ATUVOS Trackers

 In the beforetimes, air travel was becoming a bit of a cluster, and traveling with bicycles was a cluster on steroids.  When we began traveling again we discovered that... it has gotten worse.  Erg.

As we prepare embark on our first cycle tour since 2019, I am more concerned than before about our bikes and gear arriving at our final destination.  I have considered AirTags in the past, but not really seriously.  This time, I considered seriously.

When I was fixin' to buy some (four total - one for each bike and one for each stuff box), I looked at the price of an AirTag and kind of gasped.  As I was recovering from the sticker shock, I discovered that there's a similar product from ATUVOS (Smart Bluetooth Tracker) that costs about 60% what an AirTag costs.  As I looked into them, I realized that they are eerily similar to some early trackers that I had tried years ago by XY FindIt.  

ATUVOS

XY FindIt

The old original XY FindIt gadgets that I had (still have, actually), were only able to track if they were within 400' of your iPhone, so not terribly useful (other than finding something within your home).  They also didn't work reliably... they were pretty hit-and-miss.  But, they were first generation things, and pretty cool at the time.

I decided to give the ATUVOS thingamajigs a go.  $80CAD for four of them.  Not too bad.  They arrived quickly, and using the instructions provided, I had no problem pairing them to my iPhone.

For testing, I asked my good friend, Nancy Nancy, if she would take three of them with her for a week and let me "stalk" her.  She did, and I did.  She and her friend found it entertaining.  The thingamajigs worked perfectly, except for some mystery "beeping" the last day she had them.  We thought maybe dying batteries, but that wasn't it.  Things that make you go hmmmm.  I put in fresh batteries anyway.

Brent and I have been packing our stuff to go to Europe.  I attached two of the gadgets to the bikes (bottom of the seats), and we put one each in our stuff boxes.  To attach them to the bikes, I used the little metal attach-ey ring (from an old original XY FindIt) to connect the tracker to the bottom of the seat, and then, as a backup, I used clear tape to secure the tracker between the frame bars under the seat.

Step 1

Step 2

Wish us luck!  We sure are hoping to start our cycle tour with... bicycles.