re right, that’s nothing to do with this technology.
I'm guessing you could stalk an Android user then?
Stalk anyone you like if that’s your thing. 🤷🏻♂️😂
Forest Dump
TAKE THE SPEAKER OUT
OK 📣
you will be tracked by unknown third parties if you have any modern electronics on or near your person. the surveillance state is massive
And these unknown third parties are going to..... do what exactly? 🛸
@@gplama I'm subscribing and liking based on this comment alone 🤣🤣🤣
@@gplama sell your information
@@kylehagertybanana I've made more from these videos than Apple will selling my information to unknown third parties. Know the game, player!