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TILT mountain bike crash sensor builds safer community of riders

TILT crash sensor, mountain bike crash detection & emergency SMS TXT rescue response system
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Designed to crowdsource mountain bike safety and help expand a sense of community among trail riders – Tilt is a simple wheel sensor that alerts nearby riders, then an emergency contact in case of a crash. Essentially a small bluetooth sensor that you strap to your front hub like a modern speed sensor, you pair the Tilt with a mobile phone app which differentiates regular riding motions from an actual crash, and gets you help when you need it.

TILT mountain bike crash detection & rescue response system

Whether you do a lot of solo mountain biking in isolated areas or just end up on tough adventures far from home, sometimes it can just be reassuring (especially to your loved ones) to know that if you crash, someone else will know. So Tilt will monitor your riding and send out a call for help, even when you can’t – all with the tagline ‘Never on your own’.

TILT mountain bike crash sensor – Tech Details & How does it work?

TILT crash sensor, mountain bike crash detection & emergency SMS TXT rescue response system

The small 15g, made in Denmark Tilt sensor is powered by a single CR2032 watch cell battery and has a claimed operating life of one year before you need to replace its battery. The simple electronics of its motion detector sit inside a snap-together case, that is then held in place to your mountain bike’s front hub with a rubber strap. Once you pair it, and install to your bike, you don’t have to touch it again until you need to change the battery. Sensors inside automatically wake the device when you start to ride, and it looks for its paired smartphone and the Singletracker app to communicate. If you don’t open the app nothing else happens.

TILT crash sensor, mountain bike crash detection & emergency SMS TXT rescue response system

But with the app running Tilt keeps an eye on you. If you have a bad crash (a sudden & dramatic stop detected by the sensor on the hub), the app will pop up a notification asking if you are OK. If you don’t cancel it, the Singletracker app running on all other devices in the area with get a full red notification screen saying someone nearby needs assistance, and will allow others to indicate that they will help. If no one is there to help, Tilt will then use the Singletracker app to send a text message to your preset emergency contact indicating that you crashed & need assistance, together with your GPS location data. You can also send a distress signal out through the app manually if you don’t crash but need assistance.

TILT crash sensor, mountain bike crash detection & emergency SMS TXT rescue response system

The Tilt device itself sells for 95€ and requires a smartphone to operate. It also will require a future subscription service for continued network operation, but 12 months is included with purchase (and a subscription fee isn’t required for any users yet as far as we can tell, but is expected to be something like 1€ per month.)

Singletracker social mountain biking app

TILT crash sensor, mountain bike crash detection & emergency SMS TXT rescue response system

Of course to get the full benefit of a communal response, you need a bunch of other Singletracker users (otherwise it just will be texting your emergency contact.) At its start now that network seems rather limited, probably more dense in Tilt’s home of Denmark. But Tilt & Singletracker seem to be planning for more active participation in the near future, working with international trail centers & bike parks to map trails and organize community events to bring riders together and reward them for using Singletracker, with things like prizes if you attend several events or ride a certain trail a number of times.

Singletracker is a free app for iOS or Android, and builds in social trail riding perks, as well as helping introduce riders to new legal trails to mountain bike on. Its developers seem to really be getting behind global MTB community building, so we’ll be curious to keep an eye on how that progresses in the future.

TILT crash sensor, mountain bike crash detection & emergency SMS TXT rescue response system

In the meantime, we are going to try this little Tilt out, and see how it works on the trail. We’ll try not to crash too much, but we have a certain tester in mind who will be a good guinea pig to see how hard you have to hit the deck, and how often you’ll get false positives in real riding situations.

Tilt-rescue.com

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the dude
the dude
5 years ago

Thats pretty cool, but whats stopping garmin or strava from implementing the same technology in their software?

Tom in MN
Tom in MN
5 years ago
Reply to  the dude

Garmins (ones with Bluetooth connection to your phone) already will contact a designated person when you crash.

Dolan Halbrook
Dolan Halbrook
5 years ago
Reply to  the dude

I sure hope it’s better than the crash detection already present in my Garmin 820. So many false positives (yes, even with the latest firmware) than I have it turned off. Shame, because in theory it’s a great idea.

Scott Beam
5 years ago
Reply to  Dolan Halbrook

Interesting. It’s worked great for me. The one crash I’ve had in the ~2 yrs I’ve had mine, it worked perfectly. No false alerts ever. But seems you aren’t alone. I might look into having the device replaced. I write apps for Garmins and it’s not unusual to here of users getting replacement units.

https://forums.garmin.com/forum/into-sports/cycling/edge-820-aa/138738-incident-detection-is-driving-me-bonkers

David
David
5 years ago

Awesome idea for the road actually. I have been looking for a ice dot replacement since it appears that company has discontinued support for its customers. I ride alone often and although my wife tracks my rides on the wahoo website it does not alert her to crashes.

nburke1
nburke1
5 years ago
Reply to  David

Specialized acquired ICEdot, so if you need any customer service i’d start with them.

nathan
nathan
5 years ago
Reply to  David

Try the RoadID app. You can set it up so if you stop moving for longer than X minutes it will text designated contacts and tell them you stopped moving. No need to refresh the website or anything like that. It’s free.

i
i
5 years ago

Is the front hub really the best place to detect crash accelerations? Can it really tell the difference between a crash and dropping to flat? Especially since the sensor is spinning and, at least it doesn’t seem like it would be able to tell the direction of acceleration.
That’s really hard for me to believe, compared to, say sticking a sensor on your helmet or frame (where it could at least take direction into account) or… wherever you keep your phone, and just use the phone’s accelerometer.
Cool idea, but that gizmo seems really expensive even before the monthly fee, and I have a hard time believing it’s going to reliably discriminate between crashes and normal riding. As we all know, an alert that’s constantly showing false positives is worse than useless.

Jim
Jim
5 years ago

So another tracking device that needs cell phone coverage to function. Not really sure how that qualifies as “Never on your own’.” They are obviously riding in places other than where I ride.

William T Smith Jr
William T Smith Jr
5 years ago

I would encourage them up work with Strava to incorporate this into the beacon. We don’t need extra apps to setup.

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