I've got an Edge 500 and thinking of setting it up with my iPhone to provide live tracking for my rides. Makes it easier for family to know where I'm at.


I do have a limited data plan, however, so wondering just how much impact a 3 hour ride will have on my usage.


What tracking apps are you using?


thanks

I can't imagine it uses much data at all, if it's just periodically transmitting text-based GPS coordinates. Maybe I'm wrong?

Minimal data usage, but probably dependent on the app.

I use geo tracker (most similar app I could find to the depreciated My Tracks) and notice maybe a 1 or 2 MBs a month are used by the app.

I have a 520 and use garmin's live track feature every ride (makes my wife feel better.) It syncs to my phone and uses almost no data. Most of my rides are 2.5-5 hours 4-5 days a week.

I use Live Tracking on almost every ride so my honey knows where I am and when to expect me. If I get hit she'll know where to look for my body.

No idea how much data it uses but it has not been significant.

Thanks for the info! I'll check out the Garmin app and see how it works.

Don't think the 500 has that functionality. You probably need one of the newer Garmins

Uggg....you are right! Would have to go with a 510 min spec to get this. Oh well...

I use the app Glympse on my phone. Send a text with link that expires after a period of time I set. My S.O. can then check my status as often as she likes. Has made dinner coordinate etc much easier.

Road ID has a nice (and free!) app for iPhone or Android. It does live tracking just with the phone; no bike computer involved.

Looking at my Garmin Connect app, it's probably 500 kB-1 MB/hr of riding (at most, since that includes uploading ride data and other sync stuff). Given that you have a family, I can't imagine it makes much difference, since you probably aren't riding >100 hrs/mon.

One thing with the free apps is that some use a MASSIVE amount of data, because they automatically download map data (Map My Ride for example). I'm sure there are some that are better, just be very wary of ones that automatically include maps. For example, I pre-cache the Google Maps for my area, so that I don't have to use data.

There are apps which track how much data is used on an app by app basis.

I run one on my 15 year old daughter's phone just so she can tell when she needs to back off a little on any given activity toward the end of the billing cycle.

My Samsung tracks this. It found under "settings" and then "data usage" by app. Strava, for example, uses very little.