Riding together and in groups...

[Mr. Coffee]

I follow this one particular vlog on youtube and they had a very interesting video this week:

The upshot of the video is that two cyclists got separated from each other in a strange country and there was a teensy bit of drama and stress getting everyone back together. At the end there is a very interesting discussion of their "system" for getting un-separated. Which in my opinion isn't a very good system.

A lot of people on here will probably say that they always cycle together and won't ever get separated. To those people I say that unexpected things happen and things have a tendency to get screwed up so it still makes sense to have a plan to get un-separated. Others might say that they all have cell phones, but a lot of times you aren't in cell range, and in any event it can be hard to hear a cell phone alert when you are riding your bike in traffic and the cell phone is in a bike bag. So you ought to have a system.

What I have evolved over the years, not just cycling but also backpacking and ski touring is that you have a very informal "briefing" (which makes it sound altogether too formal) so that everyone knows the destination for the day and identify locations along the route where we will all regroup. Depending on how complicated the route is and how (in)experienced the group is will determine how many of those intermediate locations there are.

As an example, if you were touring on this lovely section of the Oregon Coast (Bandon - Gold Beach), I'd probably arrange to regroup at the Langlois Market, Battle Rock Wayside Park, and the Prehistoric Gardens. The point is to choose locations that are difficult or impossible to miss and also might provide some utility or entertainment along the way. If everyone is together and in communication and agrees to give one of these waypoints a miss, there is no obligation to stop.

Like I noted previously, depending on how complicated navigation is and how experienced the group is will determine how many of those waypoints you should choose. For experienced, fit riders I'd suggest regrouping every hour or two.

So how have you folks dealt with this challenge? Or have you just not dealt with it by cycling solo?

 

[harryS]

Riding with thousands of cyclists on a big civic group ride this year, my wife and I got separated. First I waited for her to catch up, but she was in front of me. Then she waited for me just before the turn-around and that's where I found her. We were at one point several miles and tens of minutes apart. Worst case, it would have been a solo ride for each of us about 15 miles back to the car.

Next time, we will pick a rendevouz point or two, ahead of time.

 

[6zfshdb]

I was riding the long downhill section into Cumberland on the Great Allegheny Passage trail last summer. I stopped to help a man who was having trouble fixing a flat. He was quite upset because his wife and young daughter were riding ahead of him and didn't see him stop. There was no cell service in the area so he couldn't contact them. His tube wasn't patch-able and another rider had already volunteered to go get a new tube. He gave me a description and asked if I would try to catch up with his family. I rode as fast as I could on my MTB, wishing I hadn't left my ebike home. 18 miles and 45 minutes later, I caught up with them. They were walking their bikes back up the grade. The little 8 year old girl was in tears thinking something had happened to daddy. I rode with them the rest of the way into Cumberland and per instructions from the husband, had them wait there in the visitor center. That incident impressed on me the importance of having a separation plan.

I have a friend who gives bike tours on many of the western PA trails. After several incidents of lost riders, he now provides bikes for his customers equipped with GPS units. He has pre programmed meet points in the GPS so everyone knows where they are and when to stop.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

When I was younger in a much more innocent time I found myself traveling across Europe with about a dozen other college kids. Since there was quite a divergence of interests and that was a pretty large group to travel together with we worked out a system: we had a list of smallish towns and dates and if anyone wanted to reunite with the group they would go to the post office in those towns on that date and either leave a message on the bulletin board (that all such post offices had) or would meet there at exactly 4pm. Since we chose relatively smaller cities (Zurich or Lyons or Frankfurt were too big, but Chartres, Montreux, or Bremerhaven were generally fine) there was likely to be exactly one main post office. The system worked well enough for us in the era before cell phones.

When I was a little older and a lot less innocent I went on one of my earliest bike tours on the Southern California coast. I'd first observe that while there are advantages to touring with a bicycle mechanic who also does triathlons and a former semi-pro mountain bike racer, longer rest stops were certainly not one of them. We were navigating our way around San Luis Obispo trying to avoid the main highway and busier secondary roads, which made the navigation rather intricate. Stan and Rick (Not Their Real Names) would generally wait up for me at junctions. Anyway, north of Slobispo I spotted Rick in his bright yellow jersey turn right about 400 yards ahead of me, and made to follow. We began a series of long, steep, and hot and shadeless climbs. After way too much of this I finally caught up to the them only to realize I had followed the wrong jersey, and golly knew where Stand and Rick were. It took most of the rest of the day to reunite with them and get on our way. Again it was a moment of very memorable high drama that I really could have done without.

 

[6zfshdb]

Most of my riding is done with groups of 8 or less. We all carry mirrors, GPS and smartphones. Those that use GPS on their phone have navigation apps that do not require a cell signal to operate. Each of us has the phone # of all the riders in our phone address books. The regular guys I ride with also carry FRS / GMRS 2 way radios. The range can be limited but it's generally good for a couple of miles. If all else fails, the agreement is, we meet up at the end destination for the days ride.

It isn't perfect but our system keeps separation mishaps to a minimum.

 

[PDoz]

In cell phone range, apps like " find my phone" work if you have compatible devices - make sure everyone has accepted each other so that if someone is lying unconscious beside the trail you know where they are. If you have a regular riding group, it might be worth ensuring everyone has installed a compatible app?

Out of mobile range, there are satelite tracking devices like the garmin inreach mini , but I'm struggling to get mine to reliably work on the mtb - I suspect they have tried a bit too hard to make it compact and it just doesn't work well enough in my camelback. The idea is great - two way messaging with gps coordinates, able to tether to your mobile phone and integrate with a ( poor) mapping program. Hopefully the next generation will be a bit better thought out........

 

[Mr. Coffee]

In cell phone range, apps like " find my phone" work if you have compatible devices - make sure everyone has accepted each other so that if someone is lying unconscious beside the trail you know where they are. If you have a regular riding group, it might be worth ensuring everyone has installed a compatible app?

Out of mobile range, there are satelite tracking devices like the garmin inreach mini , but I'm struggling to get mine to reliably work on the mtb - I suspect they have tried a bit too hard to make it compact and it just doesn't work well enough in my camelback. The idea is great - two way messaging with gps coordinates, able to tether to your mobile phone and integrate with a ( poor) mapping program. Hopefully the next generation will be a bit better thought out........

I've used the Inreach in various forms since 2012, and off-and-on have used Globalstar and Iridium sat phones since around 2000. They work, basically, but you need to be cognizant of the limitations. In some situations their limitations can be severe.

The biggest limitation with all satellite services is that you need to be able to see a substantial piece of sky for them to work at all. So if you are in a narrow river valley or in dense forest or inside a barn with a metal roof performance will be at best grossly degraded and they often may not work at all. Sometimes, confusingly, if you are in a north-south oriented valley they will work quite well but if you are in an east-west valley of similar relief they won't work at all.

Another issue is that space weather can effect satellite availability and functionality, sometimes dramatically.

You usually have to fiddle around to figure out a way to carry the gadget so it will function for you. They seem to work poorly in backpacks or bike bags.

In general I find the Inreach a useful tool, but again like any tool you have to be aware that it isn't magic and you need to be a little cautious about how much you would rely upon it.

 

[Bruce Arnold]

My wife and I have occasionally gotten accidentally separated from each other on our rides. Cell phones are seldom the answer; it's hard to hear a ringtone with the phone in your pocket and the wind in your ears. Since we are both ham radio operators, we have started carrying small, lightweight hand-held radios. Clipped inside a pocket or on a belt, with a speaker mic clipped near our faces (you've seen cops do this, right?), we can easily converse to a range of ~2 miles. Even when we're within earshot, it beats shouting.

There's also an app called Life360 that we use for key staff and riders during our Bike MS rides each year. Allows event coordinators to easily keep track of each other's whereabouts as long as there is a data connection.