OUTDOOR SAFETY
Mountain Biking Alone: What My Brother's Crash Taught Me About Riding Solo
My brother went mountain biking and crashed. He broke his femur, the long bone in your thigh and the biggest bone in your body. You do not walk out on a broken femur, and you certainly do not ride out. So he did the only thing left to him. He screamed for help.
He screamed for hours.
He is okay now. But I think about those hours a lot. Nobody knew he was hurt. Nobody was coming, because as far as anyone knew, he was just out on a ride. The only way help was going to reach him was if someone happened to hear him.
That is the part that stuck with me, and it is a big reason I built If You Read This.
The problem is not the crash.
Crashes happen. Anyone who rides trails has gone over the bars at least once, and most of the time you dust yourself off, check your bike, and laugh about it later. You cannot ride without some risk, and nobody who loves riding wants to.
The real danger of riding alone is what comes after a bad crash. If you cannot move, and you cannot call, the clock only starts when someone realizes you are missing. When you ride alone, that might not happen until dinner, or the next morning, or whenever someone finally thinks to ask where you are.
And "just call for help" is harder than it sounds out there. Trails are often out of cell range. Phones get thrown in a crash, cracked, or end up in a pack you cannot reach. A serious injury can make it hard to do much of anything. Your voice carries a lot less far than you would hope through trees, and it gives out long before help shows up.
The cartoon version, with a faster ending.
We made a short animated film about a ride like his. Nathan rides solo every Sunday. One day he lands a jump badly, and his phone ends up out of reach. This is what happens next when he has the app.
Nathan still breaks something. The app does not stop crashes. What changes is the waiting. Instead of hoping someone hears him, his sister gets a text with his message and his location, and she knows exactly who to call.
What I wish my brother had set up.
Here is how the app works on a ride. You open it at the trailhead. Opening it is the check-in: there is no button to press. That starts a timer you choose, say three hours for a long afternoon ride.
Before the deadline, the app reminds you by push notification and text. If you are fine, you open the app, and the clock resets. That is all you ever have to do.
If the deadline passes and you have not opened it, the message you wrote ahead of time is texted to the people you picked. Something like:
"I'm riding the Ridge Loop trail, parked at the north lot. If you get this, I didn't make it home. Call 911 and send them my location."
On Pro, the text can also include your location from the last time you opened the app, as a map link. If you checked in at the trailhead, that is where the search starts, instead of somewhere in the county.
One detail matters a lot for riders: that text is sent from our servers, not from your phone. Your phone does not need signal, battery, or to be in one piece. It can be in a ravine. The message still goes out on time.
With that set up, my brother would still have broken his femur. But instead of screaming until someone happened to hear him, someone would have known to come looking within a few hours, and roughly where to look.
A solo ride checklist.
The app is one layer. These are the others worth having before you ride alone:
Tell someone your plan. Which trail, where you parked, and when you expect to be back. Then put the same thing in your message, so it reaches them even if they forget the details.
Keep your phone on your body. A jersey pocket or hip pack, not a bar mount or the bottom of a backpack. If you go one way and the bike goes the other, you want the phone to come with you.
Carry a whistle. It weighs almost nothing, it carries much farther than a voice, and it takes far less energy to blow than to shout. Three blasts is the standard signal for help.
Know your coverage. Download offline maps before you go. Many newer phones can text emergency services by satellite when there is no cell signal. Find out whether yours can, and try the demo at home.
Pack a little extra. A light layer, water, a basic first aid kit, and a snack. If you end up waiting, you want to wait warm.
Ride within yourself when you are alone. Save the new line or the big drop for a day with friends around.
Setting it up for a ride.
On the free plan, the timer is fixed at 24 hours, which is fine for daily life but long for a ride. Pro lets you set anything from one hour to a month, plus location in the alert, and comes with a 7-day free trial. A good routine:
Before you leave, set your interval to a little longer than the ride, write your message with the trail and where you parked, and make sure location is on for that message. Open the app at the trailhead. When you get home, open it again, then switch back to your usual interval.
It takes about two minutes. My brother spent hours wishing someone knew where he was. If you ride alone, please spend the two minutes.
For more on staying safe in the outdoors, see our page for adventure sports and solo hikers.
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