Is there an app for leaders of group rides?
 

Hello all,

I'm wonder in this day and age that there might be an app for group rides? Here's the scenario. The group is 30-50 riders and there's two leaders. One leader is in the front and one in the back. The leader in the back is hanging with the riders lagging. As the group gets stretched out, it can be more hazardous for the riders in the middle when it comes to dealing with traffic. But if the ride can be somewhat bunched, it has a better chance in dealing with traffic and cars get around the group easier. This desired app would be able to keep the two leaders with in a set distance from each other. Ideally there would be alarms that can be set for straying too far apart and/or too close together. Also it could be used for relocating the two if they somehow loss each other.

I would think this could be easily made if it isn't already something out there. It would be using GPS mostly and very little data needed. Ideally something that's somewhat set and forget would be really helpful too.

That's too big.

???

It's much easier for cars to get around smaller groups. Getting around a group that is 30-50 is a real nuisance.

Or not. You're missing what I'm asking about. (pretend you never read that part)

I don't know of any software designed for that scenario, nor, as a fairly frequent ride leader, would I see value in having it. The group tends to ride at varying speeds based on the preference of the participants. Having someone stay with the slowest group ensures that no one, especially any inexperienced rider, gets left behind. I don't see the point in trying to maintain a minimum or maximum separation between the lead group and the sweep since doing so would either force the lead group to slow down from their preferred pace or force the slowest riders to speed up (which might be beyond their abilities). If someone in the middle feels the need or desire for more nearby riders they have the option to slow down and wait for others to catch up - no need for any electronic aid to do so.

Riders in large groups tend to ride at different speeds.

Cell phones with Text is all that is needed.

I've thought about something like this. I like the strategy where only two people need to keep the app working, they could be sure they have adequate battery power ahead of time. What you basically talking about is location based service. Google had the latitude app, but shut it down for some reason. Try Life 360. I haven't used it, but it seems like it would work. it works on both iphones and android. I'd like to know how it works out for you.

here's a recent review of location aware apps:
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-loc...view-2405.html

Short range personal radios such as the UHF FM Family Radio Service "walkie talkies" in the US may be more practical. These are low cost, reliable, require no license, and some can be operated hands-free for better safety while cycling. There are vox activated personal short range radios for motorcyclists that are designed to ignore noise from wind, traffic, etc., yet respond to voice.

I see one use case : we'll be travelling all summer across Europe. One family on a tandem and two regular bikes. There's a pre-teen that will, most likely, ride ahead, and sometimes behind. I can easily imagine scenarios where we will lose visual contact and might appreciate to see where everybody is.

I believe that Strava offers the option. I am almost certain that oruxmaps offers realtime shared tracking.

This would require Smartphones and considerable battery power for everyone involved, unless the app you have in mind could be activated on a need to know basis.

You may want to get in touch with oruxmaps. If I recall their app requests permission to access SMS, which can be sent with the lat long data. This might be how unsuspecting riders may be warned that something is amiss (the distanced following rider gets a flat, unnoticed by the leader)

These definitely help. We ride with them all the time. Essentially full duplex intercoms that also double as BT headsets for a cell phone.

Terrano

The other thing that could be helpful is the Wahoo Elemnt. I believe you can use it to see other riders with your on the map. So if you get separated, you could see how far apart you are.

J.

Nice but I don't think we need to spring for ~$400 to get this resolved. We're looking on finding something for free. We're also thinking we can make this work by using our smart phones. To put it mildly, we're cheapies!

Thanks for the response. We'll look a little deeper into Life 360. One thing I'm finding is that this isn't really a bizarre request on having something to work with. There's alot of GPS tracking apps out there. Just trying to find the best one would really be nice.

Looks like you got a lot of good responses. I was going to mention the "GPS phone tracker Pro" app but the Life 360 looks like it does about the same thing. I've never used one of those apps myself but I've heard they work pretty good.

Now if you are going to use one of those in addition to a typical navigation app ( such as RWGPS app ) at the same time, I have no idea if both can work at the same time without some kind of problem. However since the tracker apps are basically designed to run in the background I wouldn't think there would be a problem with both running at the same time. Of course if you have to turn off your navigation app to check the position of the other rider on the screen that may or may not be a problem depending on what navigation app you are running.

Just keep in mind with two apps using GPS function of the phone at the same time I would tend to think that the phone is going to use twice as much battery power. Of course if you've got a large battery or a battery back-up I wouldn't think it to be a problem.

Fifty people! Goodness, that's a lot of people. That almost classifies as an "Event" rather than a standard group ride. With that many people you might be better off having someone follow with a support vehicle just in case some Bozo has a major mechanical or a medical emergency.

I think RideWithGps has live logging of a whole group as well:
https://ridewithgps.com/help/group-live-logging

I've ridden with several groups that use inexpensive walkie-talkies when the group gets above a certain size. The handhelds are used between the ride leader and the sweep and they seem to work well. The problem you are going to have with smartphone apps or computers, like the Elemnt, is that in order to keep track of all the riders in the group, each rider must have at least a GPS computer or GPS smartphone app and must be able to send their location so that it can be re-transmitted for you to pick up. If you're just trying to see where your sweep is at, then some of the cycling apps can do that and they should work fine provided both of you are using the same or a similar functioning app.

Wow! That's a cool feature to have. I'm assuming though that it works for those just using the basic ( free ) RWGPS app as well.

Actually an app like what I'm asking for is pretty much the same thing many others might eventually be looking for. Something like what I'm asking for can be used by walkers/hikers, friends, even people in two separate cars.

Just doing a simple search for "real time gps tracking" got me gobbs of hits. I found a little article on someone's search, Best free GPS tracking apps for Android Looks like they recommend Life 360 too. I kinda like the second one on their list, Real-Time GPS Tracker. What would really matter is being able to tone down the battery use so as not to drain things dry.

The page says it's for "...Premium and Basic subscribers...". I have no used it myself though.

I'm very sympathetic to cheap, but we're talking about 50 people, all of whom own (hopefully reliable) bikes! You should be able to raise a few bucks for "organizing expenses".