Hi. I am looking for a gps tracking system that will track a few cyclists on their ride with normal stats like Speed, HR, Cadence, etc.

Any ideas?

Cheers

Strava works fine on my iphone without cell coverage. You can even save multiple rides. It just won't upload data until coverage resumes (wifi or cell tower).

In the Garmin Edge line, models higher than the 200 have Ant+ wireless capability that allow speed sensors to provide this data in the absence of GPS signal. HR and cadence have nothing to do with GPS functionality, but in the Garmin line, they use ANT+, which is only available on higher end devices. Wahoo will also have similar offerings. I don't know if the Fenix watches will pair At lower price points you can purchase non-GPS old school "cycling computers" that provide speed metrics. These devices of often well under $50, and you can't get any data off the unit. The data is collected by counting the wheel revolutions and multiplying it by the wheel circumference which is user settable.

If you already own a fancy GPS, look to see if it can be paired with any external speed sensors.

Apologies I should have rather explained a bit more.

We will be doing a charity ride and would like to stream all the data live and we won't have cell coverage for about 60% of the time.

The look and feel we are after is something in the line of what you would see with the TDF without the TV side of things. all riders in one platform at the same time.

You can't livestream data without a data (cellular) connection.

As with BikeLite, you can't send the realtime ride data anywhere without either a cellular data connection, or a SatNav data connection.

Depending on where you are, and the size of your event, some cellular carriers will move a mobile transmitter or transmitters to the area. Unless you or someone connected with the event have some clout, then you'd probably have to be having an event that involves several thousands of people.

I know that one of the cellular provider in my state move mobile cell towers to an area so pre-teen and teen campers at summer camp in a remote part of the state can have coverage for calls to their parents.

SPOT tracker.

See this recent thread.

From a quick look it almost looks like SPOT is what we want from, however it does not look as if it can connect to your ANT+ sensors and send that data. Correct we will need satellite data connection for this. The problem we have is that as soon as the group gets scattered some bikes will lose the wifi connection to the vehicle. Was hoping for something like Tour Tracker, but obviously that is in another league of it's own.

The thinking about it and some more research this might do what we want to. Thuraya SatSleeve

Do you need constant tracking and updating ?

If not, some of the GPS cycling units will track all those metrics, but you’d need to wait till the end of the ride and find either cell data service or WiFi to port the data thru assorted individual smart phone apps and then to a web based fitness tracker.

Yes we would like constant tracking for the supporters back home to follow the 8 day tour live.

Track the cyclist with SPOT and leave out the stats is the easy option.

So another clarification is needed from the OP...

Are you wanting tracking for one or a few riders? If so SPOT or similar will be great. Friends have that on their sailboats and I can sit at home and see their location virtually anywhere. Costly for everyone though. It requires a monthly commit.

Otherwise I'm not sure what would be cost effective to stream live data for everyone outside of just getting a cellular provider with mobile transmitters to do it free as a sponsor. Can the event be played up as being worth such a sponsorship?

SPOT and InReach are very expensive options. They have some benefits to hikers and climbers, and possibly boat people, but outside of this edge case, aren't really useful to most road cyclists.

Definitely big enough to get a few sponsors on board. It is a charity run and the group will be approximately 30 to 40 riders. We would definitely want to have all the rider stats as this will be used to for bids on, lets say who had the most pedal strokes for the day and people can bid on it and the funds raised will add up to total and the winner will receive a hamper or something. We have done the same in the past but with stats as an after fact and would like to have it live this time.

Another solution I thought of was maybe have a few Satellite WIFI modems in the support vehicles that will follow the groups or single rider. Just have to install proper omni antennas on the vehicles.

The other thing will be to have a software solution that will combine the riders in one view. There are companies out there with these solutions but they just don't respond back

You won't be able to use a SPOT messenger to broadcast stats like cadence (pedal RPM) during an event, only your location.

The Amaury Sport Organisation and Dimension Data have partners who could arrange live broadcasting of ANT+ cycling data from remote locations.