I cycle home from work late at night and often take the scenic route.
Mrs MTG worries, as do I a bit, that I might crash and not be found for days as I ride some remote cheeky trails where I often don’t see any other footprints or tyre tracks midweek.

I’ve got Life360 on my phone and I’ve shown her how to log in and track me, but it’s not very good. On one recent ride it logged three points on a 30km ride and one of those was home.

I’ve tried Endomondo and it works well, but flattens the battery in no time, so I would need to fully charge my phone at work before I leave.

I’ve heard the new Garmin 810 can bluetooth it’s position to the a phone, which can then text or email that position. That’s what I want, but I don’t really want to spend £400 on an 810 when I’ve got a perfectly good 800.

The simplest solution I can think of is a remote battery to plug in the phone which I can charge up every day, just like I do with my lights, but I reckon the plug would be a bit vulnerable sticking out the side of the phone stuffed in my backpack.

Any other ideas ?

Garmin 510, also has the bluetooth function.

External battery case? Depends on which phone you have. I’ve had ones for various phones and they double the battery life

Have you considered a SPOT Tracker?
http://www.findmespot.eu/en/

Find My iPhone works well for me.

Garmin 510 would be ideal, but that’s still around £200
Spot Tracker is around £150 with “Additional service required” for the live tracking.
External battery case would need a cable with a vulnerable plug on it. A micro USB port doesn’t look very robust at the best of times, I’m sure I’d soon break something with it plugged in in my backpack.
My HTC would probably work as well as an iPhone, except the battery’s usually pretty low by the end of an 8 hour shift anyway and Endomondo would soon finish it off.

I know if I was lying in the brambles at the side of a track somewhere for 12 hours with a broken leg and a smashed phone, I’d think £200 was a bargain, I’m just trying to find a cheaper option.

I thought about buying a dedicated cheap second hand phone which I can charge up every day specifically for this job. I don’t fully understand how the system works though, but I’m guessing it’s web, not text based, so a monthly data contract could soon add up to the price of a 510.

I think, until I find a better solution, my best plan is to always charge my phone at work before I leave. The only problem with this, apart from remembering to do it, is that I could be anywhere in a big workshop and yard and probably wouldn’t hear it ringing. But then, the only person who is likely to phone me late at night is Mrs MTG, and she’s got the workshop number.

Runtastic MTB pro with live tracking enabled. That and / or iphone’s find my friends.

I was thinking something like This battery case
There’s no external cables.

Thanks P20, that’s actually for an HTC One, which is slightly different, but I found this one on eBay for a Wildfire, so I’ll see how it goes. I don’t mind the phone being a bit heavier and a bit thicker.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/400436062295

icedot

Crash sensor, works in conjunction with your iPhone or non-samsung android phone.

£125

That Icedot would only work if there was mobile signal and the phone wasn’t damaged in the crash. One of Mrs MTG’s particular worries is me falling in the river at night. Icedot wouldn’t work once the phone went underwater.
Even if I crash in a no signal area with Endomondo, Mrs MTG could track me up to the point where I lost signal and work out where I was likely to be from there.

Good point re drowning the thing…

Icedot no use to my Samsung phone so I’ve downloaded followmee app to try out.