GPS/text emergency devices?
 

Planning cross country distance tour. Would like to get your input as to advisability of using a device like the Delorme In Reach. This makes SOS, texting, and tracking accessible in any location. Reports to Iridium satellites. Is this warranted and useful for bikers? It has been very useful for sailors.

I phone has lots of good tracking aps.

Sailors are routinely way out of range of any cell service. Are you going to be?
Sat phone is an expensive "just in case".

We use "spot" devices at work. they can track you. you can send an "I'm ok" message to the predetermined email and text list. and you can hit a button that sends your location to emergency services if you have serious problems.

Something like this might serve your purposes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPOT_Satellite_Messenger
This is the sort of thing used on the ultra endurance races where you can 'follow the dot' of the riders on a map. The advantage in your situation is that your family can see where you, if you're moving and find you if there's an emergency or you stop moving for longer than seems reasonable. Being able to send a message is just a bonus. A quick Google of these shows the unit is about $AU180 but I think you have to buy a subscription on top of that.

Relying on a phone assumes that 1/ You've got cell phone coverage 2/ You're phone's still working (battery, breakage) 3 /You're in fit condition to use it, which you can't assume if you've had an accident

The downside is that it's more money to spend and something else to set up.

You posted that while I was writing my post :D

I carry a delorme (now garmin) inreach while wilderness hiking. Works great. Im able to text nightly with my wife so she knows im not being eaten by bears. The SOS function is comforting too. Doubtful i would bring it bike touring unless was heading far off the beaten path.

A friend of mine does backcountry hiking and carries a SPOT device. She has it post to her Facebook somehow. Pretty neat. Like micro-Twitter.

Go SPOT. They work and are less techie than some stuff. Works for our hunting uses.

I carried a SPOT when I rode the Trans-America Trail. Fortunately never needed the "help" function, but my wife could follow my progress (or lack of it) and she liked that. The constant emails, not so much - I wound up deleting her email from the list. She preferred to log in and check the progress in a web browser.

You can usually find SPOTs on ebay, and can activate service with one of them. No real reason to buy a new one, unless you prefer new electronics.

Thousands of people have completed a bike trip (or more than one) across the U.S.A. and never needed a SPOT or something of that ilk. It's rarely needed if you're going to be on roads.


If you must have something like this to satisfy a helicopter parent/spouse/child, and it's the only way they'll agree to you making such a trip, go for it. Please do make sure they don't, as one mother did, go ape if/when your batteries run low. Just because you don't check in doesn't mean you're lying injured or dead in some remote ditch. You'll want to check your route ahead and alert them you may be off-line, or stationary, for a period of time. (One guy had to answer the phone to tell his wife he'd stopped for an ice cream cone; do you want to be like him?)

Calling some of the overgrown goat paths I was on riding the TAT would be extremely generous to goats. I was out of cell phone range through a good part of the Ozarks, in some very remote areas. But I agree, most highways have some sort of cell service - it's only when you're in remote areas where the only way to locate someone is by GPS coordinates that devices like SPOT are really useful.

Not cheap, but when you fall while descending a mountain covered in slippery shale miles from anything resembling civilization, cost quickly becomes secondary. Fortunately, that didn't happen, but there were several occasions where it ALMOST happened. Wakes you right up, that's for sure. You can find a picture of Ophir Pass in Colorado and you'll see what I mean.

I remember that mom from a few years ago. She was in a panic that her son was "missing." Turns out his phone battery died and it was a few days before he could charge it, or something like that. Point is that the kid was fine and never knew he was "missing."


Best to set realistic expectations. And I agree that if you are on roads something like SPOT is rarely if ever needed. I did 10,000 of road touring in the U.S. and Andalucía back in '99-'00 without a phone at all and didn't have a smart phone until my two-week tour this past June. There were several days during that trip when I knew I would not have phone service. I let the person back home who I was keeping in touch with know when I was going into dark territory and when I was scheduled to emerge.

I would guess that 99% of cycling tourists riding paved roads in the US never need that level of peace of mind. It’s not at all like sailing off shore where a storm can cause major and potentially catastrophic damage to a boat and leave you in a life raft. Then you want the Coast Guard rescue and the GPS/Satellite device.

There are many areas of the US, on paved roads with no cell service, but unless you are in danger of suffering a medical emergency, I can’t see the need. If you are merely needing to check in with folks, easy enough to wait till you get cell service.

Interesting. I've been reading about Coast Guard rescues off the Atlantic coast, one in 1952, one in 1978 and now I am reading of one in 2007. 1952, radio and radar only. 1978, not a lot better. 2007, EPIRBS, WPIRGS, many more radio and phone options.

In 9787, I sailed the Atlantic, Newfoundland to Ireland on a 34' boat, crew of 4. We had LORAN, a sextant and a radio direction finder for navigation and VHS and shortwave for communication. We skipped GPS because it cost $5000, was not very accurate and the unit itself so big that fitting it was a space compromise. (A 34' relatively traditional sailboat is not very big inside!) We prepped for the sail knowing we were on our own and that is how it turned out. Our VHS radio wasn't good for much more than line of sight communication and in the deep water beyond the continental shelves we saw one airplane and one ship. Neither responded to our radio hails. LORAN worked very well until the next to last day as we approached Ireland. Out last course corrections were made after a series of sun sights.

We had the required safety gear on board, but gear that could actually save out lives if we had to be out there for many days would have required a far bigger budget and a bigger boat to house it. (We were sailing through 50 degree water and air. Unless we were sheltered fror the wind and wet, hypothermia would have rendered our muscles and brains useless.) So our approach was one used by sailors for centuries; go to see on a good boat that is well prepared and stocked with good sailor and do our best to make sound decisions. (Also pick the best time of year.) I was very aware that could have been the sail I was not to return from.

I have used this approach on my bike rides as well. Now I haven't toured in many years. When I did, GPS didn't exist yet. Phone calls were expensive (and couldn't be done on a card). Now I would have a cell phone on me which might or might not work where I was. A credit card in my wallet. Hopefully the tools I might need. My brains and my survival instincts. I try to use my smarts and stay clear of dangerous animals (both furred and clothed). I will probably never pay for or use a Sat nanny. (Isn't that what Delorme In Reach is?) But that is just me. I don't judge others.

Ben