You should be happy she was still there. Someone could take it and you wouldnt even know. My first f4i was stolen right from my driveway. I've filed a police report and have looked on ebay and cl everyday trying to find it or its parts. Shes been gone since September and I havent heard anything from the cops. Make sure you get a decent alarm. I got a used i900 for $240 off ebay and it works great. Also, make sure your bike is insured after all. I only had liability coverage on the stolen one. Wrong move
Additionally, I bought one of the Xena disc locks with 120db alarm and shock sensor and I put it on whenever I park my bike outside. It's always good to have and it will deter potential thieves.

 

I have the Gorilla alarm and I stand by it.
I had the pager go of in my classroom at college where I hardly get cell phone reception with the bike about 1/2 km away and found out my buddy saw it and sat on it and the alarm went off.

 

I had a xena disc lock w/ built in alarm that I used when parking my bike outside my bedroom window at night. About 2 months later, leaving for work at 5:30 am, inserted key and alarm started blaring; wouldn't stop until I found the allen wrench and removed the batteries. I was pretty aggravated but figured that I could still use it, just wouldn't have the alarm function anymore. About 4 months later the lock quit working altogether. Don't waste your money on a xena disc lock, they're junk.
A fat chain or cable, fat heavy lock, and visibility are your friends. If you park in the same place every day you can leave the chain & lock there so you don't have to carry it on your bike.
Or, if you can afford it, one of the paging alarms as already suggested and/or Lojack.

 

Wow, I didn't realize that there were so many alarm and lock systems. I'm definitely going to check into those a.s.a.p! And I'm so sorry to hear about your F4i getting stolen mbison, that is true heartbreak. I would probably have a breakdown if that happened to me. Good luck to you in your search for it! But I definitely do not take my F4i to school anymore. Actually I did ride it there one more time after that, but I parked it out by all the other cars and she was ok. Thanx for the tips guys, they are definitely coming in handy!

 

inserting the key does not disarm the alarm. you need to turn it and unlock the disc lock for it to stop. i know xena does not make the best quality stuff. i got the disc lock and put the battery into the disc lock alarm device that is a separate piece. after putting the battery in, the alarm is required to be back into the housing asap or it will not stop going off. well, when i tried to put the device back into the housing, it got stuck and wouldnt go all the way in causing it to go off mercilessly, until i forcefully shoved it in there. that was the only bad experience i've had with it. i like the sensitivity of the shock sensor on the unit tho. it's enough to give it a tap and it would react, so for example tilting the bike into the upright position would set it off (not to mention the scorpio i900 has the tilt sensor feature in it, which is awesome). its important to know how you're going to insert the key before you do it, b/c the alarm will go off as its not disarmed until it's unlocked.

 

Tawny, I recommend getting the i900 alarm. It's a really neat alarm and it has bunch of useful features, like shock, tilt, perimeter sensor, battery backup (in case someone tries to cut the battery power, the unit will still go off). It also has an RFID feature, which is pretty cool. Not to mention the remote-pager looks really cool. And when you buy the install kit, the installation is a snap. It will save you few hundreds of bucks, cuz thats what installers charge. Get it cheap off ebay or something. I got mine used for about $240.

 

I know just inserting the key doesn't disarm the alarm. I carried that screaming piece of crap around my apt. for about 10 minutes, locking and unlocking it repeatedly while searching for the allen wrench to remove the batteries. When I got home from work that evening I tried spraying WD-40 into every crack and crevice and repeating the lock and unlock drill, all to no avail.
My rant wasn't directed at you for buying a cheap, inferior product. It was just a warning to others that their money would be better spent elsewhere. (Kryptonite or Bulldog ftw)

 

Excuse me, but I've paid over $60 for my Xena disc lock and I dont think thats cheap. You probably got one of the cheap ones, and the truth is that you get what you pay for. I'm not trying to promote Xena but I think their alarm disc locks is a neat idea. Their design could be better and I agree, but aside from the incident that I've had with it at the beginning it works well for me from that point on. As far as buying chains, i would not trust that alone, b/c any chain can be cut by a heavy duty chain cutter quite silently and we want something that will scream for help when a thief touches our property. Just my 2 cents. Anyway, this is a good website to check out: http://www.bikebone.com/

 

As a troubled youth I can add that cables are much harder to yet through than chains...

 

Sorry to hear about that man. To bad the tapes weren't better quality.