Hello
My teenage son wants to ride mountain bike tracks on his own. He is a member if a riding club but wants to go out alone. I will be driving him there and be waiting in the car park. We both have android phones. Is it possible to track him around the trails so I can see if the tracking stops and he has had a stack? It’s really just for my peace of mind at least for the first few times.
Thanks 😊
You can share live location with contacts in Whatsapp.
And yes you will need to see if those wooded areas are covered by cell networks.
Maybe. Try "location sharing" in Google maps.
Some phones, e.g. Samsung, are aggressive at shutting down background apps, so it may not work reliably without some fiddling. Try it.
Do you have good mobile coverage on the trails?
Some android watches have hard-fall detection, which may be worth it for solo mountain biking.
Trailforks is probably your best bet.
I've got an AirTag on my bike. it's hidden/mounted behind my drink bottle holder on the frame.
Last year my bike was stolen from home, within 3hrs I got it back thanks to tracking it.
If you've all got apple, you could share it in the family group as well for everyone to have access to track it. Does require an iPhone nearby to ping the location, depending where they're riding that may be limited with reception.
it's hidden/mounted behind my drink bottle holder on the frame
Good idea.
You should post that on every forum so other people can do that too…
If you've all got apple
OP said:
We both have android phones
yes, there is a web version of "Find my" for you phone/tablet but it does not show "devices", ie airtag.
Apple are still arseholes, keeping Jobs philosophy of treating customers as the enemy. Creative genius, but arse.
https://www.amazon.com.au/WANWAYTECH-Real-time-Motorcycle-Re…
This one needs a sim with data tho to track it, (and can be hacked into to change the server from chinese to traccar or something else as a way to not pay their ridicolous subscription cost)
Sometimes, you just have to live with it. You can't be monitoring 24/7. As long as they are happy and having fun, then it's all good - perhaps set some boundaries e.g. check in every hour or limit the ride to 2 hours or plan a pre-determined route, etc.
I go out riding my gravel bike along remote rail trails out in the country where I have not come across another person for 3 hours, and phone reception is mostly non-existent.
I really enjoy it and wouldn't have it any other way. I do carry a lot of water, a repair kit, and a first aid kit though.
This might assist
https://support.google.com/maps/answer/7326816?hl=en&co=GENI…
I used to use other devices for tracking during my remote mountain biking, but my brother would use his android phone (with above link I believe). Both worked in the end.
Only issue with using Google Maps is that the bike trails may or may not appear. If they're unofficial trails then likely to just show up as green land.