Two options:
1) An unsecured tracking device placed in good faith is hacked/used by nefarious 3rd party. This is unlikely. AirTags have essentially no utility other than to their primary owner and I haven't come across any instance of them being hacked remotely with reliability. Even if they could be, there's a million other challenges (how does the 3rd party know that it's a whole shipment of bikes? Even if such a hack could read the original device name e.g. "My Bike" or similar).
2) An secure tracking device planted by a nefarious party who also happens to be a customer. Again, unlikely. You'd have to be pretty dumb to give over all your details if you were planning to knock over a van full of bikes, and if you were that way inclined you'd simply ignore this "policy".

Ultimately, this is a thinly veiled excuse to ban trackers so that if they f*ck up they don't have a pissed-off owner pointing out exactly where and how - the same as half the airlines rolling out the same excuses. Embarrassing for them all.

Personally, I'd drop an AirTag in some foam and push it way down into my seat tube anyway. Fight me.

Are they gonna tear apart every bike and see if there is an air tag stashed somewhere, or in a gear bag?

I can partially understand where they are coming from:

Bad actor contracts to have tracker equipped bike transported
Tracks bike while en route
Steals the shipment of high end bikes based on location derived from tracker

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"In case of flood climb to safety"

If I wanted to do this, I would just follow the truck after it leaves Inside Out Sports in Cary, NC. No air tag needed..............

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Sure could. Might be easier to just wait until the middle of the night and follow the tracker. Just spitballing how they may justify the policy.

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*****
"In case of flood climb to safety"

My point is, its a dumb policy. If they are worried about the trucks being robbed or stolen, air tags are not needed. There is a much more rudimentary way of doing it..........

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Same... if I wanted to use an AirTag I'd use one anyway.

That said I've used TBT multiple times and without any major issues or need to track my bike.

I used it to track my bike and saw it sitting at a private residence for five days that was only 22 miles from the final destination bike shop.

Which is probably one of the reasons they don't want you tracking it!

They will have their transport worked out to be financially efficient which usually means it won't be time efficient. They don't want you to know your bike was sat as somebody's house for 5 days doing nothing because its cheaper to wait for carries that charge less. They certainly don't want you to know lots of very expensive tri bikes are sat at somebody's house doing nothing that's for sure!

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He who understands the WHY, will understand the HOW.

Air Tags have saved my bike twice in the last year on commercial flights. No way would I send it anywhere by any means without one.

That’s my theory on their policy vs the risk of some elaborate bike theft heist… customers could truly have visibility into the movement of their bike.

If there was nothing to hide, they’d be transparent and forthright, rather than hide behind the bogus safety issue of customers tracking drivers whereabouts. Customers are only concerned about their property and an honest company should be as well.

I know Marc is a forum user and I’d love him to chime in here.

In addition to the foam/seat tube trick, there are also AirTag holders/mounts which sit integrated into the bottle cage mechanism. Something you could put on solely for the transit, removing it for the race to avoid that minor aero penalty.

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They have had their truck stolen 1x in the past I know of. They only offer you $1000 insurance.

You want me to remove my AirTag then cover the complete value of my bike. Otherwise it’s my property and I will protect it as I see fit.

Hell if I sold a bike I’d hide an AirTag in it to make sure the person received it. The best $30 you would ever spend.

I have one in each bike. In my car and always in my luggage

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http://www.TriScottsdale.org

Absolutely agreed. I’ve used TriBike 13x over the years. I see that additional insurance can be purchased for $10 for every $1k of coverage.

In Australia so never used them.

But.

Are the bikes fully insured for complete replacement and also your bike box included in the price?

If so, I’d have zero issue removing my AirTags.

If not, I’d leave them in and tell them to piss off

Yeah that can’t offer just $1000 for a 7k bike. That’s never going to work in todays world.

The problem could have to do with the relationship of TriBike with airlines: It is not clear whether all airlines accept airtags in the luggage.

Think this was a brief confusion last October: swiftly cleared up.
“Luggage tracking devices powered by lithium metal cells that have 0.3 grams or less of lithium can be used on checked baggage,” the FAA said in a statement, “Apple AirTags meet this threshold; other luggage tracking devices may not.”
A single AirTag has just 0.1g of lithium.
https://www.intego.com/...nning-apple-airtags-heres-the-complete-story/ (October's story)
and here's a recent (Apr 2023) ICAO guideline statement:
https://www.icao.int/...checked-baggage.aspx
"Devices powered by small lithium batteries in checked baggage can stay turned on during the flight, provided their battery’s lithium content is less than 0.3 g, or if its lithium ion battery’s output is less than 2.7 Wh."

And no one is stopping you from doing so, but it sounds like TBT would prefer you ship it with someone else.

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If you put the air tag in your seat tube, you won’t be able to track it. At least I wasn’t able to when I tried to do that with my commuter bike that I use to get to work sometimes. Although that seat post was aluminum.

Even more reason to buy your own bike case and fly with your bike w/ an air tag. TBT continues to give its customers reasons to not use them.

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blog

Same - flying out of STG airport, and my bag didn't make it due to plane size (and many other bikes). Airline told me they didn't have a clue where it was...I quickly was able to tell them where it was :)

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IG: NCGregory8778

Thought it was a good time to resurrect this 🙄