Bike/Rider Live Tracking

pgmabley
pgmabley Posts: 107
edited October 2015 in Road buying advice
Hi

My 14 year old son is with Bicester Cycling Club and is keen to do a bit of cycling out on his own in the lanes and I've let him do that a couple of times to and from his club meeting. My wife is rather less keen on this (I can see her point of view) but I see it as giving him a bit of freedom in relative safety whilst getting a bit of exercise.

He uses a Galaxy mini android smartphone for Strava but I think it would be better to have some sort of live tracking/alert type of device, preferably attached to the bike so when he forgets the phone or to start an app we still have the info.

Can anyone recommend anything, simpler the better?

Thanks
Paul

Comments

  • Oldfield
    Oldfield Posts: 32
    What sort of bike does he have, what's it made of?
    Maybe something like this, depending on how much you'd want to spend?
    http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/find-your-stolen-bike-with-a-gps-tracker-165579

    I sometimes use the Garmin LiveTrack feature when I go out on rides, but it seems to be hideously unreliable. It's fine when it works, but as soon as it decides to have a hiccup it stops updating... so that's crap, and not what you're after anyway. Just sayin'.
  • professeur
    professeur Posts: 232
    If you just need to check where he is at any given time (rather than full tracking) the following would do:

    https://www.google.co.uk/android/devicemanager?u=0

    You'll need his Google account credentials though.

    EDIT - sorry, I see now you're after a separate piece of hardware.
  • pgmabley
    pgmabley Posts: 107
    Thank you both, I have used the device manager when he was returning from a school trip so I could time picking him up but it's not that accurate and a bit slow reacting although an option for free is great.

    He has an aluminium bike (currently BTWIN triban 3 just changing to planet x London Road) so that tracker it would appear won't work.

    Might have to compromise and find a gps tracking app on the phone perhaps and see how that goes.
  • Willow 15
    Willow 15 Posts: 19
    Cerberus app on play store. I use it all all Android phones. It's a tracking app for stolen phones but works brilliant for tracking the kids on the road. If you want to go Edward Snowden on his ass, don't tell him the app is on the phone as you can remotely take pics, switch on the mic so you can listen in and much more.
  • lesfirth
    lesfirth Posts: 1,382
    [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19717998#p19717998]Willow 15[/url] wrote:
    Cerberus app on play store. I use it all all Android phones. It's a tracking app for stolen phones but works brilliant for tracking the kids on the road. If you want to go Edward Snowden on his ass, don't tell him the app is on the phone as you can remotely take pics, switch on the mic so you can listen in and much more.

    Thats real sneeky. Guaranteed to sour a parent/child relationship for life if the kid finds out!
  • Willow 15
    Willow 15 Posts: 19
    [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19718011#p19718011]lesfirth[/url] wrote:
    [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19717998#p19717998]Willow 15[/url] wrote:
    Cerberus app on play store. I use it all all Android phones. It's a tracking app for stolen phones but works brilliant for tracking the kids on the road. If you want to go Edward Snowden on his ass, don't tell him the app is on the phone as you can remotely take pics, switch on the mic so you can listen in and much more.

    Thats real sneeky. Guaranteed to sour a parent/child relationship for life if the kid finds out!

    Ha, didn't actually say i did it, I would be impressed if you could prize a phone out of a 14 year olds hand, never mind sneaking an app on it.
    It is on my kids phones though with the understanding that I'll only use it for locating them if they have a major mechanical in the middle of nowhere. They also have my password so they can locate me if I have a nightmare and can give my location to my wife, so she can pick me up.
  • chippyk
    chippyk Posts: 529
    I used to use Glympse. It's ok although the timer lasts for only 4 hours. The person watching you can see where you are, what speed you are doing etc and I think what time you'll arrive at your destination. It can also send directions to get you if you need picking up.
  • pgmabley
    pgmabley Posts: 107
    Going to try out endomondo, cerberus and glympse apps so will report back.

    Don't want to be too big brother about it just know he's safe and where to find him if mechanical/accident etc.

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