Originally Posted by
John_V
This weekend I did a three day, cross state ride from the east to west coast of Florida. I'm using an iPhone 6SE and have three BT devices/sensors attached, one of which is a RFLKT. Friday's ride was 60 miles and took 6.5 hours (including stopped time) to complete. My remaining battery life, without having to charge it during the ride, was 73%. Saturday and Sunday's ride were both 80 mile rides lasting 8 hours each. Remaining battery life, without charging, was 67% each day. So my question to those who say they need their phones for emergencies is, "Just how much battery life does someone need to make an emergency phone call?"
Exactly.
The whole "I need my phone for emergency calls!" thing is a red herring.
If you desperately need your phone, carry a small battery charger for it with you, they're cheap, light and will get you out of any jam. I've had my phone run out of juice randomly because some app decided to burn through my battery (not cycling related), so if you really need the insurance, you should be carrying one of these batteries.
I've also ridden centuries on using my iPhone to record GPS and BLE sensor data, and still had plenty of juice at the end of the ride.