Biking Gadgets

Sometimes during our mountaing biking trips across the country there may be a situation where you will have to leave your brand new bike inside the car.  We’ve come across this situation a few times where the hotel would not let us bring our bikes inside our rooms.  At first our only defense was to park the car as close as possible to our hotel room and key an eye on it. In some situations however, there was no possible way to have the car nearby our window. 

This is where the wireless door chime security system comes in.  These door chimes are designed to sound when a door opens.  Using a magnetic connection, the chime sounds when the connection is broken as a door is swung open.  These systems have a range of above 150 feet.

To set this system up all you need to do is place the two sensors on two different items in your car.  You can put the larger sensor on the ground and attach the other sensor to your bike.  Position the bike so that the two sensors are almost touching.  Back in your hotel room, plug in the door chime.  If your bike is moved, the sensor connection will break and the door chime in your room will sound.

If you cover up your bike with gear or blankets, position the sensors so that any blanket or gear movement will trip it.  The goal here is to get as much notice as possible.  Placing the sensors on a car door may be better, however you run the chance of the thieves opening the other door.

Now I have two trains of thought on this type of alarm.  Since this alarm is silent to the thieves, it gives you a chance to run down stairs, call the police and confront them.  The hope is that you’ll suprise them before they’ve gotten hold of your bike and they’ll just run away.

You can add a loud shrieking motion detector that’s battery operated into the mix.  The principles are the same here.  Position it so that it will move or fall at the slightly disturbance of your things.  Hopefully the loud wailing siren will scare the thieves away.

In either case, you’ll either wake up to a door chime alarm or wake up the next morning knowing your bike is still safe.

Categories: Misc