Find me....Being Tracked

[the Ferret]

Wasn't sure which forum category to put this in, but if you are in a situation like mine, where you are always riding off (sometimes for weeks at a time) and leaving your spouse wondering where the heck you are, or how far you are from home, there are solutions.

One is a product called Spot Tracker. Many long distance riders use these. You buy and carry a little gizmo that sends a signal to a satellite and your spouse can log on to a website and track where you are. The units are generally a couple hundred dollars and the fee is about $150 a year for the tracking service. My buddy Jnor used one of these when we rode out to Cali and his wife tracked us the whole way and always knew where we were and whether we were still moving or stopped for the night. When he turned onto his street on the way home from the trip his wife hit the garage door opener and it was open when he pulled in the drive.

I recently got an Iphone and my wife and I have Ipads. There is a feature on these devices that is called "Find My Friends". Using my cell phone signal my wife can track where I am when I am out riding. You have to agree to let yourself be tracked. Both my son and my wife have permission to track me. This was the prime motivator in getting my Iphone. Since I ride alone this is a safety thing. If I break down or heaven forbid run off a curve, plunge over a cliff and crash in a creek I want to be able for them to find the body lol..I mean find me and send emergency help. There is no extra fee for the tracking service.

The first time we tried the feature I stopped at a little roadside park for some tea and called my wife and asked where her Ipad said I was? She said "you are stopped at the intersection of St Rt 52 and St Rt 232, so you must be at that little roadside park by Grant's house."

Yep, Perfect!

I asked my wife to take a couple pics of her I pad while I was on yesterdays ride to show you guys

Here it shows I am on St RT 50 (just east of a great series of uphill back and forth curves that I just came thru) near Pattison Park on the west side of Owensville, Ohio

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/tracking%201_zpsw15svmxg.jpg.html]

In this one I am on ST RT 131 (I am about to turn left on St RT 727 and head north to the lake)

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/tracking%202_zpsvkephizn.jpg.html]

Real peace of mind for me...and for her now.

The problem with the Iphone tracker is it will only track where there is a cell phone signal which is not everywhere. I use Verizon. Great coverage, getting better every day, but it's not 100% of the country.

Hope this helps someone else who might be searching for a similar solution to keeping their spouse at ease with them being gone on their motorcycle.

[redbirds_imp]

Good idea Micky. Just got my first Verizon phone and was not aware of this feature.

The safety aspect is the best part. About 35 years ago one of my co-workers was involved in a very serious motorcycle accident while on vacation in Alabama. He hit some mud that had washed into the road on a blind curve and he and bike went off the road and into the trees. He would have died there if not for traveling with a friend who witnessed the accident and went for help. BTW, he was in a coma for sometime afterwards and was able to return to work a year later.

[jrns_imp]

that's a great idea Ferret, thanks for posting.

[Rocky_imp]

Great feature! Thanks for the info

[emptysea]

The app I have is "Find My IPhone" not sure if it is different than "Find My Friends", but I think the former may be how you can spot any devices on your Apple account and the latter can be used by anyone who agrees. My wife uses it to track me on my solo rides, sometimes she even opens the garage door if I happen to be close when she checks. I usually check on her in the mornings to be sure she got to her office OK, especially when she rides to work.

The SPOT device is intriguing and it's not terribly costly. I am thinking about getting one because, a) it uses GPS and b) you can set it to send email updates to people as you go along--there are a lot of people that have expressed an interest in receiving on the road updates from my travels..OK, a few. I'm still in the 'considering' phase, though.

[Guth_imp]

A word of caution...

Find My Friends is a very useful app, but the location information presented can sometimes be "just a bit off". A couple of years ago I ended up taking the CB1100 over to the coast where I was meeting my family and some friends for a weekend stay. My wife and son had headed out on a Friday morning and I left later that day after work.

My wife really liked having the ability to track my progress with the FMF app. However, at one point she ended up somewhat confused and a bit worried as the app showed me being quite a ways off the road and into the forest. When I arrived, I assured her that I had not experienced some horrific crash nor had I gone exploring any logging roads. I chuckled a bit at the thought of how I would have somehow gotten myself lodged deep into the woods. But I could understand her confusion and concern. It was a lesson learned for both of us.

[the Ferret]

Will keep an eye on that Guth. So far so good. Maybe they have improved it with this latest model phone (Iphone6S) or latest version of google maps or whatever they use? OR maybe you were in an area of poor reception with not enough cell towers to triangulate your exact position?

[Obleo]

I knew that I had this feature on my phone,but did not .have it on. While riding solo I usually check in at my smoke breaks. Now my wife can check on me when she wants.

[the Ferret]

one thing to note..see in the upper left hand pictures it also lists how far you are from home. The first one says 11 miles, the second 15 miles. That is a straight as an arrow as the crow flies in the air distance and not how far it would take to ride there. In my case it was more like 18 miles to the first one and 25 miles to the second one riding on surface streets.

This map shows where the two pics above were taken (red numbered dots)

and the actual surface streets it took to get there with my route (black arrows)

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/tracking%203_zpskvy19lfn.jpg.html]

[EGAlvarez_imp]

My $.02...I cannot recommend a device like a Spot/In Reach, etc. enough.

These are wonderful tools that give your family peace of mind while you are away, and you the ability to communicate with them and to notify EMS, if needed. The device themselves are usually free as you can buy them on sale and then get a $50-99 mail in rebate. The basic service plan for my SPOT is $99/year and I always use a coupon to get the free "breadcrumbs" option. I consider this price peanuts to keep my wife sane while I am just a few, or thousands, of miles away touring on my own; and often off-road and in places where there is no cell service which makes all of those handy "Find my..." apps completely useless. (Much of western VA and most of WV has spotty cell coverage at best!)
I also recommend never using a RAM mount or Velcro to attach the device to your bike as you are almost guaranteed to become separated from your bike in a spill. Keep it on your jacket or in a jacket pocket as I've heard scary stories where riders have spent the night on the side of the road, or over the side of a forest road, with a broken femur/ankle and they can't reach the device to call for help as it's on their bike 25' away and they can't walk.
My wife LOVES not having to wait hours, or much more, if I am out riding in a no cell coverage area. I have it set up where she can log into my account on the computer at home and every 20 minutes a small flag appears on a map to show my location. You can also send messages with a smart phone, using satellites, from almost anywhere on the globe.

SPOT: http://findmespot.com/en/

In Reach: http://www.inreachdelorme.com/