Gen3 Spot GPS rescue and tracking system

yes - Very pleased as I have been invited to become a "SPOT Ambassador" for the new Gen3 Spot GPS rescue and tracking system. 

So whilst this is a great headline, what does it mean. The Spot system over the last few years has seen steady improvement and now with the Gen3 the system seems to have reached maturity.

A Spot: is a GPS tracker which allows third parties to follow your routes, receive updates on your positions, even if you are out of phone reception (especially useful), send for help in the event of a breakdown to friends and family and most importantly alerts fast response rescue services in the event of a critical need/accident triggering rescue services.

Firstly the system provides almost real time tracking and recording of your travels and routes, Importantly in the event of an accident if you're unable to send a help message it records your last position so you can still be found even if you are down and out.





On a recent trip off-road enduro riding in the wilds of Sardinia, we were often many kilometers from potential road help and when doing something as risky as riding motorcycles in remote places the risks are obvious and ever present. having the Spot in the bladder pack is a great comfort.

I used the message and "I am ok" buttons every day sending Google Maps positions to friends and family who are on the preassigned list. 

With solo trips planned the Spot gives partners and myself  the huge sense of comfort provided by a PLB with the added features which make this a great basic comms tool as well.

Highly recommended and is now an essential part of the packed bags.

(PS my partner who is a great trail runner recently carried it on a solo run around Ben Nevis and Carn Dearg arete, a mix of scrambling and exposed running. I am glad she took it as it gave me the sense of comfort I wish when the boots are on the other foot)


http://www.findmespot.eu/en/index.php?cid=100 


‪#‎SPOT‬ ‪#‎SPOTGen3‬ SPOT LLC.

1000 Km of Cols and Dust 1.

1000 Km of Cols and Dust.

The track gets rougher and rougher as it climbs up over 2,400m. The gravel of the lower altitudes has given way to melon sized rocks which lie scattered over the trail, sharp and threatening. The handle bars of the laden 250kg BMW buck and wrench from side to side pulling its bulk alarmingly across the 2m wide track. I am repeating my mantra given to me by my enduro trainer: ‘Keep your head up, look beyond the obstacles, keep light, and let it move underneath you. Don’t grip hard.’ At no other time, on no other ride, and on no other 2-wheeled machine, has this been more important to me than it is right now. On one side of me there is a solid rock wall hand cut by long dead Italian troops, and on the other side? A huge drop off. A 200m cliff. Beckoning, spiralling, crashing, fireball, imagined oblivion.

I am riding The Ligurian Border Ridge Road a 19^th century monument to a more tense period of European history when France and Italy were more likely to have been trading bullets and territory than pleasantries. Today it is increasingly frequented by a growing band of adventure motorcyclists and I am pretending to be one of this growing tribe; although I have to say I fancy myself more as Ewan than Charley. Exactly one year ago to the day on a cold wind-blown Industrial estate in Inverness, I was handed my full motorcycle licence. Call it a mid life crisis - the other symptoms are definitely there - but whatever trigged the journey that I now find myself on, I have no regrets and only adventures that await my twisted throttle progress.

Recon Ride Test

Today was a wet old one and after a fruitless day trying to edit my new website I decided to head out behind the house to play in the forest on the Gas Gas 280. I have just made it road legal in France. In my backpack I put the Recon Instruments GPS and the guts from the Recon Ski Goggles I was given by my mate who works for them.
I did the same in Iceland ski touring and the GPS maps the route you have taken the speed and vertical gains etc... its pretty cool. Click on the link for a fly through of the route. Hit the speed button up to 32x otherwise you will be watching for 2 hrs

Recon Trials Ride Test

http://www.reconinstruments.com/