There are a lot of motorcycle alarms available, with so many choices and so much technological language, it is difficult to decide which alarm is right for you. Motorcycle alarms range in features, price, and quality; let’s discuss the issue of price first. May I suggest considering the price of your motorcycle to give you a spending estimate for a security system. If your riding a Honda CB750 the looks like you pulled it out of some farmer’s barn and is covered with pigeon crap and rust, you may not need a security system. If your riding a beautifully restored CB750 that is a commemorative of your late father, than a security system is probably a good idea. What I’m getting to is that you need to consider not only the Kelly Blue Book value but sentimental value also. At the opposite extreme, nothing is more irritating that the customer that calls up and tell you about his 30,000 dollar motorcycle and then squirms at a 200 dollar price tag and ends up buying a 40 dollar motorcycle alarm system off eBay. I mean really, if you spent 30 K on a motorcycle, why would you put some Chinese-built piece of garbage on your motorcycle. I guarantee you will be replacing it in the next two or three years. If it lasts longer than that, consider yourself lucky. My point here is to consider what you have invested and how much it is worth to keep it safe. A basic rule to keep in mind, “You get what you pay for.”
Moving on to features of motorcycle alarm systems. As I stated earlier, there is a lot of technical language that is not well-explained by some manufactures. The first and most notorious of these terms is “anti-hijacking.” This is actually a term that I believe has been coined by the Chinese alarm manufactures. Basically this feature will allow you to shut your motorcycle’s engine down if some is riding away with your motorcycle, so long as your bike is within range. I believe this feature sounds really good on paper, but the practically of it has yet to be determined, it’s almost as ridiculous as remote starting on a motorcycle. I’ll get to remote starting next, but I want to finish ridiculing the foolishness anti-hijacking first. I have only once heard of a customer successfully utilize the anti-hijacking feature, but it really didn’t work out as well as he had imagine. This particular customer lived in Daytona, Florida. He had parked his bike out side a Wal-Mart, went inside and saw one of his riding buddies. He decided the show his friend the really “cool” remote starting feature of his new alarm system. I-kid-you-not, no sooner then his bike started, a man passing by hopped on his bike and started to ride away. He thought to himself, “Thank God I purchased the anti-hijacking alarm” and successfully killed the engine. I don’t think I need to tell you that the bike-thief did not stop to put the kick-stand down. Needless to say, the guys’ bike was ditched at about 10 miles per hour doing plenty of damage. I truly believe this is an incredibly unique situation, where the owner was in the right place at the right time. 99 times out of 100, you are not going to be standing around when your bike is being stolen; therefore, in my opinion the anti hijacking feature is not all that useful. Another issue to consider in regard to anti-hijacking, what if you put the remote in your pocket and accidentally press the anti-hijacking feature as your riding the bike. A sudden loss of power could cause you to loss control of the motorcycle.
Some guys think remote starting is really cool. Believe me, I have thought through this issue and I have two very good reasons why it is not so cool. The first involves the technology of electronic fuel ignition (EFI) and lubricants. If your bike has EFI, than you can literal start your bike and take off from a cold start in a matter of seconds. It use to be that you needed to give your bike a few seconds to warm-up before really hammering on it. But modern synthetic lubricants guarantee nearly instantaneous lubrication within a second of cold-starting your motorcycle. It makes sense that remote starting is practical for cars, since it’s nice to heat the interior of the car before traveling to work. In my opinion, unless you have a cab on your motorcycle, remote starting is completely unnecessary and useless. In fact, remote starting is more of a security liability for the same reason that the above story outlines. I have yet to see a motorcycle alarm system that has remote starting but requires you to put the key in the ignition before you can put the bike in gear with out having the engine turn off. Motorcycle remote starting systems are not as sophisticated as car remote starters. For this reason, if you have remote starting on your bike, once you have remote started the bike, anyone can hop on and drive away with out needing your key. You were better off not putting the system on your bike in the first place; if you were at all concerned about the security of your motorcycle before, you should be even more concerned now, if you have installed remote starting on your bike.
Motorcycle alarm systems use a variety of sensors to detect theft attempts, some are excellent, while others do nothing more than create false-alarms. There are three basic ways to detect theft: shock to the motorcycle, tilt of the motorcycle, and motion around the motorcycle. I’ll start with the worst device for detecting motorcycle theft: Motion Sensors. Motion Sensors were first introduced into the security market for use inside automobiles and work by sending out microwave signals or ultra-sonic signals which detect movement around the motorcycle. Just because there is movement around your bike, does not mean it’s going to be stolen. If you like to run outside in your underwear during the middle of the night to see why your alarm system is going off, then by all means purchase an alarm system with a motion sensor. The other distinct disadvantage is that you can’t throw a cover over your bike, since the wind will obviously catch the wind from time to time and trigger your alarm system. Basically, motion sensors on motorcycles equal lots of false alarms.
Tilt Sensors on motorcycle’s are a great way to prevent theft, but you must know what type of tilt sensing technology your get. There are a few motorcycle alarm system manufactures that I’m aware of, which still use tilt sensing technology from the 1970’s. This technology uses a mercury switch to detect changes in inclination; unfortunately, it does not detect subtle changes in tilt inclination. In other words, you can usually tilt the bike off its side-stand to an upright position and the mercury style tilt sensor will never trigger the alarm. The other distinct disadvantage is once again false alarms. How you might say? Well, if you take a look at a traditional thermometer which uses mercury, you’ll understand. Clearly, mercury is very sensitive to changes in temperature. Sudden changes in temperature, such as shutting a hot engine down on a cold evening, will cause mercury switch tilt sensors to trigger the alarm system. So, if you like running outside in your underwear during an especially cold evening, the by all means purchase an alarm system a mercury style tilt sensor. Thankfully science as provide us with better technology than that which was offered during the 1970’s, it’s unfortunate that some manufactures choose to continue using this technology on motorcycle alarm systems. I guess they’re more interested in being cheap. As I was saying, science has provided a solution and it’s digital. Digital Accelerometers are an excellent device for detecting changes in tilt or inclination. Once the digital accelerometer is set, it takes a reading of its position, if the accelerometer senses even minimal change in its position, it will trigger the alarm system siren. In fact, the best of these devices can detect a change in tilt of three degrees or more, making it perfect for a motorcycle. On the Cyclone 866F motorcycle alarm (here’s my plug) changes of 3 degrees or more will trigger the alarm system, which means, bringing the bike off the side-stand will trigger the system. Since they are digital, these types of tilt sensors are also incredibly durable. In terms of utility, durability, sensitivity, and practicality, Digital Accelerometers are an excellent way to prevent motorcycle theft. Chances are, if someone tips your motorcycle off of it’s side-stand, you’ll want to know about it.
Shock Sensors are another great of preventing motorcycle theft. Most every motorcycle alarm system uses a shock sensor, so it’s important that you are able to distinguish the good from the bad. Shock sensors can sometimes be too sensitive. I often hear individuals complaining that there motorcycle alarm is constantly being set off by a loud Harley Davidson motorcycle passing-by. It’s probably a good indicator that your alarm is too sensitive when sound wave are setting it off. However, it can be really disappointing when go to adjust the sensitivity and there is no adjustment or looped wire that your told to cut in order to lower the sensitivity. Shock sensitivity adjustability is always a good indicator of the sophistication of your motorcycle alarm system, if it doesn’t have it, then it’s really unsophisticated and cheap. look for shock sensors that are completely adjustable and not just a one-time adjustment that is made by cutting a wire. Good shock sensors will have a wide range of sensitivity and the best will utilize two shock sensors, one for hard shock and the other for light shock, and will trigger the alarm accordingly. This is where I put a huge plug in for the Cyclone 866F motorcycle alarm system. The Cyclone 866F is the only motorcycle alarm that I’m aware of that has two sensitivity adjustments, one for heavy shock and the other for light shock. What’s even better is that the light shock sensor only triggers the warning chirp siren, and the heavy shock sensor triggers the full-stage siren. At the end of this article there will be a link to the Cyclone 866F if you want to learn more.
An internal back-up battery is essential on motorcycle alarm systems for two reasons. The first is that many insurance companies require this feature to obtain an insurance discount on your motorcycle insurance policy. The second reason is that removal of the seat makes it relatively easy to cut power to the motorcycle alarm system. There is an important distinction between a back-up battery and a capacitor. A capacitor is a device that holds a small charge and has an output that only lasts for a second or two. Practically speaking, it is completely useless on a security system and is not the same as a back-up battery. If power is cut to a security system that utilizes a capacitor, the alarm will completely die in just a few seconds, if your lucky and have a paging system, the alarm may be able to send you a page before it goes dead. One very popular motorcycle alarm manufacture in the U.S. (the one who’s name resembles an astrology sign), claims to use a back-up battery but only uses a capacitor. (Here comes another plug) The Cyclone 866F uses an internal back-up battery that is capable of blasting the full stage siren for two continuous hours if power is cut.
The final feature I want to address is an Engine Immobilizer. An engine immobilizer prevents your motorcycle from being started when the alarm system is armed. It is a basic feature of most alarm systems, but is essential. Face it, what good is an alarm system if someone can hot wire your bike and ride away even if the siren is sounding. Most professional thieves can hot wire a motorcycle in 30 seconds or less, and this feature keeps them from doing so. Basically this feature interrupts the kills witch line with a relay, and makes it impossible to start the bike so long as the alarm system is armed. This is just another important feature to look for when considering and alarm system.
Let’s review what we’ve learned to look for before purchasing a motorcycle alarm system. All good motorcycle alarms will not utilize remote starting or anti-hijacking features. It’s also a bad idea to use a motorcycle alarm that utilizes a motion sensor. The best alarms will include fully adjustable shock sensors and a tilt sensor. Be careful not to purchase an alarm system that uses a mercury switch tilt sensor. Good motorcycle alarm systems will also utilize a real back-up battery and an engine immobilizer. If your interested in checking out a motorcycle alarm system that contains all these good features, check out the Cyclone 866F motorcycle alarm system. By the way, it’s the only motorcycle alarm system in the world that offers a Limited Lifetime Warranty
