After a bad experience with an old Datatool on a Kawasaki I hate them - it was a horrible parasite with it’s tentacles burrowing their way into my bikes innards - it either drained the battery or malfunctioned - and could have left me stranded.
I can see they might be useful if you park your bike outside your front window at night - but for anything else the expense and hassle they represent outweighs their benefits - they are absolutely no substitute for a decent chain attached to something immovable (and as we know even that is no guarantee of security).
I like my bike to be as simple as possible - too much electrical/electronic b*llocks are for cars and for a bike just means more stuff to go wrong.
Whenever I get a bike the first thing I remove is the alarm if one has been installed - I don’t reckon it makes that much difference to my insurance premium.
Happy here, if they were that bad you won’t have so many fitted. IMO the issue is where the bike is sold on to someone who doesn’t see the need for it, or the alarm/fobs has in a poor state or comes with no instructions when they need attention.
If you do not need it l recommend removal as it will stop you moving the bike freely, complicates the wiring and will drain the battery if the bike is not used and you will discover a problem just when you need to go somewhere. As with all things electric, you need to ensure the components are clean, dry protected from the elements. Most important to me is remembering the process to disarm if the fob doesn’t work seen a you tube video where this happened to someone up in the mountains, wasn’t pretty.
You need to set up a PIN on the Datatools to manually disarm it and as the process is lengthy l have the manual in PDF format on my smartphone. This would have resolved . lot if the issue’s I’ve seen.
Isn’t it because the insurance companies insist an alarm is fitted before they will insure you (particularly If the bike is very high value/or in a dodgy postcode) the reason that so many alarms are fitted? - or because the difference it makes to the insurance premium makes it worthwhile fitting an alarm?
It would be interesting to know how much the presence of an alarm on a bike deters/stops thieves from taking bikes in the first place.
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new bikes have immobilisers as standard which satisfies insurance companies.
So we can all look forward to an end to sh1t aftermarket alarms now
I’ve got the standard Honda HISS immobiliser thing on my CBR - an alarm was fitted by a previous owner - but I got the dealer I bought it from to remove it.
I’ve never had a problem with mine - dealer installed yamaha job - except when i forget to turn it off in the morning i reckon the neighbours need to wake up earlier anyway
It didn’t save me much on insurance but I got it for peace of mind (my bike is parked right under the window in my house and just behind my desk at work so i’d generally hear it going off myself)
As MikeDaBike said, alarm made no difference to my insurance as I have the Yamaha immobiliser. The benefit to me is my bike is on a drive and the alarm will wake me and my neighbourhood-watchers. Hopefully the S**ts will run before they try and break something. It also has an alarmed disc lock and chained to an anchor but then it sleeps in South London.
I am also aware of bikes nicked from a company car park which could have been prevented if they were alarmed.
Not at all mate, have done it many many times for bikers when I was a Roadside Patrol. Obviously won’t go in to too much detail publically but it is all done within the alarm unit - honestly a few minutes and the alarm is completly bypassed. Scary really as it’s an approved system too.
Im interested in how…
Iv removed many and fitted a few. Iv never known of a bypass tho…
Even at college, the datatool instructions/books said nothing of a bypass… :crying:
i reckon the neighbours need to wake up earlier anyway 
