Outside of the world of bikes it would be fair to say I’m a geek. I love a good gadget especially when it makes a boring a tedious task far simpler. Enter the Fobo Bike 2 Bluetooth Tyre Pressure Monitoring system.
Fobo Bike 2 Bluetooth TPMS
We all know tyre pressures make a huge difference especially on bikes and if you’re anything like me you probably don’t check them as often as you ought to. In December last year I stumbled across the crowd funding for the upcoming Fobo sensor system. Having previously had a ‘retrofit’ style system on my car I figured this was a great opportunity to keep an eye on my pressures without having to hard wire anything into the bike or add an unsightly display/control unit.
The Fobo system connects to a smartphone app via super low power Bluetooth 5 giving a constant reading on the tyres pressure when you are in range of the bike. It constantly monitors pressure and temperature giving warnings when the pressure reaches your pre defined limits and can be used in ‘overlay’ style so if like me you use your phone for navigation the pressures can be easily seen alongside your directions.
The hardware is beautiful. My previous experience of the aftermarket systems is that they can be bulky and cheap feeling however the Fobo ouses quality arriving with a simple locking system to secure the valves to your bike and replaceable cosmetic covers allowing you to tailor the look to your wheel for a discrete fit. The sensors also feature a digital anti theft system in that they can’t be paired with another device until unpaired from yours meaning if taken from your bike they are useless. The compact sensors are powered via coin style batteries and claim to last as much as a year. Battery levels are displayed in the app warning you in readiness for a change. So far mine are still displaying full charge after a few months daily use.
To backup the hardware is the mobile app. I’ve only had experience of the Android version which is good. Simple to use, once installed and setup a notification remains on your phone popping up with warnings if the pressures are beyond your preset limits (which are changeable within the app according to your bike/tyre specs). Within the app you can add multiple bikes so if you have a number of bikes all with sensors you can track them all. A number of features have been added to the app over time showing the manufacturers commitment to this growing platform and support have been great at getting back to me whenever I’ve had an issue. They recently added an overlay option which allows a small box displaying to pressures to remain on top of other apps. For me this sits alongside my navigation day to day so I can keep a constant eye on the tyres.
All in all I can’t fault the Fobo 2, my only tiny gripe is that you have to take the sensor off to top the tyre up but this isn’t really any more taxing than a conventional valve cap. It’s really well thought through system, simple to use, great quality and something I’ll be adding to any future bikes.
BMotoUK 