But I also use Strava Beacon and Garmin Live Tracking. These I share with 3 people. One of them is my wife and 2 mates. I can attest that Garmin Incident detection works. I had a crash in June 2017 which I was concussed from. My Garmin 520 sent an sms to my wife, with my location and displayed her number on the Garmin’s screen. A motorist who pulled over used that to call my wife. She was just getting her car keys to come and find me (using the location my Garmin sent) as I wasn’t answering my phone after the incident detection alert.
So Garmin Incident detection did it’s job perfectly, first alerting my wife and then displaying her number for someone to call. I was too dazed to remember her number. I had no idea what happened and how I got where I was. I’ve since had false alarms (braking fast due to a puncture) that has resulted in me getting 3 phone calls of concern from everyone alerted. Better than then no alert at all.
I strongly recommend using Garmin Incident Detection.
I use the garmin live track but it’s a bit inconsistent. I actually blame the phone for this, but 50% of rides, I get live track failed messages.
I can also confirm that the incident detection works. Fell off in icy weather and it sent a message to my wife. I was fine, bounced up but couldn’t work out how to stop it in time.
It also gives the occasional false positives if I brake hard so thats not so good.
My son has a wahoo and it only works if he remembers to start the app first. My son is more inconsistent than the garmin!
I use LiveTrack, since Strava is trying to become Facebook for sports (removing chronological order, adding “posts”, etc) I’ve stopped paying for the service. I understand milking the free users, but paying users should have a choice. The ads will come eventually, that’s why Twitter, FB, Instagram, etc moved away from chronological. Anyway, LiveTrack is pretty good, but I find if I disable the Incident Detection it disables LiveTrack too.
Couldn’t agree more! After all, if I crash and can’t even function to seek help, how would my wife know at that moment to even go checking on me in Find My Friends or similar? I can abide some false alarms for that. I’ve gotten them bunny hopping too.
As for me and my original LiveTrack vs. Beacon question, I’m going LiveTrack and dropping Beacon. She can always find me in Find My Friends too. Thanks all.
I use incident detection as well, and often have irritating false alarms when I hit bump or something that activates it, but I’m typically able to dismiss it before it sends out the alarm. Although it took me a while to figure out that I could dismiss it straight from the Garmin and didn’t have to pull out my phone to cancel it. One drawback is that you have to have phone service for it to work obviously. Sometimes that is a problem in my area depending where I’m riding. But I agree, its better to have false alarms than no alert at all.
Although its a tragic story, one rider in my area was using Beacon or Live Track, and that is how his wife was notified of this fatal hit and run. She arrived within minutes of the notification as he was nearly home and found him left in the ditch mangled and dead. What a horrible thing to happen. But it was a rural road and could have been much longer without Beacon/Live Track.
Its a good idea to have at least a rear camera as well when riding alone. Can’t imagine having to deal with a hit and run without any recourse.
I never used it with the 6S but I’ve done a couple of centuries with my 8 a 520+ and Garmin LiveTrack and don’t remember noting any unusual battery drain.
Wow. Really? I’ve had 3 false positives in 2 years. 2 times my bike fell over when resting against something. The other I had a puncture at 45km/h in the wet, and so braked pretty hard. Never on a bump for me. Odd.
Maybe the mount has an effect. A mount that flexes more might give more false positives?
I actually tested my Edge 520 incident detection today… on purpose! Finished my ride and was checking my headset, so rocking front end back/forth and dropping from a few inches in the air. At some point the incident detection countdown started and I thought, ‘maybe I’ll see if my wife’s paying attention!!!’ Took her about 10 minutes to call me I gave her a “C”!
+1 for find your friends feature on iOS. its the only one that consistently works and doesn’t rely on third party apps to pair with phone properly, or drain battery.
Anyone here know if Garmin devices offer better/more reliable GPS than what would be built into to most phone? Specifically in terms of whether Garmin Live Tracking has any advantage over strength/reliability of signal over WhatsApp Share Location.
If you are anywhere near cellular coverage, Garmin LiveTrack is better. Once you are beyond cell coverage, a Garmin inReach (mini) works very well. It is a not a ‘realtime’ device like the LiveTrack via your phone. It is near-time, and pings the sat about every 10 minutes to update the breadcrumbs on their website.
I have both. My son uses the inReach when doing ultra marathons.
Thanks Jack. Yes I decided to go for a SpotGen4 for the same purpose as the Inreach. Obvs just one way comm though. Im now considering whether the Inreach would have been better investment though. Can get the original mini for £239 from ordinance survey shop at the mo whereas the mini 2 is £349. Any reason not to go for the older model?!
I have the original Mini. I wouldn’t want to write a novel on it, but it does exactly what I need : (1) neartime GPS tracking so I know where my son is located in remote areas, and (2) an SOS button that he can press to get first-responders to him, anywhere in the world, if an unimaginable accident/disaster occurred.
I don’t think the Mini2 is significantly different in its functionality.
I gave her a “C”!