[brk]

Me too. Especially of it were a factory installed option. You could probably encapsulate the electronics in one of the frame tubes, which would mean it would be welded in to the bike. Impossible to detect casually, and nearly impossible to easily defeat without destroying the bike itself.

Given the ratio of hours ridden to power draw of a small tattletale device, you could probably put a couple of magnets on the crank assembly (inside the tube the connects the crank to the frame), along with a couple hundred coils of wire and create a very nice charging circuit. It might take even 100 hours of riding to build up an initial charge, but I'm guessing that would be no problem in a typical scenario, even if it took 2 weeks to get there.

[pavel_lishin]

Isn't this something that would be trivially bypassed by passing a big spark through the frame? Burn out all electronics, without harming the rest of the bike.

[brk]

Most likely not.

First, how you are going to pass a "big spark" through the frame? Carry around a big ass battery while you're on the hunt for bikes?

Secondly, the current would follow the path of least resistance, through the frame itself. Unlikely to really affect a module inside the frame, especially if that module is wrapped in an insulator.

[pavel_lishin]

I imagine it wouldn't be done on the spot - pedal to where you parked your theftomatic van, which comes with a nice, big battery pre-installed.

[agumonkey]

Good point, but how much current would it require ? wouldn't this be too big to carry noisy and even smelly ?

[wiredfool]

Metal tubes make a nice Faraday cage.