The app for motorcyclists that could help save your life

Satellite emergency beacons can save lives, especially if you’re venturing far away from civilisation. But can your mobile phone do the same thing? That’s what the REALRIDER app promises.

If you aren’t familiar with emergency or SOS beacons, they are usually standalone devices with satellite connection that let you contact emergency services wherever you are in the world. Some of them are even able to detect if you’ve had an accident and call for help if you’re unconscious.

They’re a bit like puncture repair kits – or even helmets for that matter. Something you don’t know you need until you actually do need it. However, unlike a repair kit, they are expensive. You can easily spend hundreds of pounds on a dedicated satellite SOS beacon.

But almost all of us have powerful devices already in our pockets: our smartphones. Some clever folk have figured out a way to turn it a powerful emergency beacon that’s designed specifically for bikers, and it’s called REALRIDER.

Now, I’m not an expert on SOS beacons, so I got in touch with someone who is to tell me more about REALRIDER and why it’s something that every adventure biker should look at.

Expert advice

I spoke to Andrew Richardson, who is the founder of REALRIDER. He’s worked in motorcycle safety since 2006 and applied the lessons he learned from working with paramedics responding to motorcycle crash scenes to launch REALRIDER in 2011.

My first question was if motorcyclists really needed an emergency beacon on their rides. Andrew explained: “A lot of people think, ‘no, it’s going to happen to me’, but it’s like having any other safety kit, like the right helmet and the right gloves, it’s another thing that can add to your safety. You can be the best rider in the world, but there could be something on the road, something that leaps out in front of you, and if the worst happens and you can’t call for help, you know you’re protected.”

OK, this make sense, but do you really need to spend hundreds of pounds on a dedicated satellite device when you’re riding in the UK or over on mainland Europe? According to Andrew, it depends on the places you ride. If you spend your summers exploring remote mountain trails far from civilisation, then yes, a dedicated emergency beacon is a sensible weapon to have in your arsenal if things go wrong.

But for those of us who tour on the roads of the UK and Western Europe each year, mobile coverage is common, which is when your mobile phone can be a less expensive yet reliable alternative, even if you’re unconscious and unable to make a call.

That’s where the REALRIDER app comes in. But how does it work?

Motorcycle crash detection

The REALRIDER app uses your smart phone’s sensor hardware, like the accelerometer, to detect whether you have had a crash. If it thinks there has been one, the app gives you a validation period during which you’re able to confirm that you’re okay.

If you don’t, it’ll automatically send your precise location and information to the emergency services. The app works all over the UK, Ireland, Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand.

Just how accurate is it? Andrew explained: “We used it on a test track to test it under heavy acceleration and heavy braking to make sure it wouldn’t send an alert during spirited riding. Then we started wrapping phones in bubble wrap and launching them out of cars, throwing them through pieces of cardboard to represent stone walls, doing various crashes. It was a lot of science, a lot of mathematics, and then it was really all about refinements around road testing.”

After a two-year trial in the northeast of England working with the ambulance service, the 999 control centre, and government bodies, REALRIDER became the first and only government-certified automatic crash detection app for motorcyclists with direct ambulance service connection.

Designed by bikers for bikers

This fast-tracked connection to the emergency services is a powerful tool, especially when you consider that in 90% of crashes, riders are thrown from their bikes, and the time taken for paramedics to find them can often waste crucial minutes that they could be administering life-saving care.

Andrew added: “We’re all motorcyclists here, we live and breathe riding, and we want people to be protected. I couldn’t imagine not riding with the app. It’s just become a part of riding like putting your helmet on, opening the app and pressing one button to turn it on. You can lock your phone or use other apps and it’ll still do its job.”

OK, this all sounds impressive, and proves you can turn your phone into an emergency beacon, but what about privacy? Andrew stressed that REALRIDER doesn’t record your speed and has no access to any sensitive data you input, so none of that can ever be shared with the police or insurance companies.

However, it does function as a group ride app, allowing you to see your friends on a map and keep track of each other on a ride out. It also allows you to record and share your rides and export routes as GPX files, along with finding other popular routes to ride. The team is also working on further updates to provide turn-by-turn navigation and to use satellites to cover you anywhere in the world.

Find out more about the REALRIDER app

But for now, for £3.99 a month, you can turn your smartphone into a portable SOS beacon that will protect you in the UK, Europe, and further afield, which will automatically alert emergency services if the worst does happen. That’s a reassuring thought indeed.

REALRIDER is available on Apple and Android phones. You can get a 30-day free trial to see how it works, and then it’s a monthly subscription. You can subscribe via the website for £36 a year. Find out more here or contact them at [email protected].