Home > Bike Types > Commuter

Where’s Waldo? You’ll always know with the Waldo bike tracker and alarm system

8 Comments
Support us! Bikerumor may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More

Waldo tracker

Paranoid about someone stealing your bike? The Waldo puts a Lo-Jack and alarm on your bike in case it’s not where you left it. Sometimes things get taken, borrowed, or even misplaced and Waldo takes the guessing out of “Where’s my bike”?

Look past the break and see what some of the uses are and how Waldo works as a theft deterrent…..

Waldo exploded_view_website

It happens. If you haven’t experienced yourself, you likely know someone who has had a bike stolen, or maybe you may have had a *eh hem “friend” forget where they locked their bike after meeting friends at the bar. Although we’ve seen some devices in the past like the Spybike which is a tracker hidden in the steerer tube & top-cap, and even BH bikes making them available on their e-bikes, the Waldo stands out because…. well, it actually stands out as it’s designed to be seen. Regardless of locking your bike up, some of the professional thieves out there can get around a lot of various locks pretty easily.Being visible, the Waldo acts as a deterrent as even a pro bike thief may not want to mess with the bike because of the fact the bike has an alarm and could be tracked. Breaking a lock is one thing, but even if the thief could eventually get the Waldo off, the time it would take plus the sound of the alarm would likely be more than they’re willing to go through due to the chances of getting caught increasing significantly.

Waldo mounts to most standard bikes using silicone rubber straps as well as a steel band that the Waldo is “locked” to via the phone app preventing it from being easily removed by the wrong person. You can unlock the device via the app to remove it from the bike, or if the battery is low, it will un-lock itself so it can be removed to be charged.

Waldo-track-bike Waldo-track-bike alarm

The unit contains a 100 dB loud alarm, 3-axis accelerometer, an electronic locking mechanism and is weather and impact resistant. It has a built in rechargeable battery via micro-USB port that lasts a claimed 6 weeks on a single charge. It is built out of a polyamide casing reinforced with fiber glass making it impact resistant and difficult to cut into.

The Waldo comes in two versions: The standard Bluetooth version acts as more of an alarm with a “close proximity” notification and will notify you if the bike has been moved. The GSM version actually uses GPS as well as GPS triangulation using cell towers where there is no GPS signal so you can track your bike to its exact location no matter where you are. When you lock the Waldo, it drops a pin on the map so you can easily find it and the GSM verson will track it to anywhere the bike is taken. The unit is designed so that the alarm will not go off is someone just simply moves the bike but realizes if it’s being taken and will sound the alarm if the unit is tampered with while locked.

Waldo is available for pre-order with the Bluetooth version selling for €69, and the GSM version runs €99.  (After pre-order, they will run€115 and €159)

Waldo.bike

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

8 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
briderdt
8 years ago

Right out in the open where it can be easily removed by any would-be thief.

Ryan
Ryan
8 years ago

It alerts the owner and sets off the alarm if tampered with briderdt. Not sure how easy it would be to remove either, but yeah…let’s take a big, steaming crap on it regardless right? So tired of the negative naysayers.

Francois
Francois
8 years ago

Their selling point is that it’s difficult to get off, and that if you attempt to do so, the alarm would be an issue.
However, it’s not uncommon for thieves to use angle grinders (which can cut most U-locks in a few seconds). So noise doesn’t seem to be much of an issue for them. Unless that stuff can stand up to an angle grinder for a while (and I don’t see how plastic and fiberglass would resist that), it doesn’t seem to add any protection over a standard u-lock…

Allan
Allan
8 years ago

What I would like to see is something similar with tracking, but is more stealth. I’m not so sure the alarm would deter many thieves, and as stated above, criminals are probably smart enough and fast enough to cut it off anyway. I think I’d have better luck if I had something I could mount discreetly simply to track via a phone app. It doesn’t even necessarily have to be stealth, it could be made to look like part of a cycling computer or cadence meter, etc.

Shawn
Shawn
8 years ago

I’m just trying to comprehend that headset/stem junction. I’m not trying to say I’m a guru of all things threaded to threadless conversions, but seriously, what’s going on there?

Ryan
Ryan
8 years ago

(deleted)

IR
IR
8 years ago

@Shawn … I think its a threaded headset with a threadless adaptor.

Voxtrail
5 years ago

Great article about bike safety. Keep the good work.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.