Which bike alarm ?

Need to get an alarm, but don't want one that will flatten the battery in a
few days, one that does take more than a little while to defeat, and one
that doesn't false alarm several times a night.... !

Anyone got some good recommendations ?

Thanks,

Nick

 

Yep. Most of them suck ants off a dead dogs cock.

FOAD padlock and chain. It fits all your requirements.

 

Datatool Veto Evos have done all of the above for me on two bikes for
the last few years. Lots of people have had problems with alarms &
immobilisers stranding them in the middle of nowhere though, so expect
a few replies telling you not to bother.

 

Apart from the requirement from the insurance company.

 

Preston Kemp says...

Personally I'd never fit a Datatool out of choice, I only have one on my
9R because it was fitted when I bought the bike. I'd buy the Meta 375 as
it's the only alarm/immobiliser that AA and RAC men say gives them very
few problems. In their opinion, all the others suck arse.

 

I once had a Datatool Stealth and would never have another Datatool
alarm again.

 

rb emerged from their own little world to say

*ding* AOL NTL ditto ........with knobs on

 

TBH, I think you'll find a big lock more effective in the long term.

 

If the insco says you must have one, buy one, keep the receipt, don't
fit it, sell it on Ebay, and if the bike gets nicked they'll never know.

And if it gets nicked and (amazingly) recovered, they won't be paying
out anyway, will they?

As everyone else seems to be saying, alarms (and immobilisers) seem to
be utter pants when fitted to bikes.

 

PROBABLY THE BEST ANSWER OF ALL !!!

I will buy a FOAD padlock and chain as well (and USE that !!)

Thanks for all your replies

Cheers

Nick

 

In some cases they'll ask for a copy of the installation certificate
before sending out the policy. If they don't, they may well ask for it
if you ever make a theft claim. Not a problem if they don't state it
has to be professionally fitted by an approved installer, but they
usually do ime.

 

Setting aside the fact the dealer never seemed to get the sensitivity
right:

The auto arm was a pain. I used to remove my key from the ignition at
the last moment so that it wouldn't arm while I was removing the tank
bag/soft panniers. This resulted in me forgetting to remove my keys on
more than one occasion.

If the battery wasn't tip top then it wouldn't start. As the starter
engaged the high current drawn would drop the voltage on the battery.
This meant the immobiliser would cut in as it thought the battery leads
had been cut. Starter disengages, voltage rises, immobiliser resets,
starter enagages, repeat...

Of course the battery was never actually in tip top condition because
you had this alarm constantly chirping and flashing away 24/7.

Not to mention the therapy bills ever since.

 

I recommend the Meta 357T V2. I've got one of these and my mates also
got one of these and neither alarms have given any problems. I do
think though that it is the quality of the installation thats makes a
big difference in how good/reliable the alarm/immobiliser system will
be.

 

Have had 2 bikes fitted with META 357 V2s and only had one moment when it
refused to let me start the bike and after 10 minutes leaving it alone let
it sort itself out everything was fine.

 

rb emerged from their own little world to say

At the time I had my alarm on a VFR750 they seemed to be getting a lot
of failures. This was 1996.

However, the real issue was their customer service. I contacted their
breakdown service which was efficient. They used GEM Recovery and a
local agent was there within an hour. Unfortunately, they are instructed
to take the bike to the nearest Datatool dealer not the fitting dealer
(there was about 15 miles difference).

When the bike arrived at the Datatool agent the reception was not good.
The chap said they pay us £15 to strip out the old alarm controller and
fit a new one. As Datatool failed to supply a working[1] unit for 3
weeks they had to store my bike too. I had never purchased anything from
this dealer before so my job was not given any priority either.

If I'd known that their dealers thought so little of them I would have
made my own arrangements to get my bike recovered to the dealer that
supplied the bike & alarm.

Consequently, in the unlikely event that I'm in the market for another
alarm Datatool will be at the bottom of the list. Their products and
service may have improved in the last 9 years but after the way they
treated me they can **** off as long as their are alternatives.

[1] the first was duff apparently

 

Sometime around Sat, 12 Mar 2005 23:40:46 +0000, Nick babbled on about:

Meta 357 seems very good and is Cat 1, mine has the remote control built
into the ignition key as well, the only downside is inadvertantly setting
off the panic alarm when I sit down with the key in my back pocket

 

*ding*

That would have been my brand new N reg GS500e with Stealth alarm
fitted from new.

It never actually left me stranded roadside but I did have to the alarm
unit swapped at least once and bump starting was a regular winter
morning sport.

 

The two bikes I've had nicked had FOAD locks and no alarms.

The three alarmed bikes have never been nicked.

 

On Sun, 13 Mar 2005 09:05:25 +0000,

<begs to differ>

 

Trust an accountant to bring statistics into this.