I fell face down and became unconscious for 3.5 minutes while riding with a group about 16 months ago. Fortunately, one of the other riders was a podiatrist who immediately realized my airway was obstructed. He and two other people turned me over, which immediately opened my airway. I was not breathing for about 80 seconds. I know this because my Cyclic Fly 6 was pointing right at me when the bike was lying in the street. I timed the airway obstruction and unconscious state when I watched the footage later that day. I did not have the Garmin Incident Detection activated, but I do now.

My wife has been a bit nervous about my cycling since I started 6 years ago, and she's getting a bit more concerned recently. So I activated the Garmin incident detection feature, I bought the Aftershokz Aeropex wireless headphones (not in the ear) and I have even considered getting a dedicated GPS tracker that will pick up multiple GPS satellites that a normal cell phone will not. We also enjoy hiking in some remote locations and have been investigating a purchase of this last piece of equipment recently. The Aftershokz headphones will allow me to easily answer my phone if she ever wants to call me. It is not an earbud, so I can hear surrounding traffic or other riders. A dedicated GPS is more reliable than a cell phone GPS because it will pick up far more GPS satellites in places with no cell phone coverage. Some even have an emergency satellite button in case you are in a real remote location in a life threatening emergency. Unfortunately, you need to be conscious to hit the panic button for it to work.

There is currently no perfect emergency system, but this is what I'm going with right now. Frankly I don't care if someone thinks I want or like to purchase gadgets or if I have too many devices on my bike. If you don't like them, just look away; I'm not asking you to pedal my bike for me. I love cycling, and I love my wife. If I need to carry a couple of extra devices to keep her comfortable, so be it.