Bike Alarm Advice Please

Zascar

I've just bought a new bike and I'm thinking of putting an alarm on it. Has anyone else done this? I have a few questions:

What alarm did you buy? What are the best makes etc?
How do i know what one to pick? What features should I look for?
Where did you get it installed?

Any advice appreciated.
Cheers

dubtom

I bought an alarm off ebay last year for under 50 quid sterling,movement sensor, talking warning alert,immobiliser,siren.Cheap and cheerfull but all I wanted was a noisey deterent,the bike is kept in a warehouse. You could pay hundreds for a shop fitted alarm that doesn't do much more but has fancy fobs and a thick manual. In my opinion,for what it's worth,if a thief wants your bike badly enough he'll bring a van and lift it in,so a noisey deterent to stop him moving it is my first choice,check ebay for a cheapie.A friend installed mine.

faceman

I had an alarm on my last bike. The guy who installed it was recommended by JP motorcycles in Dublin. cant remember the exact price but was around €300 for alarm and installation. (with 2 key fobs)

The alarm was called "datatool" (AFAIK) and i never had any problems with it.

It had the motion sensor thingie on it as well as mobiliser and alarm.

pirate reject

I had a Meta alarm installed on my bike as part of the deal when I bought it and I would thoroughly recommend it even for the deterrant factor. That said there are alarms and there are alarms. I haven't lived in Ireland for a while but here in the UK now the insurance companies will give you a discount if you have an alarm installed but it has to be a recognised category 1 or 2 type. A list of recognised alarms can usually be obtained from your insurance company but I do know that Meta and Datatool are two well recognised brands.

Things to look for include an immobaliser, and a tilt motion sensor (which detects the bike being moved). Some alarms have a proximity detector which detects movement around the bike, but while this is a nice to have I would not say it is an essential item.

A word of warning though. The alarm will drain the battery and if you dont use your bike regularly or if you store it for the winter I would strongly recommend that you buy a trickle battery charger to keep the battery charged up. I killed my battery dead after storing my bike for the winter, which ended up costing me £50 to replace. On top of this the alarm would have never worked for the second half of the winter defeating the purpose entirely.

faceman

Good point pirate on the battery.

AFAIK the insurance companies in ireland dont offer discounts if you have an alarm, unless it changed in the last 2 years?