[walrus01]

chainstays seem like it would be a hard technical problem since cutting open/accessing the inside of a chain stay would greatly weaken a bike. and on road bikes/hybrid bikes the chainstay diameter can be quite narrow.

Some sort of GPS+LTE data modem and battery might be easily integrated into a seatpost based tracker, or stem, or combined stem-bar unit. A bit tricky since either aluminum or carbon fiber structural components are RF opaque.

maybe mounted in one of the areas in the downtube or seat tube that's designed into modern road bikes for ultegra/di2 internal battery mounting, or related to power meter crankset mounting.

[UncleEntity]

> chainstays seem like it would be a hard technical problem since cutting open/accessing the inside of a chain stay would greatly weaken a bike.

On a bait bike it wouldn’t matter too much since you just want to track the thing and shouldn’t really care about the thieves getting a fully working bike.

I had this “bait bike” in the back of my pickup truck that was in very bad shape that helped a kid down the street get their stolen bike back, apparently the thief decided that the bike I had was better than their current stolen one so did a quick swap and another neighbor saw my bike dumped around the corner, a bike lying in the street next to my truck and put two and two together. Worked out pretty well considering I found the one bike on the side of the road while walking my dog and threw it in my truck to see how long it would take to get stolen — didn’t think it would last a week but I drove around with that thing for seven months.

[hhmc]

I think the downside of seatpost/stem is that it's more easy to check. Good point about RF, didn't consider that. I still think it's within the realms of possibility though?

[verve_rat]

Maybe they don't need to be hidden that well. If one or slip past then you can track those to the warehouse and send a few people to jail.

After that people can add fake trackers (maybe an antenna lead under the seat). Now the thieves have extra uncertainty, raising the cost to steal. And working trackers will be mixed in with the fake ones, making each bike a gamble.

[ImaCake]

This strategy works well in biology. Have one brightly coloured poisonous frog and then there are three or four mimics who are not poisonous (poison requires lots of resources!). Sure, some frogs still get eaten, but the mere threat of poison reduces the risk.

[walrus01]

Maybe built into/epoxied to the inside-facing-side of crankset arms? Such that it looks like an expensive power meter crank. Definitely within the realm of possibility and I have heard that people have successfully done it as a DIY approach.