Real time tracking for others?
 

Do any of you have apps or other set ups for real time tracking so friends and family can follow you on your rides/tour segments? If so - what are you using and is it reliable? What fees, if any, are there for the service, upgrade, feature, etc?

I have had absolutely no desire to do this. I don't want people tracking me on my tours. If I want to let someone know where I am, there's Facebook and email. :)

For the Paris-Brest-Paris last August (1,200 Km in <90 hours), it gave my better half much tranquility to see me moving on his computer/cell phone. We used RideWithGPS on both of our T-mobile Samsung phones along with WhatsApp for free instant messaging. Each of us had to pay USD $6.95 for RideWithGPS' basic service for the instant tracking. If you trace the route on the computer, it will automatically show up on RWGPS app on the cell phone. You then share the route with your friends (who must also sign up to RWGPS). It works amazingly well, especially if your family/friends track you from their computers. Since it was a short time, we only signed up for a month with RWGPS. Battery life is an issue but I carried 13,500 mAH power bank. It gave enough juice for about 48 hours of continuous use of my cell phone (cellular network, GPS tracking and even background lights on at night to make sure I was staying on course.)

There are satellite services like SPOT Personal Tracker, but it's a lot more expensive. This is a favorite among bike tourers venturing into remote places of the world with no cell phone service

Thanks for the info. I just got the Strava app. I have not used it yet, but will on my next ride. The free version doesnt do the live tracking from what I can tell, but it got me curious. I see the Garmin units and app also that support live tracking I believe.

I am an Amateur radio operator (user name is my call sign) and there is APRS available with the radios for similar tracking abilities. Since I use my smartphone for tracking already, though, and 99% of riders are too I think Ill try to expand a bit there first instead.

I like the idea of people logging on to a website to do the tracking, as opposed to buying an app that only works on a mobile device.

SPOT Gen3 - because not everywhere I go has cell coverage.

Except when there is no cell or data service. There are uses for a SPOT device...

And in those cases, I've let my immediate family know that there may be gaps in contact. I don't need to be in contact with them 24/7. If I go a week or so without contact, that's OK. :)

I haven't looked at the SPOT's recently, but they are interesting. I did a presentation on communication devices when I was in college around 2008 or so and the SPOT was one of the ones I talked about; along with satellite phones, PLB's, and avalanche beacons. I'm sure a lot has changed in 7 or so years. Though, if I was going to get a device for remote emergency use I would get an ACR AquaLink View - a totally different purpose than the "tracking". Im not planning any tours that would be quite that "remote", though, so using a smartphone should be sufficient. I may go in/out of coverage in spots but I'm not biking in areas totally void of cell coverage. Backpacking and lake exploration, yes, maybe, but not my biking at this point.

Good for you.
But that's not what the OP asked about.

usually just send an email every couple of weeks or so.
if in a country or region with no internet, mail a postcard.

I see the word fee's and think my friends and family can wait for my damn emails or sms txts.

Anyone know how the "find my phone" function works on a mobile phone?
I noticed it on my phone after an update recently

I know here in Aussie that both the Spot and the Delorme Inreach Explorer are popular but both have fees.

I'll stick with my ACR ResQLink PLB and iPhone for now.

It is close to real time-I use Cyclemeter. Have used it for over 2 years. It emails who ever I designate at certain intervals of time, say every hour. So my wife knows when I start, when I stop for an extended lunch, and when I stop for the day, and quite a bit more in between. It gives her all the metrics of speed, distance travelled, where I am, maps, etc. The Elite version is $5/year. Works great with my iPhone 5S-as long as the battery is charged and there is cell service-although, even though I was in areas where there was no cell service, it still worked fine, so I'm not sure how that happened but it did. There are lots more metrics that I use and others that I don't. I also use it with the Wahoo RFLKT+. Kept the cell phone in my handlebar bag, most of the time.

This past June I asked a backpacker that I met why he had the Spot. He said that his wife insisted on it.

My SPOT was gifted to me from my in laws when I went off grid for a significant time. I pay for service. They bought the device. They like knowing their son-in-law and father of their grand kids is safe and has a slightly better set of options for rescue if **** hits the fan in the backcountry.

It's since been used to track randonneuring events, monitor my wife in a marathon so my kids and I could be at the finish to meet her, and used in general when I go out where cell service disappears.

I can choose to share the web address of my share page with anyone I want. So I'm not broadcasting my location to everyone on the web. Just those I want.

Um, no. Not quite that ocd.

I guess I don't have anyone that would want to track me in real time.... So no, I use email and/or text messages to let folks know where I am and how the ride is going.

Most of the newer cycling Garmin's 510,520,810, 1000 etc support Livetrack which will provide live updates on your location, speed, power etc. You need a bluetooth smartphone (Android or iPhone) and a data plan. I believe the updates are sent every 30 Secs so the impact on battery life of your phone is less than some other tracking apps that use the phone's GPS.

I have a 520 and have used Livetrack with no problems.

I use TrackMyTour which allows me to submit waypoints whenever I want. I can keep them offline to save battery or when there is no cellservice. I can set the resulting map private or public. Other than having to remember to set the points, it is reasonably painless. My wife and family can simply follow me on the resulting map.

But, this is an auxiliary usage as I like to create a plot of the route I've ridden, which is my real reason for using this.

I believe the first 2 maps are free. You have to pay a one-time fee to save more than 2 maps.

Seems like a reasonable approach to me (since it's the one I normally use), although I try to make contact every day or three. As my wife and father are two of those who just KNOW I may have just been run over by a logging truck, I understand the desire to make tracking automatic and easy for family. Nevertheless, I don't see feel the need to feed their paranoia. The last thing I want is a phone call when I've got gastric issues asking why I haven't moved for the last 30 minutes, or calling the sheriff because I stopped for lunch a nap at an overlook with no restaurant showing on the satellite map.

The competitors in the transcontinental bike race in June had something in the way of a transponder .
http://www.bikeforums.net/long-dista...ey-re-off.html


My self I toured in Europe solo without The internet up and running Yet , I sent back the occasional Postcard.

Not me.

However, I have had interest from family and friends to follow along on the trip. There are a few things I've learned however:

1. Be careful about the expectations you set for contact. For example, on a trip across Canada, I had my rear rim break. I was in nearby Laird River area with nice lodge and nearby hot springs, so I was fine. However, pay phone access didn't quite work to post my internet connections so folks didn't hear from me for eight days. Be careful in relying on some technology because if e.g. batteries are down or some other reason you aren't making contact - then you don't want folks to get unnecessarily worried because you set expectations that didn't include technology failure or lack of coverage somewhere.
2. Be careful on messages sent out, particularly if the issue might be transient. For example, in the moment a looming thundershower or mechanical issue might seem like the most important issue. If that goes into your update that way - you might resolve it fairly quickly but with limited contact it might still linger concerns far beyond that initial message, e.g. you might not even remember it was a concern by time you send a followup update.
3. Decide up front how much effort you want to put into providing updates - since you might find yourself doing it for the entire trip.

With that in mind, I haven't used a real-time SPOT type tracking update. I figure those are for bears, not for people ;).

What I have done, is use a periodic text message update (sometimes with GPS coordinates encoded) or a blog post or email post. On trip across Africa it was surprising how well cell phone network worked so I had ability to update blog with short "wordpress for Android" updates. I set expectations of "this is Africa, expect gaps of up to two weeks between contacts" and then ended up over-achieving with a more frequent short update.

+1


That ... and really ... who follows other cyclists that closely?

I can see it for randonneuring events like the PBP that last for 3.5 days, and you're excited for certain cyclists you know, so you follow their progress to the end.

But a casual tour that lasts several weeks? Nah. Personally, from a "friend or family" perspective, I'd rather just see a collection of photos posted every once in a while on FB saying, "This is where we've been and what we've seen". :)

You know what's great? There are so many ways to stay in touch with folks an share what we are doing out in the world.
You know what else is great? There's no right or wrong way to ride a bicycle on a tour.

If you want to fall off the radar for weeks on end - great.
If you want to only share your photos via a data hogging privacy sucking corporate controlled website like Facebook - that's great too.
If you use an app or a phone and tweet or track or send your location to friends and family or the whole world - that's also cool.
If you buy a device that sends out a tracking ping when you tell it (SPOT check in) or a tracking ping at a set interval - that's cool too.

You know what sucks? Telling people they are doing it wrong when thy specifically ask for experiences with tracking apps or devices.

This may not be the exact type of thing you're after (it's not map-based, yet), but a while back I added the ability to post SMS (text) updates to your journal over on crazyguyonabike. The idea was that often you'll have basic coverage on your cellphone that will let a text message get through, even if you don't have full data. Oftentimes, all people really want is a quick "I'm ok", and you could also include a short description of where you are if you feel like it. More here:

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/webs...p/#sms_updates

+1

My mother would have the cops out searching all over the place if I didn't send an email every day or two...even when I'm at home. You're one lucky dude.

iPhone Find My Friends App. First used it when I ran my first half marathon, so friends could come out to the route and cheer me on.

I have a SPOT. If my wife doesn't know where I am, she checks my spot web page.

It's really tiresome to read a thread about ways to let relatives/friends have real-time tracking and have half the posts be chest-thumping about how much you don't need it.

We get it. You're SO PROUD. You're SUCH a better person than all of us. OK? Is that the validation you needed?

Can you leave now so people like me can actually learn what's out there, so when I do a bike tour in a place that makes my family *really* nervous, I can offer them a wide variety of options that I can use? I want to be able to contact them at a regular enough interval to put them at ease.

Because when I go bike touring in Africa in the next year or two, I couldn't give less of a f___ that half of you are so cool that you don't need to tell anyone anything.

TIA.

To contribute, the Apple 'Find Friends' works pretty well. It can sync your location from your iPhone to iCloud, and anyone with an iPhone or a Mac laptop/desktop can be invited to know your location. They can can log in to their iCloud to see you on a map.

It does drain battery, but not so much on the newer phones...they have a better chip that's not so thirsty.

It worked fine in Turkey and the Balkans, which both have good GPS coverage. I'd call it a really good solution for an Apple-centric family for somewhat developed areas. It comes with iCloud / Me.com, so it's basically free if you're using the Apple ecosystem as designed.

When I traveled across Africa in 2013, I went through 10 countries and got 10 SIM cards. It took some experimentation, but I was able to get network over cell coverage in all 10 countries. When we stayed in lodges, internet itself was hit and miss. I am sure SPOT works in that environment.

However, TIA is also an abbreviation for "this is Africa" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIA). I think it is also important to set realistic expectations. Cell connections might not be there, a SPOT could be lost or just not have battery charged up. Perhaps that little bit of information "spot on a map" might not be sufficient to let someone's imagination get satisfied if some other spot in Africa gets in the news (it is a big place, we saw some of the hysteria with the ebola epidemic had folks concerned about East Africa a world away).

So I also speak from experience that it is important to set realistic expectations of how frequently you might contact and the possibility of a technology failure along the way, so no news is not always bad news. In that way, I wouldn't set that "regular" interval to be some minimum, but instead some reasonable amount that accounts for TIA.

The other thing to recognize (may not help your worriers but true), is that if you do get into difficulties, their options to do something about it are fairly limited, particularly without their traveling to Africa.