Big savings on Apple AirTags, plus sneaky places to hide them on your bike
(Image credit: Muc-Off)
One thing I think we can all agree on is that having your bike stolen sucks. Even if you've got one of the best bike locks, sometimes the thieves win and you lose your pride and joy. Hopefully you've got bike insurance, but in recent years the advent of the Apple AirTag system has added a way to help you get reunited with your bike, and right now, they're on offer in the Cyber Monday sale at Amazon.
Obviously this is only helpful to Apple users, but there are a lot of them. AirTags work using the Apple Find My network, in the same way as its airpods, watches, and phones do. The simple explanation of how it works is that the AirTag use bluetooth and securely piggyback onto the wireless signals of nearby Apple devices, and through that upload their current location to the cloud.
In even simpler terms, if you have an iPhone, you can squirrel an AirTag away on your bike, and if it gets pinched you can track it down and get it back. Thieves are crafty, so the trick is to hide the AirTag away somewhere; if the thief removes it and throws it in a river then your bike is probably done for.
For some semblance of order in the deals below, I've ranked them in order of sneakiness.
Luckily for you, not only are the Apple AirTag themselves on sale at Amazon for Cyber Monday, but a lot of the ways to hide them on your bike are too, so I've rounded them up. For all our other top deals head to our Cyber Monday bike deals hub.
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17% off - Obviously this is the core of the whole system, and you need to be a part of the Apple ecosystem too, but for just a single AirTag, you can get a reasonable 17% off.
20% off - Alternatively, for a slightly greater discount, you can get four of them. Do this and you can protect four bikes, put multiple tags on one bike, or do something sensible like put one on your keys, one on your wallet, and one somewhere else important... Save it for your holiday luggage perhaps?
20% off - Not the most sneaky, but probably the easiest to install. Pop the AirTag into the holder, and simply mount your bottle cage over the top of it to hold it in place. The UK gets a significantly cheaper version, but it's effectively the same thing.
11% off - Slightly more sneaky is this expanding bung that slots up inside your fork steerer. For this you naturally need a suspension fork with an open steerer tube, but that is the case for many commuter bikes as well as MTB and ebikes too.
33% off - More sneaky still, but a bit more of a faff to install as it'll replace your headset top cap. You'll need to take your top cap off, reinstall this new one, re-preload your headset, pop the AirTag in, and then pop the cover over the top that resembles a bottle cap.
20% off - Short of hiding an AirTag inside your tyre with the AirTag valve below, I think this is the most sneaky option, especially for ebikes or commuter bikes. They'll all come with reflectors anyway, so it ticks the 'hiding in plain site' box, as well as actually adding a bit of visibility to your ride too. Comes with shims for all seatpost sizes.
One mega advantage to this system is that it is also a Garmin mount, so it can be used with the amazing Garmin Varia rear radar system.
35% off - It simply isn't possible to be more sneaky than this. These valves replace your current tubeless valves, and allow you to hide an AirTag securely inside your tyre. Who's going to look in there?!
Obviously you need to be running tubeless, and you'll have to faff about swapping valves, but this is definitely the least likely system to get spotted. You'll need to be running 38c tyres or wider.
Will joined the Cyclingnews team as a reviews writer in 2022, having previously written for Cyclist, BikeRadar and Advntr. There are very few types of cycling he's not dabbled in, and he has a particular affection for older bikes and long lasting components. Road riding was his first love, before graduating to racing CX in Yorkshire. He's been touring on a vintage tandem all the way through to fixed gear gravel riding and MTB too. When he's not out riding one of his many bikes he can usually be found in the garage tinkering with another of them, or getting obsessive about tyres. Also, as he doesn't use Zwift, he's our go-to guy for bad weather testing... bless him.
Rides: Custom Zetland Audax, Bowman Palace:R, Peugeot Grand Tourisme Tandem, Falcon Explorer Tracklocross, Fairlight Secan & Strael
