Before you start
You will need two things to hand: the RDR code printed on the back of your tag or card, and an email address to register or sign in with. The code follows a fixed pattern of three letters, a dash, and four letters or numbers, for example RDR-4F7Q. It is worth having the physical product in front of you rather than relying on memory, since the code is case-sensitive to how it is printed.
Activation takes a few minutes per product. If you have bought more than one RiderSOS item, for example a helmet tag and a key tag together, each one is activated separately with its own code, even though they can both end up linked to the same rider profile.
1. Create your RiderSOS account
Start on the RiderSOS site and create an account, or sign in if you already have one. Your account is where your rider profile, emergency contacts and product links are managed.
If you begin activation before signing in, RiderSOS holds the code you entered and takes you straight back to finishing activation once you have logged in or registered, rather than making you re-enter it.
2. Press Activate on the site
Open the activation page and choose what this specific product is for. RiderSOS currently distinguishes between a Rider Emergency Profile, which is what a helmet tag, key tag or emergency card links to, and a Bike ID Profile, which is used for a Recovery Tag Pro fitted to the motorcycle itself rather than carried by the rider.
Choosing the right option matters because it determines what the tag is designed to show when scanned: rider details for a rider profile, or the bike's identification details for a Bike ID profile.
3. Enter the RDR number from the tag
Type the RDR code exactly as shown. This is the unique number that identifies your RiderSOS product and points scans to your account rather than someone else's.
If the code is rejected, double-check for characters that are easy to misread, such as a zero versus the letter O, before assuming something is wrong with the product. A code that still will not activate after a careful retry should be raised with RiderSOS support rather than repeatedly resubmitted.
4. Give explicit consent for your emergency profile
Because a rider profile can hold sensitive information, activating one requires an explicit consent step before it goes live. Emergency profile consent must be given directly on the activation form, and it is recorded with a timestamp against your account. You can withdraw this consent later from your dashboard, which switches the rider profile off without deleting your account.
A separate, optional checkbox covers marketing emails. Leaving it unticked has no effect on activation or on how your emergency profile works.
5. Build or update your rider profile
Add the emergency details you want available, including contact information and any rider notes you choose to share. Keep it clear, accurate and easy for someone else to understand quickly.
Each field has its own visibility toggle, so you decide individually whether your name, date of birth, allergies, medications, conditions, instructions, and emergency contacts appear on the scanned page. Anything left switched off is simply never shown.
- Primary emergency contact
- Secondary emergency contact if available
- Key medical or responder notes you want shown
- Any rider details you want linked to that product
6. Bike ID activation follows its own short setup
If you activate a Recovery Tag Pro against a Bike ID profile rather than a rider profile, RiderSOS takes you straight into setting up that bike's profile immediately after activation, since a Bike ID tag needs its own details, such as make, model and identifying features, rather than rider medical information.
You can hold both a rider profile and one or more Bike ID profiles on the same account at the same time; activating one does not affect or overwrite the other.
7. Save and test the setup
Once saved, test the tag with a phone tap or QR scan. Check that it opens the correct RiderSOS page and that the information shown is current and readable on mobile.
It is worth repeating this quick test any time you update your profile or change the gear the product is attached to.
If something goes wrong
Activation is rate-limited to a small number of attempts per minute, which is a normal anti-abuse measure and not a sign that anything is broken. If you hit that limit, wait a short while and try again with the correct code.
If a code genuinely will not activate, or a product arrives with a code that looks damaged or misprinted, contact RiderSOS support with your order details rather than continuing to retry, so the tag can be checked and, if needed, reissued.
Activating a product bought as a gift
A RiderSOS tag or card bought for someone else, such as a partner, family member or riding friend, still activates against the account of whoever will actually be wearing or carrying it, not the buyer's account. The simplest approach is to hand over the physical product and the RDR code together and let the rider create their own account and complete the steps above themselves.
This keeps the emergency profile, consent, and any medical details under the control of the person the profile is actually about, which matters both for accuracy and for the explicit-consent requirement described earlier.
Activating more than one product on one account
There is nothing unusual about activating a helmet tag, a key tag and an emergency card one after another on the same account. Each goes through its own short activation with its own RDR code, and once activated, all three point back to the same rider profile, so building out your emergency contacts and medical notes properly once is enough to cover every product you own.
If you later add another product, such as a second key tag for a spare set of keys, the same account and profile apply again; there is no limit tied to a single physical item.