genejockey 

On the plus side, if you forget to charge your phone, as soon as it's got any charge in it, it has the right time. A manual wind watch, once wound down, needs to be reset from a standard clock.

Personally, I use my iPhone to go to the NIST time page, and set my watches based on that. I guess you might say I'm a technoluddite.

greatscott

I simply don't care! I don't let fear tell me where to ride, and if there's no cell phone coverage no big deal, just ride through it, eventually you'll get to an area that has coverage. I rode my bikes for over 30 years without ever carrying a cell phone, know why I did that? They weren't around yet! And guess what? I wasn't the only person who did that, none of us paid any attention to it.

MaxKatt

Yeah, but without the watch, how would you know which hand to point at the horizon with?

freeranger

Never thought about cell reception when riding. Then again, I grew up and was riding bicycles before cell phones existed. Guess if I'd needed to call someone I'd have had to ask someone to use the phone in their home, or look for a pay phone (good luck with either of those these days!)

Sy Reene

I'm confused.. something like this?

genejockey 

I sure hope that's about the direction of the vortex, not about the up-or-down direction of the flow.....

Reynolds 

So you're being judgemental about the judgementals?

woodcraft

lol

MattTheHat 

You skip the watch and where the sun is setting...that’s west?

GlennR

Is it still west in the southern hemisphere? (j/k)

FiftySix

I believe the watch method is to help find a rough compass reading without having a compass, which will be different from where the sun sets depending on the latitude of the globe you are located and day of the year. Gotta admit, I've never used the watch method though.

For instance, this is the info for my area today.
Sunrise: 07:46
Sunrise Azimuth: 71°
Noon: 13:28
Noon Altitude: 76°
Sunset: 21:11
Sunset Azimuth: 289°

Check this out. You can change locations and the month of year to see the differences.
https://sollumis.com/

wolfchild

Where is OP ??...We're on the 9th page and OP has been MIA since page 1.

Reynolds 

He posts from his phone and is in a spot with low reception.

MattTheHat 

Yep, I see the usefulness of the proper watch method. I was hacking on the overly simplified version which was basically point your watch at the setting sun...that will be west...wait until sun up and point your watch to the sun, that will be east.

Danhedonia

This post is for those who have made comments to the effect of "I don't need a phone."

First, just want to state a couple of things.
1. I'm a HS teacher now, and one of my very few classroom rules is that students must put away their phones before coming in, and are not to access them.
2. Once upon a time, I did some very sporting climbing and mountaineering. Part the ethos was the need to be able to self-rescue.

One day, after the invention of cell phones but prior to the ubiquity of smart phones, a friend of mine went climbing somewhere in less-accessible America. He and his partner for the day had a lengthy walk in just to the start of the route they were climbing.

Unfortunately, he had a bad fall. Multiple fractures, internal bleeding. His partner rappelled off, and ran downhill towards the car. En route he picked up a cell signal, and was able to reach a 911 dispatcher. This saved my friend's life, as they were able to send a helicopter to evacuate him and get him to a hospital. His partner returned to tend to him. (In a very sad twist, that partner would die the following year in a climbing accident).

I'm very glad he's still alive (so's he, although he verbalized slightly differently during his 8 bedridden months post-accident)
I really don't think of him as lacking in courage, and he was not a 'thrill jockey' climber (a breed I did not care for).

His risks were all self-taken, but road biking involves the ultimate joker in the deck: driver behavior.

I couldn't imagine the hubris involved in rejecting any/all things that could possibly save my life.

So, I bring my phone with me on rides.

DreamRider85

If you're too hurt to ride, that means you're too hurt to walk. We're talking an emergency here.

MattTheHat 

If you’re worried about getting hurt, you might be better off just riding in your neighborhood. Or on a stationary bike.

I ride with a smart phone. If I did any touring I wouldn’t consider riding without one. But I also wouldn’t be bothered riding where there wasn’t coverage. No big deal.

DreamRider85

I don't know what to say to this. There aren't solutions for emergencies?

genejockey 

The same ones that existed before cell phones. Flag down a passing motorist or other cyclist. Walk to where there's service, or other help.

This is one reason why some of the other posters have been so snarky - because a lot of us rode miles and miles of country roads when there were NO cell phones. And sure, a lot of us have since started carrying one, because if we had an emergency and needed to call, it would be handy to have, but carrying a phone doesn't make you safe. And there's no guarantee your cellphone would still be working after a crash, either. You could fall on your phone in a crash and all the service in the world wouldn't matter.

Riding a bike on public roads carries a certain level of risk, which we all try to reduce as much as possible, and then we ride within the limits we are comfortable with. If you can't get comfortable with the idea of riding where there's no cell service, your riding will be pretty limited, because some of the best roads are where nobody lives, so there's no traffic. No people, no traffic, no need to build a tower.

Miele Man

You could also be to hurt to use a cellphone or even unconscious. Your cellphone may have been destroyed in the crash.

When I hit 60 years young a number of years ago, my niece got me a flip-phone and put me on her family plan. She did that because she was concerned about me riding way out in the country on very quiet roads with houses or buildings many miles/kilometres apart and with very little motor traffic. Sometimes I've come across a dead spot where there's no reception. Now if I were to crash or be hit by a vehicle driven by a driver who fled the scene, I'd be willing to bet that Ole Mr. Murphy would be there and it's be in that small area where there was no reception.

Had my niece not got me the cellphone and put me on her plan, I'd never have got one. Heck, I toured logging/mining roads in northern Ontario, Canada LONG before there were cellphones. I think of them as a nice backup but I sure would NOT rely on them.

Maybe you should consider getting a satellite phone for emergency use. LOL ;<)

Cheers

Machka 

Try not to get into emergency situations!

MattTheHat 

Solutions have already been given in this thread, have you not read it?

wolfchild

Virtual reality is the best solution. No need to leave your house.

rosefarts

Several years ago I spent a month in a southern fjord of Greenland climbing big walls. I wasn't entirely alone but I think it was frequently several days without seeing anyone. Especially if it rained.

I didn't think too much about it then but later in retrospect, even barring accidents, we should have brought a sat phone. Had my appendix gone bad on me, I may have died there.

So I understand what you are saying.

Haven't you also seen a trend of relying on the phone and rescuers available? I have. An entire days climb and descent, mapped out on a Gizmo that needs service and batteries to do it. The ability to call in a rescue with a sprained ankle or chilly night out? If you haven't tried to use a rope as a blanket, are you even a climber?

I think Pike's Peak had some real issues a while back from people getting tired and calling for a rescue instead of walking out.

I don't know how that relates to cycling, except for big empty adventures. Most bike emergencies are probably car related, in or near a city.

MaxKatt

Reflecting, I realize I actually meant "sextant." However, if you're trying to navigate with a sextant and an abacus, you might be just as well off with a sexton next to you praying for a way out.