AirTag to find stolen bike?

[krs]

I'm thinking of attaching an AirTag to me E-Bike so should it get stolen, I can find where it is.
Sounded like a good idea to me until I read this on the Apple website:

AirTag is designed to discourage unwanted tracking. If someone else’s AirTag finds its way into your stuff, your iPhone will notice it’s travelling with you and send you an alert. After a while, if you still haven’t found it, the AirTag will start playing a sound to let you know it’s there.

Of course, if you happen to be with a friend who has an AirTag, or on a train with a whole bunch of people with AirTag, don’t worry. These alerts are triggered only when an AirTag is separated from its owner.

So if the thief has an iphone, it will tell him there is an AirTag on the bike and he can disable it .
I guess that makes the AirTag unusable for that purpose I hadin mind.
Or am I missing something?

 

[MacInWin]

It will eventually alert a thief with an iPhone, but not for a while and not if the thief moves away from the bike and their iPhone gets out of range. In the meantime, you can track it and either go get it back, or send the police to get it back for you. Basically, the alerts are delayed a bit. How long that should be is a debate currently being argued out in the public arena. Too short and every time you are out on a sidewalk and someone is going in your same direction with an AirTag with them you (and everybody with you with iPhones) will get the alert. Imagine being on a crowded highway and a car beside you has an AirTag on the keys and you get an alert because it's nearby!

But, if the alert time delay is too long and if the AirTag is planted on you for the purpose of stalking or worse, it might be too late.

I don't know what the current default wait time is, sorry. I have read it is in the range of several hours, but that may have changed or be changed.

EDIT: BTW, they do work very well. I have used them on luggage on two trips from the US to UK in the last year. It was very comforting to see that the luggage was near me just before we pushed back from the gate on departure and that it was near me on arrival at the destination. And I could track it as it moved through the airport to the baggage claim area. Slick!

 

[krs]

Thanks for the comments, Jake
I found out since that the delay before someone is notified about a tracking air tag is a variable, from 8 to 24 hours and if the person still van't find it, the air tag will eventually generate an audible signal.
So this would still make it very useful to track down a stolen bike.
This fellow in Toronto had the same idea except he tracked down his stolen car that way

Toronto man uses Apple Airtags to track down stolen Range Rover

An Ontario man whose car was stolen from his driveway in midtown Toronto twice in three months is revealing how he tracked and located his second vehicle.

www.cp24.com