Alarm – reliable and low battery drain?

[Salted_Peanut]

Does a bike alarm exist with a low drain on the battery? Decent quality and reliable? But not necessarily insurance-approved, just noisy at the correct moment.

Please don’t reply with recommendations for physical security (I have it), trackers, etc. I have these bases covered and merely want to add noise as a deterrent against kids, not professional thieves.

[Rick448]

The first thing I do with any alarm, is remove it. If i wanted a noise deterrent I'd look at something I could stick under the seat or somewhere which isn't wired into the bike loom. I have had nothing but trouble with alarms. though YMMV.

Maybe something like this
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wireless-Anti-Theft-Vibra...

[Tribal Chestnut]

I have a number of alarmed locks.

[podman]

My advice to ensure reliability and battery life is to use a really good installer.

A good alarm will be compromised by a poor install.

[scorcher]

Had a meta defcon on my ktm and never ever caused any problems in the tethered years it was on there. Think they go into a semi sleep mode and pull less power after about 10 days of inactivity

[Salted_Peanut]

podman said:

My advice to ensure reliability and battery life is to use a really good installer.

Thanks, and I plan to follow your advice. Though I saw an old thread about Datatool alarms, which suggested they all drain the battery a lot: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=18...

Is Meta any better, are all alarms battery killers, or can you switch some alarms easily between immobiliser-only and alarmed modes?

[conkerman]

I haven't had a bike with an alarm for about 15 years, but my limited experience was that Meta were better than Datatool.

[podman]

Salted_Peanut said:

podman said:

My advice to ensure reliability and battery life is to use a really good installer.

Thanks, and I plan to follow your advice. Though I saw an old thread about Datatool alarms, which suggested they all drain the battery a lot: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=18...

Is Meta any better, are all alarms battery killers, or can you switch some alarms easily between immobiliser-only and alarmed modes?

Ive had both, no problems with either BUT I used the same , mobile, installer.

That was a while back now.

My (new in 2018) BMW had an OE alarm fitted , not sure of manufacturer , but that was 100% reliable during the 3 years , 25k miles I owned it, as you would expect.

[AJHDingo]

I have had 3 bikes with datatool S4C red, 2 failed and had to be stripped out. One failure looked as if it was still working all the blips / lights but internal relay had died. The other was on a bike I had for only year from new so did not have chance to die.