KNOG looks out for your bike with Scout, their new light weight bike alarm & tracking device!

This is an interesting product and I’d consider using it, but I agree with you completely that bike thieves know how to locate and circumvent, well, everything. There’s an understandable but inaccurate perception of bike thieves as basic street-level, opportunistic, unskilled thugs. Some are. A true bike thief is usually incredibly smart, innovative, deliberate, and highly-skilled. They’re able to bypass any deterrent given the opportunity. Any. That’s not to say they’d choose to, but outside your home you should never think you’re bike is secure. Instead, use good locks and ask yourself if you feel like it’s secure enough, given your risk tolerance and accounting for factors like amount of time the bike will be locked and not within your line of site, time of day, etc. It’s easy to fall prey to fallacy that an upscale/safe neighborhood is more secure when, in fact, it could be the opposite. Bike thieves play a long game, developing and trading on their reputation, honing skills and tactics, and most importantly, never getting caught. I’ve had beloved, irreplaceable bikes stolen. I’m not angry (that’s wasted energy and isn’t going to bring them back), though I miss the bikes sometimes. Hopefully they ended with people who appreciate them. I have a healthy, if begrudging, respect for bike thieves. It’s kind of hard not to admire their skill and creativity. From their perspective it’s business, so when in doubt, consider that there are professionals who want to protect and grow that business.