Originally Posted by
Iride01
If you have an old smartphone laying in the drawer, you could use that without a sim card. I did have one that wouldn't work without the sim, so I just keep the data turned off and put it in airplane mode. I don't use them for cycling, so YMMV.
That's actually a good choice. Keeping an old phone around always comes in handy. Phones that are maybe 2-3 years old are also not that expensive if you find a used one. (I use Swappa if I'm looking for a used phone.)
Mine all have SIM cards, since my wireless provider lets me have up to five SIM cards on the account (one primary, four data) and only charges for the data used, with no extra surcharges. Even so, I could stick my primary phone safely in a bag on the bike, turn on its WiFi hotspot, and connect the older phone to it that way if I couldn't use a SIM card.
But with offline navigation apps, a connection wouldn't even be required. So that's another possibility too.