I fairly regularly ride alone, and while not in the absolute middle of nowhere, it’s quite frequently on some fairly well hidden tracks that aren’t particularly busy. I carry a small mobile phone (waterproof and relatively shock proof, so can be somewhere easier to reach that my backpack), but in the past I’ve thought a few times about using GPS tracker devices that SMS position every minute or so just in case something happens that means I can’t get to my phone (such as being unconscious…).

Anyone else use such a device? Any recommendations, or should I just go with what I have now which is a tried and tested “I’m going to such and such a place, and I’ll be back around whatever o’clock”.

I know Strava does something like this, but I don’t carry my expensive strava-capable phone around with me.

Some Garmins do live tracking, but they still require a phone to sync with their app which then syncs with their servers so people can view your live track.

Is the “small mobile” still a smart phone and can at least run an app? Or is it a basic dumb/feature phone?

Otherwise it’s a plain GPS tracker as used for car theft etc. Will just ping where you are to some service you probably pay a subscription for.

Or wait for someone to discover you, or wolves to eat you.

Or is it a basic dumb/feature phone?

It’s one of these. Nothing smart about it. In any sense of the word 🙁 I do have an old cheapish smartphone that I might entertain using for this, but would need a SIM with some data. Might look into that option.

Is it possible to find a device that you want that doesn’t rely on a mobile phone signal?

I looked at this myself and the best I could find was an emergency GPS beacon, but it doesn’t track you. You have to set it off, which is no good if unconscious.

Phone trackers OK provided you have a signal and battery but don’t have universal coverage.

SPOT tracker works off Iridium/sat phone network and has truly global coverage and works independent of any other device – tracker device is about £100 and the same again per year for subscription. Batteries last for weeks.

Garmin Inreach is a combined GPS/satellite tracker but its pretty pricey.

Satellite trackers have SMS/email pinging, online tracking as well as emergency beacon function

Is it possible to find a device that you want that doesn’t rely on a mobile phone signal?

Doesn’t need to avoid phone signal at all, but just avoid having to carry a smartphone. I’ve looked at devices that use a SIM card but send over SMS rather than data (I have a free 0€/month SIM with 2h voice and unlimited SMS which would be ideal).

These are the ones I’d seen, but with a subscription service.

Spot tracker is the go-to device, it uses a satellite signal so works basically everywhere. There are quite a variety of device and service options.

The signal is quite poor sometimes though – I would like there to be a combined device that uses both phone and spot signal. There are some spot devices that link to your phone, but I didn’t want to depend on using the phone and its battery power.

For me my Garmin watch running livetrack works ideally for this. Until you end up off the beaten track with no data connection…

There are enough times when I’ve been on various runs / rides where even SMS signal would be unavailable too, so whatever you find will be fallible. And sods law says it’ll be fallible right at the time you need it 😉

I don’t know if all the Y10 Lezyne models have Live Tracking feature via the Lezyne Ally V2 app on a mobile, but the Enhanced Super GPS does.

Got mine from Probikekit ~2 months ago, when it was included in their extra 12% off promo code, with Topcashback it cost me ~£98.

Spot GEN3 looks interesting, though probably works out a bit spendy year on year. It works out quite a bit more expensive to buy directly from the website (25€ shipping 😯 ) than from Amazon – any gotcha’s that I might be missing that anyone knows of – from what I can tell all the subscriptions are on top wherever you buy the device from.

Correct.

I bought mine for something like £85 from some place selling marine type gear. The sub is direct with Spot and is variable depending on the frequency of tracking you want. I pay monthly. It is a little pricey, but I just imagine how I’d feel about saving the price of a couple of lunches when I’m freezing to death on some mountainside with a broken back.

SPOT is the answer. Just decide whether or not it’s worth the cost.

The Garmin Inreach works out slightly cheaper if you are only using it very occasionally as you can suspend the subscription by month. I think the cut-off is around 5 months use per year. After that SPOT is cheaper – and it’s also cheaper to buy.

We had an InReach at work, the clever thing it did over a SPOT was you could link it to a phone and send text/e-mails. Or use the (pretty crap but OK in a slow emergency) screen to send a message with details of the situation as well as the position.

^^The crappy interface is the thing that’s stopping me upgrading from a Spot to an InReach. In a stressful situation the last thing you want to be doing is struggling with a stupid text interface. Garmin recently brought out InReach so I have high hopes something better is in the works but some of Garmin’s current devices don’t fill me with confidence.
Rescuers tell me they really value the extra information using text provides over just a spot but even so.

Spots generally are Ok but I’ve broken two units in 8 years, one replaced one refused. Not cheap but have used it twice for other people I’ve found or situations they are in. Tracking works well, azimuth of sats can be a problem depending where you are , nz for example wasn’t great but it worked most of the time. Batteries last ages as well.

^^The crappy interface is the thing that’s stopping me upgrading from a Spot to an InReach. In a stressful situation the last thing you want to be doing is struggling with a stupid text interface. Garmin recently brought out InReach so I have high hopes something better is in the works but some of Garmin’s current devices don’t fill me with confidence.
Rescuers tell me they really value the extra information using text provides over just a spot but even so.

As long as your smartphone works you just use the app to write the message and hit send.

6 of one etc, you could probably add a touchscreen and keypad, but that would add umpteen more points for it to fail on.

I’ve a SPOT trace for sale. Email in profile if interested