Hmm, I've been thinking abot this, too. I just read a review of smart watches, and the Apple one seems to be very capable when paired with an iPhone.

RoadID - the bracelet people - have a good free app for iOS
Strava does it
Garmin does it
Yeah, these depend on a cellular signal.

I use the Specialized Propero 3 with ANGi. It tracks your position via GPS and sends a link to my contacts on start and stop of my ride. It also has crash detection and will notify all my emergency contacts with GPS location of where I am. It it a good piece of mind for me as I have spoken to people who said they have crashed on the trail somewhere and no one knows where they are or even that they were hurt. So I looked at the marked and found the Specialized with ANGi for my needs.

Since noticing this thread, I've looked into it. My wife and I carry a PLB when we're backpacking. The rule with that device is that "If you push the button, a helicopter will come. If it's not a life threatening emergency, you're going to have a very large S&R bill." I've seen the helicopter come.

The other devices are just something I don't want to get involved with. If I ever needed to have anything like that, I'd be out of cell service, so that'd mean a satellite rig. That's just too much money and bother, plus the chance of false alarms. Living has risks no matter what. I just had a very good friend and riding buddy die in bed at 60 y.o, really strong guy in fabulous physical condition, had spent the day backcountry skiing. I've made it this far and think I'll just keep going.

I'm a road rider though. If I rode BC trails, I might have a different opinion - or maybe not. I think I'd just carry the PLB, figuring that if I needed help, it'd be because the bike was broken and I couldn't walk. That's life-threatening in the back country. If I crashed but didn't really need help, letting my wife know I had a problem might not be the best approach. If I could walk out, I could always come back for the bike later, no need for S&R.

It sounds like an ANGi device would also work for your needs. Mine came with my helmet but you can just purchase the device and carry it while you hike. There is a timer setting that if there is a false alarm, you can stop it from falsely notifying your contacts. There is a setting for out of range activity. Set a timer and if you are not back by that time you set, your contact will be notified to look for you at the last known GPS location. Assume you are rinding along the road, fall into a ditch and are knocked out. With the ANGi device, it will contact your contacts with your location and get you help. Can not press any button for help if you are knocked out so this device may also enhance what you already have. There is no charge for this service or features.

Yes, but connects to your phone?? If I were in cell range, I wouldn't need anything like that. I don't ride or hike anywhere interesting that's within cell range. And I sure as heck don't want anyone looking for me at my last known GPS location!

I would have said the same thing up until July 27 2019. After crashing at mile 39, I wasn't cognizant enough to use a phone till fully getting my senses back in my hospital room some 12 hours later. I still have no recollection of what happened to actually cause the wreck. Thankfully some walkers happened upon me soon after and they were medically trained.

I've got ANGi and Garmin's crash protection since the wreck. Now I need to get some camera's just in case I have amnesia next time.

Or maybe I'm misunderstanding what your point is.

That is a really good example of how the ANGi device would be a good tool to use.

Ok, I get it, it's not for everyone.


However.... Wife and I were camping and we went into town to get some coffee. On the way, I decided to take my truck off-road. The dirt road was twisty and got too narrow so I had turn around. There was a cliff on one side and a drop-off on the other. I managed to turn the truck around as the ground was breaking away from beneath my truck; very stressful and stupid. No one knew we had taken this road and we lost coverage while on the road. If I had ANGI and we went down the drop off, our contact would have been notified and help would know our last known position and the direction we were going.

It's not for everyone.

My story.... Wife and I were camping and we went into town to get some coffee. On the way, I decided to take my truck off-road. The dirt road was twisty and got too narrow so I had turn around. There was a cliff on one side and a drop-off on the other. I managed to turn the truck around as the ground was breaking away from beneath my truck; very stressful and stupid. No one knew we had taken this road and we lost coverage while on the road. If we had ANGI and we went down the drop off, our contacts would have been notified and help would know our last known position and the direction we were going.

My point is that I and everyone I know who has crashed, and everyone on this thread who's crashed, got the help they needed with loved ones notified appropriately and etc. These are well-marketed devices looking for a problem and hoping there are enough frightened people out there to make the development costs worthwhile. I'm trying to recall a time when I was afraid. Yeah, when I started high-angle rock climbing back in college. The reason I started doing that was because I was terrified of heights. Yup, got over it, climbed in Yosemite, loved it. That's kind of it.

There are risks to everything. I don't see how these gadgets mitigate any risk. Climbing ropes are good. They catch you if you fall. Helmets are good, they can save your head if you fall. I don't see how these gadgets protect you. All they do is hassle you and force you into a kind of device-dependence mindset that I don't care for. Garmin does not have "crash protection." Please. They have " excessive G-force notification" after the fact, like after your bike falls over after you leaned it against a wall and went in for coffee.

A fellow rider had a bad accident last summer - got hit by a van during a descent. The driver probably had no idea that bikes could go that fast. He got medical help appropriately, wife notified, etc. His response was that he sold all his single bikes. Now he's only going to ride tandem with his wife on group rides. Tandems are in fact much safer than singles because drivers treat them more like vehicles and one is also much safer in a group of expert riders for much the same reason. He did not run out and buy the latest gadget to do whatever. There's a wonderful poem about this sort of thing, but my geezer brain just won't bring it up.

My wife and I have RoadID dog tags around our necks with all the information an EMT or admitting nurse would want to see. We'll let the authorities take it from there. Like I said above, for when there's a serious possibility of not coming back, we carry a PLB. Although I have to admit that's probably overkill, too. I only know of two people who vanished in my state and were not saved from their own stupidity or carelessness, whatever it was. Out of probably hundreds of thousands, so a vanishingly small risk. Still, it's only 4 oz. and never bothers us. I have a much-admired backcountry skier friend who carries one, so we got one, too. And we did see a helicopter come in response once, though it wasn't for anyone we knew. That was after we'd already started carrying it, but we felt a bit better about the 4 oz. afterwards.

This past Monday, we were out riding and had a mechanical in front of a fire station. An EMT or firefighter came out and talked with us. We asked her about the utility of RoadIDs. She said, "Oh, they're great. We always find one if the person has one as soon as we cut their clothes off."

Most (if not all) Garmin Edge bike computers/gps's manufactured in the past several years have incident detection.

On a Garmin, Incident Detection means that if the device thinks you've been in an accident, it sounds an alarm for a few seconds and then if you don't stop it, it sends an alert via SMS to the person you have listed as the recipient of incident alerts. The message will contain a link to a map with the GPS coordinates so that you can be located easily.

The incident detection feature can have false positives. One time I stopped quickly in my driveway after hitting the driveway entrance transition bump between the road and the end of the driveway. Apparently that two inch bump along with a sudden (but fully in control) stop was enough to make the GPS think I'd had a wreck. It almost texted my brother, but I stopped it before it could. Nevertheless, even with some false positives, it's still a useful feature.

Garmin also sells rear lights that have proximity radar built in. Those devices will warn the rider when a vehicle is approaching from behind. If you don't need another light, Garmin also makes a model that only has the radar sensor, no light.

If you search you'll also find that someone makes a rear camera / rear light combination unit. It's not cheap, but could capture on camera an incident of road rage, harassment, or being rear-ended. In the front, camera options abound; gopro, and other manufacturers make cameras that easily mount to bicycles.

Ultimately there is nothing that will guarantee someone's not going to hit you. I think the best defense really is visibility. There will be the idiots who intentionally endanger or harass, but mostly increasing visibility is going to increase safety. I have a rear light that is very bright. I leave it flashing anytime I'm riding, day or night. I have a forward facing light that I use in flashing mode during the day, and as a headlight at night. And when I'm riding at night I also have an amber side-light. There are several on the market. I'm pretty visible.

Well of course everyone in this thread got the help they needed after their crash. Those that didn't get help they needed won't be around to post. Yes marketing does use our fears to it's advantage, but these devices are now pretty low cost IMO. Many of the Garmin Edge devices have crash detection as a feature now. ANGi comes included with many Specialized/S-Works helmets and if you want just ANGi to put on your own helmet that cost is minimal now too. Just one time $50. I don't view them as the definitive thing that going to save anyone. It's just another layer of protection like an extra layer of clothing. As for the false alerts, I too was worried about those. I had one Garmin alert when I accelerated across a road real fast and had to come to a very quick stop on the other side. A push of the button canceled it. I've had no false alerts with the ANGi. I think since I wasn't an early adopter, I was spared some of the false alerts from things the users of bleeding edge of tech experienced. All that depends on you being found... and in a timely manner. When I had my bad crash I was lucky to have crashed on a portion of the 11 mile trail that has traffic. If I'd been on the other end where generally only cyclist ever go to, then that time of the day it might have easily been more than 30 minutes before anyone found me. Or more if I'd rolled off in high grass down the embankments.

But there is this thing that spouse's have between each other... My wife and I have long shared our location with each other via Google Maps and our phones. She tells me that out of the blue she decided she needed to check on me. And apparently that was the moment after I crashed. She noticed my position wasn't changing and it was a location I'd have no reason to be stopped. She was about to call 911 when the people that found me called her with my phone and said they had an ambulance on the way and explained what had occurred.

So maybe you are right, we don't need these things. We all just need a spouse

.I've considered RoadID but I don't have anything health wise that anyone needs to know in order to provide medical assistance to me. It would only be reassuring to them maybe as these crash detection devices are to some of us. I have a PLB too, not much need for one here as I don't sail much any more so being out of cell service is rare. You still have to be cognizant enough to push the button too. I doubt I was. The things they said I was doing after being found were just weird. Apparently I wasn't unconscious. I was actually up and moving around. But not successfully doing anything.

Just using you for making counterpoints. I'm okay with you doing your own thing. I don't think such stuff is a must have for everyone. It's just a choice like color of bicycle.

FWIW, Specialized has a technology called ANGI that they include with many of their helmets. It was a subscription service but in 2019 or so it became free. Same basic deal. it knows when you've experienced certain forces and will contact an emergency contact with GPS Coordinates. It all runs in conjunction with your phone... when you crash it starts a timer. If you do not disable it, it will send the emergency notification.

I have one on my Specialized helmet. However, I simply use the Strava Beacon. Among other things even if they miss the incident, the Strave app, if active, can tell them where I am specifically so they can check in or whatever.

I had not thought about the line that I need a GPS computer for the bike because it will send incidents as they happen to my safety contacts! LOL.

I don't wear a Road ID to notify first responders of my medical conditions. I wear it so they can notify my next of kin.