Trend toward GPS integration at OEM level paying off for customers

A trend among commuter bicycle makers to integrate GPS at certain pricepoints is seemingly already paying off.

One of many notable themes emerging at Eurobike, manufacturers are on certain builds now offering theft recovery as an add-on service to their bike sales. In the case of case of Riese & Müller if the bike is not recovered by an agency partner inside two weeks a new unit will be supplied outright.

“We will work with an external service provider who locates the stolen bike and alerts the police. If we have no result for our customer inside two weeks we will send them a like for like replacement,” said Timo Gührer at the show. “For bike businesses this is a logical progression to offer such services as part of the sale.”

Gazelle too is another deploying the service and it’s seemingly already delivering results for customers.

Last week the first of Gazelle’s Grenoble C7 + HMB bikes was stolen in the province of Moord-Brabant. Inside 24 hours Gazelle’s investigation team had pinpointed the location and, opting not to enter the site as it appeared unsafe, the team called in police who quickly traced the bike to a shed located within the identified field.

Gazelle has now said that these early successes will see it continue down this path. On mainland Europe, where the brand is most popular, thieves likewise know the value and thus Gazelle’s are one of the most-stolen labels.

If it is not possible to recover GPS-clad units Gazelle are now pledging to deliver a new bicycle via the ANWB Fietsverzekering.

Last year it is estimated that 10% of the 275,000 new e-Bikes on the market were stolen, such was the demand for this new breed of bicycle.

One of the pioneers of integrating GPS, Vanmoof, went to extraordinary lengths to recover a bicycle that it identified as stolen, flying from Amsterdam to Casablanca. The result was inadvertently discovering an international bicycle smuggling ring which it reported to police.