Securing your bike with Internatrix Alarm

[bdavison]

So you've just purchased a new motorcycle. Perhaps you live in a bad part of town, or perhaps you are just worried that someone might decide to mess with, or steal your new motorcycle.

So what can you do?

Well, aside from putting your bike inside your kitchen, and guarding it from would be bike thieves with a baseball bat...you could get a really good alarm system.

So what kind of alarm?
Well....a two-way alarm from Internatrix called the TW-1000 to be specific.


I've had one of my motorcycles stolen, and when I purchased my new 250cc bike, I decided that would be the last time. I wanted the top-of-the line alarm system. I looked at the Scorpio...but was put off by its high price tag. Why does it cost so much?...Nobody knows.

Enter Internatrix, a company located in the USA! Internatrix holds one of the few US held FCC licenses for motorcycle alarm systems. I found their website at www.internatrix.com
Of course the product description sounded nice, but it was really cheap. Could it possibly be as good as the scorpio that is much more expensive?
I ordered one via paypal, and decided at that price, it was worth a try.

Now before I go on, I have to say that the folks at Internatrix really do care about their customers. You can get someone on the phone, and they respond quickly to e-mails. Customer service is A+ grade and they top it off with a 1 year warrenty.

My alarm arrived two days later, and so began a love affair with perhaps the best, well made motorcycle alarm ever made. PERIOD.

Inside the box was a well written ENGLISH instruction manual, the alarm system, a SUPER loud piezo alarm, perimeter sensor, LED, antenna, keychain pager, wiring harnesses, and everything you need to hook it up.

Following the excellent manual, I had the entire thing hooked up and mounted in my bike in 1 hour. Even if you dont understand bike electronics, Id give you a 98% chance of being able to hook up this alarm with no problems. Seriously, its that easy. There's no soldering involved(unless you really want to). The alarm comes with all the hardware you need.

Now on to the alarm itself.
The TW-1000 is the replacement for their older TW-400 alarm, and it has a few upgrades that really make it nice.


Here's a rundown of basically what the system does.

You press the ARM button on your remote pager. Your bike signals that its Armed with some nice brightly loud tones, and flashing lights.
You leave the bike...

Out comes the thief. He casually strolls over to your bike, and starts fondling your pride and joy...and thats when it happens....

The bike lets out this ear piercing yell. Its the kind of alarm tone that instantly makes you think "WHOA, GET AWAY NOW". Its loud, and will definatly deter all but the most determined thief.

At the same time, the alarm sends a signal to your remote pager, it beeps, lights up and vibrates, and notifies you that some fool is messin with your bike. It shows you what kind of alarm was triggered on the screen with a really sweet motorcycle icon. So you know if they just touched it, or if they were getting frisky with it.

Now that Mr. Thief's ears are ringing, say in a fit of further stupidity, he decides to continue his attempts to steal your bike. The wonderful Internatrix alarm goes completely NUTS.

By nuts, I mean NUTS. Ear piercing screaming loud wailing siren, Lights flashing, and all that jazz. It sends a second signal to your remote pager, alerting you that now, your bike is not being touched....somebody is trying to take it.

Now that Mr. Thief is deaf, and sitting on top of a bike that is going nuts...should he STILL decide to keep on in his attempts to take your bike the alarm shuts down the ignition, so the engine cannot be started.

My guess is by this time, you have arrived at your bike after being notified, and would be thief is....busted.

Now if all that sounds good....it gets better!
I worked for the military for a while in their Secure Areas. They use sensors around these areas that are very sensitive to human presence. They do this via microwave sensors.
The Internatrix perimeter sensor uses the same military microwave technology to detect persons around your bike.

So what does this mean to me?

Well, it means no false alarms. Its not a motion detector, its a perimeter sensor. It doesnt look for motion, it looks for stuff that isnt supposed to be there. And it is VERY VERY good at doing it. You can adjust how sensitive you want it. You can set it from "if anyone so much as brushes their hand down your seat" to "off".

The next marvel is the remote, and what a delicious marvel of engineering it is.

The remote is nicely blinged out in chrome trim, and not that cheap cheesy plastic fake chrome, but some nice real metal CHROME.
The buttons are large enough to manipulate with gloved hands, and have tactile feedback.
The screen is very well layed out, and easy to understand.
It shows a lock symbol to indicate if the system is armed or not armed.
It shows a speaker symbol to indicate if the system is in audible/or silent mode. Silent mode is available so that the system doesnt make any alarm noise, but still notifies you via the pager...nice for sneaking up on mr.thief
It shows a battery meter to let you know how much battery is left in the remote pager. The pager uses a common AAA battery.
It shows a signal strength meter to let you know if your remote pager is receiving a signal from the motorcycle or not. Which by the way...the range is fantastic.
It shows a motorcycle icon, which tells you what kind of alarm the system detected. If it was just a warning alarm, the headlights on the motorcycle icon flash, and a symbol like [ ] shows up indicating a violation of the perimeter sensor. If its a full blown alarm, the bike indicator shows a hammer above the bike, and the headlights blinking. ...NICE!
It also shows a clock. The pager also has a alarm feature, so you can use it like an alarm clock. Nice for those traveling trips on your bike.


The pager also has buttons...
The ARM button - arms the alarm system, and performs some other functions like selecting settings in the programming mode.
The DISARM button - disarms the alarm system.
The PANIC button - makes the bike go nuts, so you can find it in a parking lot.

Now more on the features!
Anti-Hijack!!! The new TW-1000 has it. Say you pull up to a stop light, and Mr. Thief comes up and shoves you off the bike and takes off on it. You can press the ARM button, and the alarm will go off.
Now Mr. Thief is riding down the road on a bike going nuts.....
Oh, but thats only the beginning of his troubles.
Soon after, the engine shuts off....and it wont come back on...even if he cycles the key.

Say you pull into a parking lot, and get off your bike. You forget to arm the alarm. Well, no problem...it remindes you. The bike will chirp a nice reminder chirp, and the pager will remind you too.
Also, if the alarm is disarmed, but the bike is not started, the alarm will re-arm itself...so you always stay protected. This can of course be overriden, should you need to leave it unarmed for long periods of time, such as during maintenance when the bike will be off, but you dont want the alarm going nuts while you are trying to do a oil change.

The TW-1000 is full of really nice features, and you simply will not find a better alarm system on the market for this price. Believe me...Ive looked. This thing hands down beats anything else out there.

Ive thoroughly tested it. Ive even tried to find weaknesses in the system and exploit them....Ive yet to be able to attack the system without it working exactly as it should.

I HIGHLY highly recommend this alarm system, and its compatible with every bike out there running on a 12V electrical system.

I should also mention, that I am in NO way affiliated with internatrix or any other motorcycle product manufacturer. Im a motorcyclist just like all of you, and felt compelled to share my experiences with a product that you should check out asap.

[katoranger]

I just made my bike so ugly that no one would want it. 8O

Sounds like a good deal for those who can't secure their bikes in a garage or live in apartments etc.

Allen

[bdavison]

Here are some pictures of the alarm mounted in my SunL Kungfu 250cc bike.

This photo shows the alarm control box, the microwave perimeter sensor, the siren, wiring harness, and the positive/negative leads going to the battery.

When you first connect the alarm, there are only 4 wires required.
1. The positive wire going to the positive terminal on your motorcycle's battery.
2. The negative wire going to the negative terminal on your motorcycle's battery.
3. The ground wire connected to the metal frame of your motorcycle
4. The ACC wire, connected to anything that recieves +12V when the ignition key is in the ON position, and 0V when the key is in the OFF position. I prefer the positive lead off the license plate light since its easy to get to.

The other wires, are as follows
Turn Signal blinking wires (blink the turn signals during alarm, arming, and disarming
Ignition Disable wires (allow the alarm to disable the ignition circuit, preventing the engine from running)




The kit includes "posi-taps" a really nifty connector for attaching the alarm wireing harness to your motorcycles wiring. There is NO soldering in these connectors. Simply insert the wires, and screw it together. I do recommend wrapping these connectors in electrical tape after the connection is made to prevent moisture, or other contaminates from entering the connector.



The remote pager.
The buttons are:
1. The front button is the arming button
There are three buttons on the right side of the remote.
1. The top button for disarming the alarm
2. Not used
3. Panic Button

[TheRealWorld]

Hate to sound to bold, but I would rather just catch the slime bag trying to steal my bike! I don't want him scared off, before I get there!

[Qingdao]

When I lived in an apt. I would park next to my bed.

[bdavison]

Well, RealWorld...
We would all like to catch Mr. Thief in the act, and thats precisely what this alarm allows you to do. With the pager notification, you can quickly rush to your bike and...well....lets just say it will be a very VERY unpleasant encounter for the thief.

Your chances of catching a thief without an alarm are slim. Bike thieves are scum. They are very efficient at stealing bikes. It only takes about 8 seconds for them to steal a bike. That includes bikes that have disk locks, locked forks, etc. They just pick it up, and put it in a van, and drive off.
If you want to see exactly what a bike theft looks like.....



Now had that bike been armed with one of these alarms, the second they got close to the bike, the alarm would have went off. If that didnt scare them off. The owner showing up sure would have.

Personally, Id rather scare them off than risk having my bike stolen. And dont think that bike thieves only go for the high end bikes. They will steal anything they can get their hands on. On average stolen bikes sell for $100 per cc. So a 250cc bike can fetch 200 bucks for a loser who's looking for a quick buck. Most are chopped up, and sold off...never to be seen again.

In my case, I had parked my Yamaha Zuma in the backyard of my house. I drove my truck across to wal-mart, and when I got back it was gone. They opened my fence, grabbed my little scooter, and took off with it. And as usual...Nobody saw a thing. Its been three years now, and it has never been recovered. Had it been armed with an alarm, my neighbor surely would have come out to see what was going on. And knowing my neighbor...it would have been a very bad day for them.

Qingdao, I too parked my bike in my house. But this gets really old fast. Pushing a 400lb sportbike through the front door really isnt much fun. Not to mention the constant smell of exhaust, and damage to the floor.

Now, my bike gets frame cable locked to the porch and the alarm is armed. I figure the time it takes them to cut the cable, and the pager going off instantly, will slow them down enough for me to get em.

Obviously no system is foolproof. If they want it bad enough they will get it. But the idea is to make it so complicated and fraught with danger that they will skip it and find something else.

[bdavison]

Oh, also realworld...
The alarm has a "silent" mode. The siren wont go off, but it will still page you via the remote pager. So you can sneak up on em.

[TheRealWorld]

I like that silent mode, but I was kind of not taking a real world approach to bike thieves. I should apologize for my lack of seriousness on your comments. It sounds like a great product.