i’m about to get a new bike, which is much nicer than my old one, so thoughts have turned to how I do my best to prevent it being pinched. beyond a nice Almax chaining it to a lamppost (which i intend to do) i was looking at alarms, and by all accounts spending £300+ on a Datatool which no one will really pay any attention to if it goes off seems a little daft. that said, as a deterrent I do think a loud wailing alarm can’t be such a bad idea.
this lead me to do some research and I came across these Cyclone alarms. they are super cheap, but some people seem to have good things to say about them.
http://www.motorbikealarm.co.uk/node/47
so I was just wondering if anyone had any experience of them? I don’t want the alarm so I can reduce my insurance premium, just so that it makes a very loud noise if someone tampers with my bike, which would hopefully alert me in my house (bike is going to be outside my living room and then my bedroom on the first floor)
any opinions gratefully received.
Hi mate! I fitted a cyclone on my GSR600 and works fabulous!! I recomend with no issues. And from my blade I took off the datatool! Always draining the battery! I don’t like them, with a sv 650 of a friend of mine we took off the datatool also coz we change the indicators and the stupid alarm thought was a hotwire after the bike didn’t starts at all!so fit the cyclone one. In the end if they want to take your babe they will with alarm anchor and everything ! They are bastards!! Just hope this never happen!! Ride safety!
I fitted one to mine too - picked it up off ebay for £20 from the guy who makes them - link
They work a treat and are VERY loud - much better than a datatool I had a few years ago.
They are by no means Thatcham approved, but with a little ingenuity when you wire it in it should be reasonably protected - a pro would finish a datatool alarm off pretty quick anyway so its more to stop toe-rags.
They also have nice features such as immobilisor and remote starting if you want to wire it in - I didn’t as my bikes got a built in immobilisor that needs the keys in the ignition so not much point in that.
They are good solid alarms - decent build and comes with two quite nice fobs which are actually nicer looking than most expensive alarms.
For 20 or so quid i’d recommend them no problem.
+1 for the Cyclone alarm as a reliable noisey little bu88er.
I chose not to fit the immobiliser/remote start after a friend discovered massive conflicts with his CPU on an SV. (I’m beginning to think digital electronics are the spawn of the Devil.)
Spoke to the guy that imports these a couple of years back and asked why he didn’t get them Thatcham rated. Appearently Thatcham charge so much for the testing/certificate, and then a lump every time you use their name, the price would go up about six fold.
He was pretty confident they’d get top score if he could be bothered.
cheers for the feedback chaps, sounds like for 20 sheets it might be a worthwhile investment.
can I ask if you fitted them yourselves and if so was it fairly simple? the website seems to suggest that anyone can fit them and they supply full instructions.
The selling man drew the connections on to a wiring diagram that I’d sent him. (With an SAE).
Piece of …er … with that in hand. Mind you, I was fitting it to a “classic” Mini not a bike.
Fitting was a doddle, but depends on what bike you have and what features you want.
As a basic motion detecting alarm, you can’t get simpler. For immobiliser you need to do a little hunting with the wiring but its still not very difficult - a voltmeter will help a lot.
I got the kit that said you don’t need to cut any wires, but the crimp things weren’t very good so I ended up cutting them anyway to be on the safe side - I have no issues with doing my own electrics though so depends on your level of confidence.
I wont go into detail as it basically gives the game away to how the immobilisor works, but on the instructions they say to ring if you have any problems.
I rang him about one issue and he was very helpful and I sorted the problem straight away.
