What bike alarm is best?

I was told that the BMW alarm is not Thatcham approved, so pointless putting on the bike "for insurance purposes".
Who has had an alarm fitted?
Does it work 100% with s1000rr?

I'm sure your gonna get a few responses matey. But could u kindly introduce yourself first.
There's a section for it then we can all welcome u in properly.

Cheers doc

Hi,

The immobiliser is Thatcham class 1 so an alarm will make no difference to your insurance (at least it didn't for me). I have the BMW alarm which I got for free and asked the dealer to remove. He convinced me to leave it on the bike but I don't use it. I had a play and it seems to work fine, has a travel mode which switches off the motion detection so it seems ok. If you don't set it, it switches completely off after an hour so it doesn't drain the battery, or so the manual says.

I'd definitely not pay money to have an alarm fitted, if they want your bike an alarm is not going to stop it getting nicked.

Allan

P.S. Welcome to the forum

disk lock and a big chain.
when was the last time you saw anyone react to an alarm ?

This is my first bike without an alarm. I got insurance quotes with and without and it makes no difference whatsoever.

Given my previous bike alarms seem to have liked going off at 2am I decided to give the neighbours a break. And spend the money on something pretty. Like shoes. :

I would absolutely avoid putting any alarm on this particular bike. Any non standard offerings will have to be spliced into the loom and these Canbus systems do not like this at all. As Bob says a big chain locked to something solid will always give you the best fighting chance against the scum bags.

I hate alarms. No one ever takes any notice of them and how many times have you listened to an alarm and gone "oh for fcuk sake turn that fcuking alarm off" rather than go and see if someone is actually stealing something, loads I bet. I was told all the scum bags do is pick it up and put it in a van and throw loads of blankets over it to muffle the sound. Big chain, disc lock and anything that makes it hard to move is better than any alarm IMO. Then hopefully they will give up or make enough noise that you hear them and can come running out and rap your baseball bat round their head. Then just tell the police he slipped trying to run away and bashed his head......

Yep let's just smash em all!!!!

No Alarm is Best, the last one I had was 12 years ago. You pay about £350 and that wont stop the Buggers, that £350 would be better spent on your Excess if and when it gets stolen

My BMW fitted alarm is a pain in the arse don't seem to turn of on the fob thing till you nudge it& when it starts to bleep only then can I turn it of after 2 presses on the right hand button.i do agree with what other say though no one seems to take any notice any more of alarms.these scum bike thieves will pick it up & put it into a sound prove van & deactivate any expensive alarm in seconds.what we need is alarms that you can program to say stuff very loudly.i no what I would program mine to say.what would your say?

Had the BMW one on my 2010 S1000RR, but with my new 2012 i did not bother as the BMW one is utter crap! I have just had a data tool Trakking fitted, which is far better, it is not an alarm but any movement with ignition off it will text me, and if it goes any further it calls the police, i can also log onto a website to see its location at all times. I think it is pretty cool and gives me more confidence about leaving it.

Have to agree,I wasted money on the BMW alarm,makes no difference to insurance. *****,I could of spent the money on some other extras like LED's d'oh!

I've only had the bike just over a week and already I've lost one of the alarm fob. I don't use the alarm but I've lost one of the fob's which was in my jacket pocket.

I bet a replacement from BMW won't be cheap, sigh.

Allan

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-GEMEL-2-BUTTON-CAR-VAN-REMOTE-CONTROL-ALARM-KEY-FOB-TEST-WORKING-OK-/160768765423?pt=UK_Car_Accessories_Safety_Security&hash=item256e90adef

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-2-BUTTON-REMOTE-KEY-FOB-TESTED-/260988780678?pt=UK_Car_Accessories_Safety_Security&hash=item3cc424c086

ETC,

Buy it, read the manual for alarm and add it to your system and job done.

it's already been said but.......disk lock, big chain, oh and a cosh ;D

Alarms, I avoid them like the plague...no way I want anyone slicing into the looms on any bike I get!

Going against the grain........

I brought an aftermarket alarm (rlink) before taking delivery of the bike and fitted the following day of the bike arriving.

Read on the US forum about the BMW alarm and the rlink - which was why I chose this alarm. Has perimeter sensor, geofence (moves out of a set area, alarm sends a notification to your smartphone) and tracking facilities - needs subscription payment. Alam is loud.

Totally agree that this won't prevent bike from being taken but its another line of defence.....already ready have the alarmed Xena disc lock and Almax chain.

I have secure parking at work and garage at home. If I have to be elsewhere and knowing that the bike will be left all day somewhere unsecured, then I take the train or car.

Other than that, the bike is not really left alone i.e. go shopping/ cinema - I'm not going to take the bike and park in a public car park.

If the crims want your bike, they'll take it - can only make it more difficult and may be the alarm sound will deter them and move on somewhere else.

If I am within ear shot of my bike and hear an alarm, I'll take a look but if I know I'm nowhere near then I probably won't react so quickly.

Only issue I had ,was that I wanted to know how long the bike's battery would last with alarm on and it was about 11 days. (got a low battery text). This was done whilst on holiday and coming back a few days later, the battery was flat. Charging overnight didn't work so off to the dealer to resolve. Not normally a problem as bike is used everyday in all weathers, next time I'll put it on a battery conditioner.

Don't know of anyone else with a aftermarket alarm on the S1KRR so can't/ wouldn't say its the best, still glad I didn't get the BMW alarm.

I was told by BMW that the reason why the BMW alarm is not Thatcham approved is that BMW didn't want to pay the ££££££ asked by Thatcham to be tested.............all could be a bit of blah blah.

Fino,

It sounds like the care you take over where you park your bike means you don't actaully need an alarm.

Careful parking still seems like the sensible option to me and mine has a BMW alarm.

Allan

My cbr 125 was stolen twice! I had some sort of datatool alarm on it with immobilizer, as this is little bike it's mainly in little scums interest so, first time they took it, they were trying to start it , and as they triggered alarm, they were trying to shortcut indicator to blow the alarm, that didn't work and they probably were spotted by someone and run away leaving my bike in the middle of drive way of garage (or they were soo lazy they didn't want to push it uphill. Second time, I thought this is it. when I was on the phone with police reporting it, I heard my alarm going off few hundreds meters away, run in this direction and I found my bike. Apparently someone saw him pushing it and phoned up police same time. So, alarm will not stop them, but may or may not help.

@ awg, you are right about where you should park it, someone else also said that no point me having an alarm......... but I'll be the only one reacting to the alarm noise if I was nearby thinking, it might be my bike.

It was cheaper to have the BMW alarm installed and interface with the bike, plus you get a bigger cell battery. I would have actually got the BMW alarm if there was no tested alternative. Its still costing for peace of mind, I'm paying a monthly subscription for text and tracking!.