Carbonfiberboy 

My point is that I and everyone I know who has crashed, and everyone on this thread who's crashed, got the help they needed with loved ones notified appropriately and etc. These are well-marketed devices looking for a problem and hoping there are enough frightened people out there to make the development costs worthwhile. I'm trying to recall a time when I was afraid. Yeah, when I started high-angle rock climbing back in college. The reason I started doing that was because I was terrified of heights. Yup, got over it, climbed in Yosemite, loved it. That's kind of it.

There are risks to everything. I don't see how these gadgets mitigate any risk. Climbing ropes are good. They catch you if you fall. Helmets are good, they can save your head if you fall. I don't see how these gadgets protect you. All they do is hassle you and force you into a kind of device-dependence mindset that I don't care for. Garmin does not have "crash protection." Please. They have " excessive G-force notification" after the fact, like after your bike falls over after you leaned it against a wall and went in for coffee.

A fellow rider had a bad accident last summer - got hit by a van during a descent. The driver probably had no idea that bikes could go that fast. He got medical help appropriately, wife notified, etc. His response was that he sold all his single bikes. Now he's only going to ride tandem with his wife on group rides. Tandems are in fact much safer than singles because drivers treat them more like vehicles and one is also much safer in a group of expert riders for much the same reason. He did not run out and buy the latest gadget to do whatever. There's a wonderful poem about this sort of thing, but my geezer brain just won't bring it up.

My wife and I have RoadID dog tags around our necks with all the information an EMT or admitting nurse would want to see. We'll let the authorities take it from there. Like I said above, for when there's a serious possibility of not coming back, we carry a PLB. Although I have to admit that's probably overkill, too. I only know of two people who vanished in my state and were not saved from their own stupidity or carelessness, whatever it was. Out of probably hundreds of thousands, so a vanishingly small risk. Still, it's only 4 oz. and never bothers us. I have a much-admired backcountry skier friend who carries one, so we got one, too. And we did see a helicopter come in response once, though it wasn't for anyone we knew. That was after we'd already started carrying it, but we felt a bit better about the 4 oz. afterwards.

This past Monday, we were out riding and had a mechanical in front of a fire station. An EMT or firefighter came out and talked with us. We asked her about the utility of RoadIDs. She said, "Oh, they're great. We always find one if the person has one as soon as we cut their clothes off."