Sizzapp has no subscription costs, but is it really any good?

Date reviewed: June 2023 | Tested by: John Milbank | Price: £269.99 | www.sizzapp.com available in UK from Sportsbikeshop

I’m very sceptical of security kit ‘tests’ from influencers, not least because I’m well aware of the money that sometimes changes hands for this content, and I’ve debunked a few in the past.

As a member of the International Association of Auto Theft Investigators, and being lucky enough to be paid by Bennetts Motorcycle Insurance to create unbiased, independent content, my review of the Sizapp motorcycle tracker might be a bit late to the party, but it’s covered everything you need to know about this subscription-free device, and whether it’s worth the money…

UPDATE SEP 2023: Unfortunately the latest update to Sizzap has significantly reduced its appeal, making it difficult to recommend as a security device. The option to have it phone you has now been added, which is a very welcome feature, however with no proximity fob (or the ability for the device to recognise your phone as being nearby), unless you've started the engine running, as soon as you move the bike you'll get a call. This is a useful security option, and if you don't answer it you shouldn't have that call deducted from your quota of 50/month (though mine are still deducting despite not answering), but having to pull your phone out of your pocket or wherever it's stowed – especially with gloves on – is frustrating. For many people, starting the bike before it's moved  simply isn't an option.

The new update also doesn't allow you to silence notifications for a period of time then automatically restart them – it's now off until you turn them back on via the app. This risks the user forgetting to re-enable them and we hope that Sizzapp will turn this feature back on.

Finally, users are now limited to just 50 text alerts per month. If you ride every day it's easy to get through these, so while the push alerts are unlimited and will still notify you of movement, the text messages could run out. It's easy to imagine that the costs were mounting up for Sizzapp, but it will be disappointing to people who purchased it on the understanding that these alerts were unlimited.

With a better implementation of the phone call alert – for instance by using your phone to detect the owner is present, or having the option to call you only after a user-selectable time between the first motion push notification and the bike not being started – Sizzapp could get this back to the very useful device that it was. We look forward to the next update.

Sizzapp features

Sizzapp’s main selling point is that there are no subscription fees or ongoing costs – buy it for £269.99 from Sportsbikeshop in the UK, or direct from Sizzapp for £265 Euro (plus shipping and duty to the UK), $292 USD or $440 AUS, and that’s all you’ll need to pay. For that one-off cost, you get the following features:

• Real-time tracking

• Route recording

• Geozones for alerts when leaving or entering chosen areas

• Route sharing

• Push-notifications, as well as free SMS alerts

• Alerts for MoT, insurance and servicing/maintenance

• Speed data
  Crash alert

• Basic weather info

• iOS and Android app

You can set multiple geozones (or geofences) on the app’s map to alert you when your vehicle enters and/or leaves the radius of your choice. You don’t need to use this to get theft alerts, and I struggle to think when I might use it, but it did prove useful during testing to know that my wife had left McDonalds with my tea. In fact, it was so accurate that I could see where she was in the drive-through.

While there could be many reasons to take advantage of the geozones, they’re a little fiddly to set as they won’t work with the map zoomed right in, and you can’t search for any locations by name – you have to find them by scrolling around. You also can’t simply set your – or the vehicle’s – current location.

The speed data that’s stored on the app can – thanks to a recent update – be reset whenever you want, and it might prove handy for those who want to see the top speed they got on a trackday. I did find that the daily speed wasn’t displaying, only the overall maximum, but I expect this will be resolved with an update.

Notifications that Sizzapp has detected a crash can be sent to any phone number, but this leaves something to be desired as it doesn’t give the recipient any location data.

I tested the crash system by disconnecting the device and relying on its internal battery. Wrapped up in a padded envelope, I dropped it from the car at 40mph, and received an SMS and push notification saying ‘Recorded crash event’. Of course, I could see the location of the device on my app, but if I’d set the recipient address to be my wife, she’d have no idea where I was.

Sizzapp has a small, built-in 170mAh 3.7V battery that keeps the tracker running should the bike’s battery be disconnected – in my testing, this powered the unit for around four hours, less than one hour of which was active tracking. This is useful, but I’d definitely have preferred to see a larger-capacity cell built in as there’s plenty of room in the box for one, and it’s worth noting that this is way below the required eight hours with updates every one minute that Thatcham approval requires of a tracker's internal battery.

The home page of the app shows the current battery voltage, but when disconnected the indication of the internal cell’s condition isn’t so clear. The battery logo also doesn’t change at all when Sizzapp is completely dead, staying full and green.

Sizzapp is claimed to use 30-60mA during an active data transfer, and 5-10mA in deep sleep mode. In my testing, the power used is of course heavily influenced by how often the bike is moved about, so as with any tracker, I’d recommend using a maintenance charger like the ones reviewed here if the bike goes unused for more than a week or two.

Fitting

Fitting the Sizzapp is extremely easy thanks to it having just two wires – live and neutral. They’re even open-ended ring connectors, so slide easily into your bike’s battery terminals.

But Sizzapp is pretty obviously a tracker, thanks to its big sticker on the top. It’s not a particularly large unit at 67x69x26mm plus the connector (though there are smaller trackers), but you absolutely must hide it properly for it to be worth the investment.

Do NOT put Sizzapp, or any tracker, under your motorcycle’s seat.

A large proportion of motorcycle thefts involve the bike being pushed away then left to see if it has a tracker. And in the majority of these, thieves will lift the seat to look for a badly-installed tracker.

It’s important to avoid putting it under the tank, or other large metal (or carbon fibre) areas in order to give the GPS antenna the best chance of picking up a signal, but you can easily check the placement by seeing how accurate it is on the app.

Take your time, and strip plenty of panels off when fitting Sizzapp – thanks to it being hard-wired, you shouldn’t ever need to get to it again. Some will argue that the wires could be tracked from the battery to the tracker, though as they’re not labelled, this is unlikely, and most of us have other things wired in anyway like heated grips, sat-nav, heated clothing, a charger fly-lead… if you’re going all-in though, consider picking up from connections away from the battery. As a permanent live is needed, this will need to be where the battery cable terminates, typically at a relay.

A sticky-backed pad is attached to the base the Sizzapp, but I’d like to have also seen loops moulded into the edges of the case to secure it with zip-ties.

Initial set-up is simple as the app takes you through the steps and registers your phone, linking it to the IMEI number of the tracker.

Day-to-day use

I’m using 4G Sizzapp with an Android phone, and while the app is pretty slick looking, it’s not perfect, with the odd glitch and hang at the time of writing, and an online user instruction manual that, for now at least, doesn’t match the current app. There’s a video guide to watch in the app via a non-clickable QR code, but when I did get another device to scan it, it didn’t work.

There’s clearly room for improvement in the user experience of Sizzapp, and while routes can be shared – and it’s great to be able to see exactly where you’ve ridden – they only currently export as a .png image file, or as a GPX, neither of which can be imported back into the app, so other software is needed. You can disable your speed, address and start/finish markers when sharing (though your maximum acceleration figure is shown, if not marked on the map), but there seems an opportunity for Sizzapp to expand on the social elements of the app in future.

Sizzapp automatically records all your rides to an incredible degree of location accuracy – even moving into a layby is shown. Thanks to its hard-wired connection, it’s updating very regularly, so it’s easy to see where the bike’s going. A friend who also uses Sizzapp said that this accurate recording was a great way to see exactly where he and his girlfriend had been on their riding holiday. I’m sure there’ll be more features added as the app develops over time. Tagging photos to locations (like the BMW Connected app) would also be a great addition.

A ‘Group Rides’ option in the app allows you to invite others with a device to a group ride, and the Sizzapp website promises ‘events and trips planning’, but there are no details in the instructions as to how these work. There’s also a map view in the app, which will track the device while it’s moving, but won’t stay open by default, and has no navigation facilities, so for now at least it isn’t useful while you’re riding.

This may all sound rather damning, but the features that are already in place, especially the tracking performance, are what I’m most interested in, and here Sizzapp works very well indeed.

While only having two wires, Sizzapp does recognise when the engine’s running on my VFR800, so doesn’t give ‘unauthorised movement’ alerts when on the go. Moving the bike around while the engine off – even if the ignition is on – will see a movement alert sent to your phone very quickly. This is where I’d like to see the option at least to connect an ignition wire that recognises when the bike’s turned on – or better still a fob that recognises when you’re nearby, like Monimoto has – but this would be a helpful addition to the device, not an essential one.

Sizzapp theft test

All our tracker tests are conducted in the same way – we don’t tell the manufacturer when we intend to perform a mock theft, and while we won’t waste police time to raise a crime number (if necessary for monitored systems), we expect the device (if it’s self-monitored) or operations centre to demonstrate the full service.

Level one: Pushed away and left in street: The first alert that anything is happening with your bike is an ‘unauthorised movement’ alert, which I’ve set to come through as a push notification and as a text message (SMS). There’s some clunky language here in the notifications options, as you need to enable ‘towing’ to get the unauthorised movement alerts.

The alert is the main point that I think Sizzapp could be improved; by having the device phone you with an automated message, like Monimoto does, it would be a lot harder to miss than a message or notification alert, though false triggers caused by the lack of an ignition wire or rider present fob could become more irritating.

It is possible to change the alert sounds to be unique to the Sizzapp, which can help, and on Android at least it’s also possible to set the alerts to override ‘do not disturb’.

Sizzapp has told me though that an ‘auto-call’ feature is planned for release around the end of 2023, which will be great.

Sizzapp doesn’t immediately stop considering itself to be in a trip and hence automatically re-enabling unauthorised movement alerts, but by my timings it resets to ‘on stop’ within three minutes. That means that, while it’s possible that it could be stolen while you pop into a shop, for instance, there’s a very small window of opportunity for a thief to do it without you receiving an unauthorised movement alert that could give you time to run out and ask them nicely to move along.

During testing, Sizzapp notified of movement via push and SMS within less than five meters of movement, and continued to very accurately track to the location where the bike had been left.

Level two: Pushed away and hidden in a building: Immediate movement notifications were again sent via SMS and Push, and the tracking remained extremely accurate, right down to within a couple of metres of the location within a two-story building with the metal door shut.

Level three: Stolen in a van: Our tests are always done with a van that has a steel bulkhead, as this can have a significant impact on a tracker’s signal. Tracking the device for more than twenty miles through some very rural locations, Sizzapp did an outstanding job.

The two photos above show the location info on the app, and a photo of the van with the tracker inside; this level of accuracy really is very impressive, and tracking the bike was very easy thanks to the location data being only around 10 to 30 seconds behind where it actually was.

The push notifications don’t take you direct to the map, and even when viewing them on the device, touching them simply makes them disappear. This is disappointing as ideally it’d at least take you straight to the tracker’s current location, though the map does give a clear guide to the route that’s been covered.

Location information doesn’t have a timestamp, and it’s not always clear if the device is still working when its internal battery dies, but the last know location will, in many cases, be the one you’re looking for, and this has been extremely accurate in my testing.

Bike jacking

If you’re unfortunate enough to have your motorcycle stolen with the keys, for instance in a bike jacking, you’ll still be able to track the location of the device in real-time.

Support

It’s important to understand that, while police officers have told me that they will endeavor to respond to any active theft tracking (resource allowing), this is not a monitored tracker, so there’s no team on hand to liaise with the police or to aid in recovery as there are with the big names like Biketrack, CanTrack, Datatool, Meta, SmarTrack and Tracker. Also, as this is not a Thatcham-approved tracker, it’s not recognised by insurance companies.

Fully monitored and Thatcham-approved trackers also have a ‘Secure Operating Centre’ to monitor your device. Sizzapp – like other non-approved devices, doesn’t have this, but I did ask the company how secure the location data is of its users. I was told that: “All data is transferred directly between the Sizzapp device and Sizzapp server. And only after a successful login and valid request for data is it sent from the Sizzapp server to the Sizzapp app end-user via HTTPS / SSL protocols with encryption.”

I also asked Sizzapp how it can afford to offer a completely subscription-free service, as the cost of the data being transferred and the text messages must mount up. They said that “Our strategic partnerships with our SIM and network provider, and cost management, allow us to offer free SMS messages. We collaborate with telecom providers with four of our projects (including Sizzapp), and we have a very affordable data offer due to our volumes, which is why we can provide this value-added service at no extra cost.”

During the final stages of my review, I did have some issues with the tracker, it becoming very slow at responding and updating its situation. It’s important that I point out that by this stage I’d had the unit apart, and had disconnected the internal battery and removed the SIM card at various points, so it wouldn’t be fair of me to say that Sizzapp was at fault – until this point, it had worked very well. It’s possible that there was an issue with the carrier (usually T-Mobile via Truphone), but it did give me a chance to test the response of Sizzapp’s technical support in Latvia (using my personal email rather than work), which is accessed via the app.

Within three hours, I’d had a reply from one of the team, and they soon looked into it to find that when my SIM card switched to O2, it was going offline. While it took some investigation, the problem was solved and the device is now running perfectly.

Three alternatives to the Sizzapp tracker

It’s important to understand the differences between various devices, so do check out our guide to the best motorcycle trackers here. These are three options at a similar price to Sizzapp…

• Pegase is another device with no subscription costs. It’s smaller than Sizapp, and still needs just two wires to connect it, but in testing it wasn’t quite as good. Promised updates might see that change though. Full review of the Pegase tracker here.

• Monimoto costs about £36/year and is completely self-contained. It’s got a lot of great features, but it’s let down by its accuracy in more challenging situations. Full review of Monimoto here.

• BikeTrac Lite offers the support of a 24/7 secure operating centre in the event of a theft, and it’s Thatcham approved and recognised by insurers. By pairing down some features, it costs just £60/year in subscription, which is a significant saving over the full-spec trackers also on offer from BikeTrac, as well as DatatoolT and others. Full review of BikeTrac lite here.

These are just three of many alternatives – you can find all the motorcycle trackers we’ve tested here and be sure to regularly check for the discounts available through Bikesocial membership.

Sizzapp tracker review: verdict

I’m absolutely blown away at the accuracy of the Sizzapp tracker – even in the van it was pinpoint accurate. It’s vitally important that you take into consideration the fitting advice above, and that you’re aware of its limitations, but Sizzapp has some good features when it comes to un-monitored trackers.

It doesn’t offer the support of Thatcham-approved, monitored trackers, not to mention the police liaison services, and the internal battery is lacking, but this could still help you get your bike back in a theft. And if Sizzapp follows through with the update planned later in the year, it’ll be even better.

Besides the security benefits, the automatic recording of all your rides with such pinpoint accuracy – and the ability to send them as a GPX – will be something many riders appreciate, and there’s lot more potential there for future updates and improvements.

UPDATE SEP 2023: Unfortunately the latest update to Sizzap has significantly reduced its appeal, making it difficult to recommend as a security device. The option to have it phone you has now been added, which is a very welcome feature, however with no proximity fob (or the ability for the device to recognise your phone as being nearby), unless you've started the engine running, as soon as you move the bike you'll get a call. This is a useful security option, and if you don't answer it you shouldn't have that call deducted from your quota of 50/month (though mine are still deducting despite not answering), but having to pull your phone out of your pocket or wherever it's stowed – especially with gloves on – is frustrating. For many people, starting the bike before it's moved  simply isn't an option.

The new update also doesn't allow you to silence notifications for a period of time then automatically restart them – it's now off until you turn them back on via the app. This risks the user forgetting to re-enable them and we hope that Sizzapp will turn this feature back on.

Finally, users are now limited to just 50 text alerts per month. If you ride every day it's easy to get through these, so while the push alerts are unlimited and will still notify you of movement, the text messages could run out. It's easy to imagine that the costs were mounting up for Sizzapp, but it will be disappointing to people who purchased it on the understanding that these alerts were unlimited.

With a better implementation of the phone call alert – for instance by using your phone to detect the owner is present, or having the option to call you only after a user-selectable time between the first motion push notification and the bike not being started – Sizzapp could get this back to the very useful device that it was. We look forward to the next update.

For more information on tracking systems, click here.