Originally Posted by
staehpj1
In most cases where there are a lot of road choices, like in or near town, there is a cell signal. Out on the open road your route is unlikely to be very complicated.
I have no first hand experience with using sag, but have befriended and hung out with other folks using sag on long tours. Some of them we camped along side and spent time with quite a bit.
+1
I don't have much experience with SAG but do have some more experience with multiple cyclists who don't always ride together lock-step but meet up through the day. In that context, my experience has been similar:
1. Wide open road between towns usually not a big deal. There is only one route and not too difficult to get some rough sync points (e.g. at the intersection). It can be useful to make sure SAG/cyclists are well on lookout for each other. Once coming back from X-country skiing, we got to end point early and started hitchhiking back. Unfortunate the SAG driver, my father drove right past us because we was driving the interstate and we were walking on the frontage road... we weren't where he expected us to be and while we saw him, he drove right past.
2. Cities can be more chaotic. I've been in situations where cyclists missed each other, both in Guatemala and in Russia. In the latter case, we separated for ~10 days after missing each other. Specific points can be more difficult to agree in advance and perhaps sometimes easier to agree on a very specific point e.g. meet @ hotel...
3. In both cases, it can be useful to have a cell phone to send a SMS when you are in contact to help synchronize again.
So at least with coordinating with other cyclists who are together riding a similar route, I tend to be less focused on detailed tracking on online devices and a much looser level of coordination with slightly different approaches in sparsely populated areas between cities (e.g. less likely to have phone service) and more populated areas (e.g. more likely to have phone service).