Wake up call

Ferrals

Cycling on my own last night came off and went into a tree at a guessed 30-40kmh. Was a trail I'd ridden loads just took it a touch too fast and lost control. Knocked myself out, knackered my shoulder and cut up everywhere. Can't actually remember the crash. I was on my own, luckily some dog walkers heard the noise and one of them was in the army so knew first aid. My helmet had moved and the strap was strangling me when they arrived. I was kept still until the ambulance arrived.

Point one. The medics said if I hadn't been wearing a helmet I'd be a gonner.
Point two, if the dog walkers weren't there I'd have been in trouble.

Makes you think. I ride alone a lot, going up to afan and doing those trails full speed, one off on your own in the middle of nowhere and your in trouble. Going to slow down if I'm on my own in future!

paulneenan76

I often ride on my own and often think about potential incidents and issues, which makes me slow down or increase concentration. I think there is some tech which can help but I'm not sure what it is?

Short of telling people where you are riding etc, keeping phone accessible, I'm not sure what to do in a situation like yours

Paul

markhewitt1978

paulneenan76 wrote:

I often ride on my own and often think about potential incidents and issues, which makes me slow down or increase concentration. I think there is some tech which can help but I'm not sure what it is?

Short of telling people where you are riding etc, keeping phone accessible, I'm not sure what to do in a situation like yours

Normally I ride on the road so figure someone will always be along in a minute - But recently I was MTB'ing in Cropton forest, no mobile signal, no tubes or repair kit (hire bike!) it did occur to me what if something happened? There was nobody about for miles.

drlodge

markhewitt1978 wrote:

Normally I ride on the road so figure someone will always be along in a minute - But recently I was MTB'ing in Cropton forest, no mobile signal, no tubes or repair kit (hire bike!) it did occur to me what if something happened? There was nobody about for miles.

Good job you didn't bump into a pretty young girl then, she would have been in trouble

Ferrals

Yeah I think there is some mobile app that let's people know if you phone stops moving. I think I just need to remember I'm not 16 any more and not hammer at full speed off drop offs.

photonic69

I had a very big off myself a few weeks ago resulting in a smashed up collar bone, damaged nerves and mild concussion. I too was on my own. It was a very quiet cycle path and no one was around. Luckily for me I was only 50m from a country lane and 10 mins later a couple of joggers helped me to the end where I could call an ambulance.

I quite often go out by myself but after this when/if I can ride again I'll not be going anywhere near as remote on my own. Shame really as I liked the freedom it gave me. Not worth the risk now.

Ferrals

To be honest I think it's a case of if your in the middle of nowhere take it easy, I'm sure I'll still ride on my own but I won't be going hell for leather

paul.skibum

I ride solo a lot and have done so in the Alps, Peaks, Welsh mountains and the less threatening Chiltern Hills but definitely there has to be an awareness in your mind of what could happen and what you do to recover a situation. There are those name tag systems which have medical details and emergency contact info too - useful if someone finds you in a condition where you cant relay that stuff.

Riding solo definitely makes me thing twice about tech drops and sections.

fridgehq

I too ride on my own and apart from my mobile you may laugh I also carry a whistle

felix.london

Ride solo a lot and I keep meaning to set up my GF with an Endomondo account so she could see where I am if I don't turn up one night.

I generally don't go too far off the beaten track when I'm on my own but it's very quiet around here - hardly ever see another bike maybe the odd walker with dog but even that's unusual. It is always at the back of my mind "what if I stack it here and hit my head hard on a tree/rock" which I think is a good thing cos it keeps me concentrating and usually slows me down a bit.

stay safe peeps

Angus Young

Ferrals wrote:

Cycling on my own last night came off and went into a tree at a guessed 30-40kmh. Was a trail I'd ridden loads just took it a touch too fast and lost control. Knocked myself out, knackered my shoulder and cut up everywhere. Can't actually remember the crash. I was on my own, luckily some dog walkers heard the noise and one of them was in the army so knew first aid. My helmet had moved and the strap was strangling me when they arrived. I was kept still until the ambulance arrived.

Point one. The medics said if I hadn't been wearing a helmet I'd be a gonner.
Point two, if the dog walkers weren't there I'd have been in trouble.

Makes you think. I ride alone a lot, going up to afan and doing those trails full speed, one off on your own in the middle of nowhere and your in trouble. Going to slow down if I'm on my own in future!

Awch! Hope you're O.K.

I take it there are lots of search and rescue apps that will give your location if you're too broken to get yourself out? I always ride alone and it's always in the back of my mind "What if..." And it's not helped by the fact that I just go where ever the mood takes me so I can't leave a flight plan with anyone.

paulneenan76

Additionally, I've often set off for night rides on my own, and apart from the zombie badgers and killer bats, never see a single soul until the pub stop - which really concentrates the mind. The more I think about it, the more I feel I should sort some kind of solution to this.

Find my iphone is one potentially?

felix.london

Like I said - Endomondo. Useful for tracking your rides anyway. Setup an account for your nearest and dearest and set your permissions so that they can see your route/location. Simples...I have been meaning to do this for years. Gonna do it tonight!

Angus Young

I guess they're all pretty useless if you go out of signal range, though.

felix.london

Angus Young wrote:

I guess they're all pretty useless if you go out of signal range, though.

Unless you're in a cave you'll normally get GPS coverage.

batmo

Is it true that GPS apps deplete a smartphone's battery quite quickly?

fridgehq wrote:

I too ride on my own and apart from my mobile you may laugh I also carry a whistle

The whistle is a great idea; small, lightweight, doesn't rely on batteries. The only thing making me laugh is that I regularly carry one hillwalking, but I've never thought of it for cycling!

felix.london

Batmo wrote:

Is it true that GPS apps deplete a smartphone's battery quite quickly?

no where near as quickly as 3G does that's for sure. I'm using a 2-3 yr old Galaxy Nexus and I'll easily get 6hrs+ of 3G+GPS with Endomondo & Strava running and all the usual apps running in the background, emails coming through etc. If I turn off 3G I'm sure I could nearly double that (and I have a spare battery )

Ferrals

Angus Young wrote:

Ferrals wrote:

Awch! Hope you're O.K.

.

Cheers mate. Main thing is head seems fine. My leg is painful and my shoulder is destroyed. Will see physio later to get their prognosis. Can't even hold a cup of tea. Have a feeling the only way through tis will be to purchase something fancy for the bike to keep my spirits up

Long_Time_Lurker

Ferrals wrote:

Have a feeling the only way through tis will be to purchase something fancy for the bike to keep my spirits up

Did this when I fractured my spine. I ended up buying a new bike. :oops:
I sat looking at it lovingly for two months until I was fit enough to ride again.

photonic69

Ferrals wrote:

Cheers mate. Main thing is head seems fine. My leg is painful and my shoulder is destroyed. Will see physio later to get their prognosis. Can't even hold a cup of tea. Have a feeling the only way through tis will be to purchase something fancy for the bike to keep my spirits up

What's up with the hand? Do you have numbness/pins and needles? Is you clavicle smashed and needs surgery?

If so I feel your pain and frustration. Sounds v similar to my injuries.

Hope you mend soon

Angus Young

Ferrals wrote:

Have a feeling the only way through tis will be to purchase something fancy for the bike to keep my spirits up

And make sure it's expansive. You've earned it.

markhewitt1978

felix.london wrote:

Angus Young wrote:

I guess they're all pretty useless if you go out of signal range, though.

Unless you're in a cave you'll normally get GPS coverage.

Was talking about the live tracking feature, which requires a mobile signal to send updates.

Angus Young

markhewitt1978 wrote:

felix.london wrote:

Angus Young wrote:

I guess they're all pretty useless if you go out of signal range, though.

Unless you're in a cave you'll normally get GPS coverage.

Was talking about the live tracking feature, which requires a mobile signal to send updates.

Yes, that's what I meant. Don't know much about all this but I assume the GPS thing just allows you to receive positional data but doesn't allow you to transmit anything to the wider world. For anything outgoing you need a phone signal, correct?

markhewitt1978

Angus Young wrote:

Yes, that's what I meant. Don't know much about all this but I assume the GPS thing just allows you to receive positional data but doesn't allow you to transmit any thing to the wider world. For anything outgoing you need a phone signal, correct?

Yup.

Angus Young

Mind you, I'd bet the NSA could track you in a coal mine with your phone switched off in a bucket of water.

r3hxn

someone said it earlier,
Find my Iphone / Find Friend on the iphone I find a great app. In Find Friends, I've got close family members added who can track down my whereabouts should the unthinkable happen. I also carry a small portable phone charger too that can charge the phone up to 1 and a half full charges. its an option. But just remember to switch it off where visting the local strip bar.....

Ferrals

Good news is the leg is just very badly bruised so a week of stretching and I'll be able to get on the exercise bike. The shoulders going to take two or three months to fix though. I can see my credit cards going to take a work out. So far I've decided it would be sensible to get a new handlebar, stem and wheels in case I damaged them. I also wonder if a dropper post would have saved me :oops:

Angus Young

I suspect that if you'd have had a load of very expensive carbon bits on your bike you'd have been going so fast that you'd have just sailed straight through the crash without incident.

Xommul

Check out ICEdot

https://icedot.org/site/

Its a little expensive, but do you want to put a price on safety. The many examples above send a chill through you thinking how close you could come to being broken and in the middle of nowhere.

This is a lift from their web by

The Crash Sensor will mount onto any helmet and connects with your ICEdot Profile via a smartphone app. The system is able to detect motion, changes in forces and impacts. In the event of critical forces, the device triggers the app over low-energy Bluetooth to sound an alarm and initiate an emergency countdown. Unless the countdown clock is stopped, the app will then notify your emergency contacts and send GPS coordinates of the incident so that appropriate follow up actions can be taken.

Initialised

felix.london wrote:

Batmo wrote:

Is it true that GPS apps deplete a smartphone's battery quite quickly?

no where near as quickly as 3G does that's for sure. I'm using a 2-3 yr old Galaxy Nexus and I'll easily get 6hrs+ of 3G+GPS with Endomondo & Strava running and all the usual apps running in the background, emails coming through etc. If I turn off 3G I'm sure I could nearly double that (and I have a spare battery )

The longest I got from my Galaxy Nexus running Strava was 7 hours 40 minutes.

Tracking apps don't work when you're off the grid but can show last known location, so if someone knows roughly where you're going it should help. I'm not even sure that ICEdot will work off grid.

What's the damage to your shoulder?

drlodge

I've got Life360 on my Android phones which shows your location to others in your "family", or last known location should you be out of signal. Works a treat, the OH can see when I'm getting close to home and put the tea on