Trackimo - Track your Moto

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I love my bike. If anyone f**ks with it, I want to know, right away. If someone is trying to steal it, or the city is trying to tow it, the sooner I know the better. I've owned and tested the Spot Trace, and I've looked heavily at the Scorpio Ride system. I recently stumbled upon the Trackimo system, and I was intrigued. Trackimo agreed to send me a review unit. I've had it for a few weeks now, How does it compare? Read on..

The Trackimo is a really small device, that's USB powered, and can fit virtually anywhere. It tracks your motorcycles movements, shows you where you've been on a map, and sends  you alerts depending on what triggers you have set up. It's $139 for the device itself, and comes with 1 year of free tracking. Optionally you can get the version that comes with a 12v adapter for $169 instead. After the 1 year of free service expires the monthly service is a low $5 a month.  The device has both GPS and Cellular GSM communication.

Setup

The device arrived quickly, and in fairly generic packaging. The setup was a breeze, way easier than the Spot. Setup consisted of going to the website, creating an account, and adding in the device ID. After that, it tells you how to turn the device on. Once the device is on, it connects to the network within a few minutes. After that you customize the settings and you are done. Not once will you need to connect the device to your computer. Any settings you adjust are sent to the device wirelessly instantly. Since the device has both GPS and Cellular connections, it was able to connect to the network way quicker during registration. 

Software

The web app is modern, and quick, while also being easy to navigate. They also offer iOS and Android Apps. I have an iPhone so that's what ill be able to show you. The iOS app is also modern feeling, and most importantly it offers push notifications. The reason I keep mentioning modern is because the Spot website and app are dated, slow, and poorly designed. The spot app also does not offer app push notifications. 

"The notifications are instant. I start the bike, and the notification hits my phone."

In both the Trackimo iOS app and Web app, you can view your history by applying a date filter. When it shows your history, it won't just show you dots on a map like the Spot, but it will also show you the route you took with lines drawn in between locations, and it will show you your speed at each location. The Trackimo allows you to get location updates every minute for free, while spot only lets you get updates every 5 minutes. If you want every minute with the spot you have to pay more monthly. So overall, you are getting a more detailed overview of your route with trackimo, which is a nice bonus. Especially for future blog posts on camping trips or misc adventures. 

The trackimo sends you a push notification to your iOS app, and send you an email when it senses any movement. You can also set up GPS fences, that can notify you or your loved ones when you leave or enter specific areas. The notifications are instant. I start the bike, and the notification hits my phone. I prefer push notifications over email notifications, and having both come in was a bit annoying. I sent a trouble ticket to trackimo asking if I can turn the emails off. They answered quickly which is a plus. Good customer service in that instance. They said that they can't turn off the email notifications as they think for security it's important to keep on. I set up a filter on my email to automatically archive them so I don't need to see them. I love how fast the push notifications are. With the spot, I would only get email notifications (or text message), and I usually wouldn't get it for about 5 minutes after I started riding. I assume this is because the GPS line of site is not great where I live, whereas the Trackimo is using cellular to send notifications. Another huge plus, not needing GPS line of site to communicate. Especially because if someone steals the bike and its in the back of a truck or in a warehouse, i'll still be able to track it via cellular triangulation. This to me, adds a lot of value.

Comparison

Compared to the Spot Trace, and the Scorpio Ride, I think that the Trackimo is by far the best value. The Spot Trace is $99, and then $10 a month. You can sometimes find the Trace on rebate for half off. That doesn't include a hard wire kit, but the batteries last 2-3 months. The Scorpio Ride is $280, and then $11 a month for US service only. For international, including Canada, the rates go up. The Trace really looks like a joke compared to the Trackimo. The only thing going for it is the reputable company behind it. They have no interest in software, and its GPS line of site only. The Scorpio Ride looks to be a really great, full featured system. Its both GPS and Cellular, has an outboard GPS receiver that you can tuck away from the main module, great looking software, the ability to play back routes in google earth, and is even expandable where you can add alarm sirens, and tire pressure sensors. The downside to the Ride is the price. You're looking at over $400 for the product plus first year of service. If you can afford the Ride, go for it. I haven't use it, but I would love to try it. The Trackimo seems to be the best of both worlds. A solid product, at a great price. Hopefully the company sticks around for a while.

Install

Installation was fairly easy if you know your way around a motorcycle battery. The package included a rubber water resistant casing. I had to make a little cut out for the USB to fit in to it while still having the casing on. I should add a little silicon to that usb cut out area for extra protection. I wired up the 12v leads to the battery terminals. I secured and mounted the Trackimo in a safe spot. Its actually smaller than the spot and was easier to hide. I would recommend looking at other 12v USB options on Amazon. Trackimo is charging a $40 premium for it, where you can get these for under $20. Regarding hooking it up to my battery, I now have way too many things connected to my battery and so I purchased a Power Distribution Unit that i'll be installing sometime soon. So far I'm not sure how many the Trackimo drains my bikes battery. I haven't gone 4 days without riding since I've installed it, and so far that hasn't been an issue. It would be great if I tested the motorcycle battery right after a ride, and then again after a few days of not using it. I imagine that it doesn't use much power. 

Conclusion

At the end, I would recommend this product. I think that its a great value, and the feeling of security it gives you is worth the investment. The instant notifications are a huge plus for me, and I think the software is very well done so far. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments.

Updates

  • A friend asked about the ability to have friends track your ride for special events. I asked Trackimo and they responded via a trouble ticket within the hour: "I think the engineers have this in the next software release, thanks and keep all the good ideas coming.."
  • Another good point was brought to my attention, the fact that the device does not communicate back to the servers if it doesn't have cellular reception. So in the even that you are out without cell reception, it will still log the GPS coordinates and info, but it will not talk back to the servers until you get back in to cellular reception. This would be a problem when trying to use the SOS button when you are out of cell reception.
  • Regarding Cellular Providers: "We use either T-Mobile or AT&T which ever has the best coverage in the area. The device will switch automatically to the strongest service provider."