I’m not against technology per se, but I could have quite cheerfully done some expensive damage to an i-phone at the weekend. Every **** time one of our group got a notification of a message of whatever type he had to stop and read it!

For me part of the attraction of riding is to get away from all of that technology that interrupts our lives. My phone gets switched off and put in the bottom of my sack or in my pocket and is there if I really need it in an emergency.

Am I the odd one out here?

Not riding with him again!

Well choose your friends and choose what you like.

The only notifications I get from my phone are phone calls and text messages, and they’re vibrate-only. Everything else has notifications switched off; I’ll find out about the email/like/kudos/comment/reply when I next open the app.

If a text arrives while I’m talking to someone, the text gets ignored until I’m done talking.

Thats more to do with your mate than the technology, i’m afraid.

Have a go at him, not the changing world around you 😉

Link it up to a cycle computer so the text scrolls.

Otherwise unless it’s an emergency, ignore text and calls.

Agree to meet and 7 am on a Sunday and then leave at 0715.

I don’t even take a bike out riding anymore. Keeps it ‘pure’.

DrP

You need to upgrade to iDGAS 10.2

If I even take my phone on a ride it’s usually switched off. The only exception is if I’m on a long ride on my own when I’ll switch it on to call my wife as an “I’m fine” type call.

I do occasionally look at my phone whilst out, usually if I’m expecting a message or email about an upcoming bike trip!

I wouldn’t stop riding if I had a notification though, especially if I had other humans with me, and if someone else did that more than once on a ride I wouldn’t be waiting around for them

If I even take my phone on a ride it’s usually switched off. The only exception is if I’m on a long ride on my own when I’ll switch it on to call my wife as an “I’m fine” type call.

ah … the voice of common sense!

perchypanther – Member
You need to upgrade to iDGAS 10.2

… think you need to explain that one to me!!

I take mine, but it is usually set to silent in my back pocket.
I generally check it only if I’m expecting a call/message (stuff going on at home etc) and then only if I stop for another reason.
My regular riding buddies are the same.

Next time we meet for a ride I’m going to bring my work phone, I bet we don’t get 1/4 of a mile before you smash it up. If I can still ride that far.

I get texts occasionally. My wife asking where I am or to ask me to pick up milk or whatever. It’s not much of an intrusion. I like my family I don’t need to shut them out.

It’s not the phone that’s making the messages, it’s real flesh and blood friends and family. I don’t have a problem with them.

Edit just re-read.. was it the same person reading texts all the time? If so that is rude regardless of whether or not it was a phone or a bag of sweets.

The other thing it…Smart watch FTW..

DrP

You need to upgrade to iDGAS 10.2

… think you need to explain that one to me!!

iDon’tGiveA[b]S[/b]hit rather than iOS the operating system on Apple devices.

This was a pune or play on words (admittedly not a very good one) 😳

Don’t stop OP or ride with different people. Reading all messages immediately only encourages people to send more, unless I am expecting something important I keep my phone on silent which is most of the time calls included.

Just a bit of a rhetorical question … but what did we do before mobile phones?

Steps back and waits for insults and hears daughter saying “that’s such an old persons’ thing to say!”

Did you text the guy to tell him his notifications were annoying you?

We picked up the milk when we got back.

Just a bit of a rhetorical question … but what did we do before mobile phones?

Telegram? Smoke signals? 😉

DrP

but what did we do before mobile phones?

Missed people, waited for people, walked to phone boxes, walk to the nearest house for help, flag down strangers, get lost..

Phones are good. Rude people less so.

but what did we do before mobile phones?

People got on with their lives just the same but didn’t feel the need/pressure to be always there and were subsequently happier for it.

If I was going out for a ride then I would arrange it before hand and meet up as agreed. If they don’t turn up, big deal, just ride on your own or go home.
Phone someone up at home, they are not in – nevermind just do something else, go out with someone else etc,.

Can see how alien that would be to people today but it genuinely wasn’t a problem at the time.

Every **** time one of our group got a notification of a message of whatever type he had to stop and read it!

That would be a paddling in my group, and I’m the WORSE iPhone staring addict.

My mate forgot to silence his before we started a few weeks ago, he didn’t take it out of his pack one, but he got stern stares every time it beeped.

I think I’ve reached the point now when I think that if someone may happen that I’d need to know about it THEN (a relative near the end etc.) then I wouldn’t ride, anything else can wait till I’m done – although I did keep it on when my Wife was very pregnant.

Flip side of this argument…

I ride Tuesday evenings. my wife also has arrangements that night, so we get a baby sitter in….

I’d rather head home early from a ride (or, as per last week, find out the car had a flat tyre and give my wife telephone help and the breakdown details..again) than have an issue escalate at home.

Yes, it’s lovely to get away from it all, but my life isn’t yours, and yours isn’t mine, and we all have issues and priorities that vary from person to person…
Sometimes being in contact is quite important…

DrP

This was a pune or play on words (admittedly not a very good one)

This line always runs through my mind whenever this kind of joke is made too! Currently rereading all the discworld novels again from the start. So good!

I have texts and call notifications only, and if I was riding I wouldn’t stop specially to respond to either. If someone was ringing persistently then I’d stop and see what was up, otherwise it can wait.

I must be Billy No-mates though because I don’t get many of either! I did have WhatsApp notifications on for the organisation/lead-up for a stag do last year and the constant pinging really got on my nerves.

didn’t feel the need/pressure to be always there

That’s demonstrably not true. If you took a person from before the days of phones, and gave them one, they’d be staring at it just as much as people do now. Demonstrated by the fact that mostly they are in fact the same people. We were given phones, and we do use them when we didn’t ‘back then’.

I don’t feel pressured to answer my phone. A text or message isn’t necessarily an angry boss with work emails, you know.

Best thing to do is set FB messages/notifications etc to be a different sound (or no sound) so you know what it is. Then if it’s important someone will text, if not it’s just a fb message, can be ignored.

the only time i ever hear my phone ring or vibrate is only when it is running out of battery 🙁

I don’t use mine at all unless I’m stopped for some reason, or if im running a GPS fitness app that needs to be paused when I stop.

Otherwise it stays protected where I can’t hear it ring anyway.

As per DrP I generally don’t take my phone riding. However when Sweamrs and I are riding it inevitably means Sweajnr is in some form of care (often babysitter) so we feel obliged to leave the phone on. This inevitably means stopping for every text etc just to check it isn’t the baby sitter… luckily we’re generally not riding with anyone else at that point and so just accept that it’s part of the deal.

but what did we do before mobile phones?

Picked fleas from one another’s fur and browsed friends reunited on a desktop PC… IIRC.

kerley – Member

but what did we do before mobile phones?

People got on with their lives just the same but didn’t feel the need/pressure to be always there and were subsequently happier for it.

If I was going out for a ride then I would arrange it before hand and meet up as agreed. If they don’t turn up, big deal, just ride on your own or go home.
Phone someone up at home, they are not in – nevermind just do something else, go out with someone else etc,.

Can see how alien that would be to people today but it genuinely wasn’t a problem at the time.
I love the look of panic on peoples’ faces when there’s no mobile signal!!

Get yourselves a cycle computer with Bluetooth.

Pair with the phone.

Text messages auto scroll and ignore it if not important.

Keep one eye on the road if reading the cycle computer.

I turn the wifi off on my phone when I’m riding. I ignore any text messages until we stop at the end or a café. Anyone who needs me urgently know this and knows to actually ring me, and then I’ll stop to deal with it.

My riding buddies do the same. Seems to work for us.

Yes mine is switched off too and in a waterproof bag in the bottom of the sack.

Tell your mate to catch up when he’s finished with his phone.

Choose life – choose an iphone haha

If the constant checkin is affecting the ride, then get them told. Subtle hints,
Are you expecting an important call/ text, you got a woman on the side, what’s for tea, what time you gotta be home etc etc if it continues get even ruder

I have my phone in my pocket and generally ignore it, although will check it on a boring uphill where I am going slow and it’s not technically demanding , during footy season I’ll check my phone at 345 and again at full time
I never bother with turning the sound off, so when the eBay kerching goes off my mates generally laugh and ask what I’ve sold..
I recently got a garmin watch and that sends alerts again I’m happy to just glance at them, if something looks important then I will pull my phone out,
Ps. My missus doesn’t like me going out without my phone as I tend to go moorland and remotish places and with my previous Crash history and a&e visits I don’t blame her

Fail to why a phone goes along. Anyone with me who pays it any attention gets severe grief or if they stop to even look at it dropped.

I don’t mind text messages n’that. never been a problem. its the constant stopping for instabangers that does my head in.

I am from before mobile phone and so if my wife. My wife doesn’t even have hers switched on unless she needs to make a call/text and mine is 100% of the time on silent and I don’t even notice most calls or texts until I happen to look at the phone and see them missed.

How many younger people today would/could do that? Not many, because they think/feel they should think an update on social media, a phone call, a text is far more important than it actually is. All a matter of perspective.