So, you’ve been saving hard all year (or maybe you got yourself into Santa’s good books) and your reward is a shiny new e-Bike. Nice! You already know you’re going to love your new e-Bike so much you’ll hardly want to let it out of your sight. Imagine, though, you do take a break for some well-earned post-ride refreshments and – disaster – the e-Bike gets stolen off the back of the ute.
Not happening, you say. You’d have a bike lock on it for sure. You’ve shelled out a decent amount of cash on your new pride and joy and you’d be crazy not to have some kind of security in place. True. You’re definitely going to want to invest in a decent lock and with so many good options on the market these days there’s no excuse not to.
Still… if someone really wants to steal your e-Bike, they can probably still find a power tool to cut through even the sturdiest lock. So, bar chaining your bike to your person and taking it with you everywhere you go (you may love your e-Bike a lot, but let’s be sensible) what else can you do? If your e-Bike is powered by Bosch, the solution could quite literally be at your fingertips.
Using smart system technology, Bosch’s e-Bike Alarm function provides digital theft protection in addition to the mechanical lock. It works to prevent theft by sounding an alarm in the event of suspicious movements and if that isn’t enough to deter that pesky thief and they do get away with the e-Bike, the e-Bike Alarm function sends out a notification to your smartphone and automatically starts tracking the bike’s location.
How does the e-Bike Alarm work?
How does the e-Bike Alarm work?Set up couldn’t be more straightforward with a simple one-time activation via the Bosch e-Bike Flow app and your phone then serves as the key. You can check the location and security status of your
e-Bike at any time via the app and the feature is always active, with an existing GPS connection when the e-Bike system is switched off.
If the e-Bike Alarm registers that someone is tampering with the e-Bike, the system responds with a two-stage alarm. Thanks to a smart motion detector, it can tell whether your e-Bike has been moved a little or a lot. In the case of slight movements, the e-Bike system emits several short warning tones as a deterrent. If the e-Bike is moved a lot and the matching digital key, i.e. your smartphone, is not nearby, it’ll send out a loud alarm tone and ping a notification to the phone.
If the e-Bike is stolen, the e-Bike Alarm function automatically starts tracking. The e-Bike Flow app can then be used to determine the location of the e-Bike and forward the relevant data to the police – this is particularly crucial in the first two hours to increase the chance of finding the e-Bike again.
Setting up your Bosch e-Bike Alarm
To use an e-Bike Alarm, the e-Bike Lock feature must be activated in the Flow app and the Bosch ConnectModule – the physical component for your e-Bike Alarm and GPS tracker – needs to be installed on the e-Bike. If your smart system e-Bike isn’t equipped with the ConnectModule, your e-Bike dealer or e-Bike manufacturer can tell you whether your e-Bike is compatible with the ConnectModule (not all Bosch e-Bike models are.)
The fee-based component is installed concealed on the e-Bike by a specialist retailer and contains a radio and GPS module, a separate battery and various sensors. The e-Bike Alarm feature can only be used once the ConnectModule has been installed and you have subscribed to Flow+ premium service.
The Flow+ premium service comes free for 12 months for anyone who purchases the ConnectModule. After that, you can decide whether to carry on using the digital service at a fee –
e-Bike Alarm is not charged for automatically. After the free trial year, the feature costs $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year.
The e-Bike Flow app can be downloaded from the relevant app store at no additional cost.