Do You Need a Personal Location Tracker?
My advice is if you ride alone especially off pavement or off the beaten path it is a good idea. In today’s technical age we have so many options to help keep us a little safer while out enjoying the things we love and it’s a good idea to advantage of it.
I don’t remember when I first got my locator, probably about a dozen years ago. The only one I knew about was the SPOT so that’s what I bought. In the pic above it is in the center. I’m still using the same one. Compared to today’s SPOTs, it’s big, bulky, and with limited features. Mine is the original or the Generation One model. The two pics to the right don’t show an accurate size comparison. Those two are about half the size of the one I use.
There are a number of different brands available now with features that were not available when I bought my SPOT. Some are stand-alone, some are cell phone apps, some work in connection with a cell phone and there is now even a GPS that features a tracker. There are Pros and Cons with all of them and it’s best to do your research before purchasing one.
A few years back I bought a new tracker to be a little more up-to-date and be able to have more features. I bought an InReach by Garmin since it has two-way communications as a feature and I trust Garmin products since that’s what I use for a GPS.
When I got it home, I took it out of the box and was going to turn it on, and couldn’t figure out how. I had to look up the manual on the Internet to even figure out how to get it started. At the store, the salesperson showed me the features and how easy it was to do what needed to be done. It wasn’t that easy and I decided it wasn’t for me, the learning curve was too steep. I decided if I couldn’t figure it out easily at home I didn’t want to be in an emergency situation, trying to figure out how to use it.
My desires lean more toward a simple unit with fewer features. I’m still using my original SPOT and It has only three features: OK, Help, and 9-1-1.
1. OK: Sends a self-pre-programmed message to pre-designated emails/Phone# to let them know you are OK.
2. Help: Non-emergency (not life-threatening) but you need help like the bike won’t run. Again it sends a self-pre-programmed message to pre-designated emails/Phone#. There is no way to let them know what’s going on, they just know you need help but you’re OK.
3. 9-1-1: This will go out to the dispatch center and emergency help is sent.
All three functions provide the GPS coordinates for where you are.
The above screen shots are from my SPOT web page and this information is available to the people I have sent the links to. The center shot shows the route I rode from Longview, WA to Spokane, WA. The shot on the left shows GPS coordinates when you click on one of the dots. And the right shot shows how the map can be enlarged to see which road I am on. Here you can see that instead of taking I-90 I was riding the Old Vantage Highway.
The tracker pings the online map about every 10 minutes with the location of the tracker. A link for that map can be sent to friends and family so they can “watch” where you are. This comes in handy if someone is waiting for you to show up. It also gives a lot of peace of mind to anyone that might be worried about you. They can sign on, check where you are, and see that you are still moving and not stranded somewhere.
Over the years I have shared my SPOT link with friends so they could watch my travels. This is separate from the designated people the messages go to when you activate the OK, Help, or 9-1-1. If you do activate one of those functions it will show on the webpage as well. I have also had friends share their locator page with me. I have always enjoyed watching the webpage and seeing where they are. It’s fun to see where they stop for lunch, or what scenic points they visit. Living vicariously through their tracker when I wasn’t able to be there.
The upside of many of the newer trackers is the ability to make satellite calls or texts in places where cell reception is not available. They all have different cost structures as well as features.
Many riders I know moved from SPOT to inReach when inReach came out with the two-way satellite communication feature. Which is also why I bought one. They did better with theirs than I did. Sometimes change is difficult for me and inReach isn’t as difficult as I make it sound.
One of the top pluses of having two-way satellite communication is when people are riding together if they get separated they can easily reach each other. Of course, if there is cell service this isn’t needed but cell service isn’t always available.
With still using my SPOT I haven’t looked at other trackers but there are others out there that I see hikers are using. The Motorcyclists I know or know of seem to gravitate toward the inReach. That doesn’t mean it’s the best for everyone and there are other option beyond SPOT and inReach to choose from.