Motorcycle Alarms

[johndaub]

There is an old thread but it never discusses the Scorpio's vs. the Gorilla's. The paging Gorilla is about $200 (half the price of the Scorpio i900). Does anyone have experience with the paging Gorilla? Is there anything the Scorpio has that the Gorilla does not have? I talked with my dealer and they did not know the difference between these two but they said you usually get what you pay for.

I did note that the Gorilla receiver looks like a rather large pager to go on your belt while the Scorpio is a relatively small key fob. The Gorilla website says that their battery backup lasts two hours with the alarm blaring while they claim that the Scorpio battery backup is a capacitor which lasts a few seconds. I find this hard to believe that the Scorpio backup is such a POS. They both claim a range of a half mile but this is probably with no trees or buildings in the way so I wonder what the real world is when you go into a building and the bike is in the parking lot.

My dealer's service department says that they have had problems with brands other than Scorpio going off and they could not disable them. They do not remember the brands they have had trouble with but they would be glad to sell me a Scorpio at list :angry2: . Where is the cheapest place to get a Scorpio?

My dealer says that if I install this month, they will knock $29 off of the $285 installation charge (3 hours for a sportbike). However, the service guy thinks that a LoJack is a better buy overall. I guess that there are pros and cons of alarms vs. LoJack.

 

[Fairlaner]

there is no way it takes 3 hours to install that Scorpion, as i recall it just requires power and connecting wires to the rear brake light wires.......

R

 

[3dogs]

My dealer's service department says that they have had problems with brands other than Scorpio going off and they could not disable them. They do not remember the brands they have had trouble with but they would be glad to sell me a Scorpio at list :angry2: . Where is the cheapest place to get a Scorpio?

You have a message. Tracy...

 

[johndaub]

there is no way it takes 3 hours to install that Scorpion, as i recall it just requires power and connecting wires to the rear brake light wires.......
R

They said a lot of the time is to remove the plastic and route the wires on frame members. The price of installation is one thing that is making me think hard about whether I want/need this farkle.

 

[lnewlf]

A friend has the regular Gorilla on his Blackbird and it has worked great for years so I put a paging Gorilla on the FJR about a year ago {$136. shipped on EBaY} It was fine for 2 months and then quit. The guy I talked to about it was great-he shipped out a new one no questions asked. The alarm works fine once you get the sensitivity set right, I keep the pager in the fifth pocket in my jeans set on vibrate and that works well too. I wouldn't pay twice as much for another alarm that does pretty much the same thing..Now if I could just remember to disarm the dam thing before I touch the bike...

 

[Pierre]

I installed my Scorpio, took me, maybe 2 hours, you should see the install I did, add longer wires, hide everything, a hell of an installation.... I am proud

So 3 hours is long, and I doubt that they will install it like I did

Very easy to install by the way !

 

[mattster31]

I have a scorpio i500, and I am very happy with it. I bought it used from a forum member a while back (I don't think I would pay retail) and installed it myself. Like Pierre mentioned, it also only took me a couple hours, and that was doing a proper install. That being said.............I think the alarm is more for my own piece of mind, and as it may stop the amateur bike thief, it won't stop a few guys with some muscle and a pick up truck h34r: . Ultimately, your insurance is the best way to protect your investment.......... remember it's just a motorcycle .

 

[Phugedaboudet]

I have the paging Gorilla. The fob isn't that large, but for some reason they no longer come with a keychain swivel so it has to be pocketed. My first one lasted well over a year but started acting up. Pretty sure it was the remote that went bad but since it was going to cost me $60-$70 to get a replacement remote, and there was the possibility it was the paging antenna module (I bought them both separately originally) that I figured i'd get a whole new system and swap everything at once to save the hassle.

it gets me a blinking light and a warn away chirper (scares off the neighborhood cats who hop on at night when it's cold) so it's one more reason for a thief to go somewhere else. Range kinda sucks when i'm at work (doesn't work inside) but between the apartment and the parking cover it works well enough. Now only if i could shut off the bike alarm part and just have the pager do the alert.."say hello to my little friend" time