Can You Hear Me Now?!

Anyone know where this phone is?  I've answered a call - have you?

So, you’re headed out to who knows where and there are folks back home who want to know where you are and that you’re doing okay.  In the past we found a pay phone (remember those?) and stopped and made a call.  Now that we have cell phones people no longer stop to make calls.  On a motorcycle it’s not exactly the easiest or safest thing to whip out your phone, unlock it, dial a number, and then jam it into your helmet and close your face shield hoping the person on the other end can hear you…. and look out if it goes to voice mail.  Some folks have used wired communication systems to make calls from their motorcycle.  I could never get mine to work well enough.  So, how make it so Jennifer does not rip her hair out worrying about me as I travel?

 

SPOT – see spot ride!

This is a GPS-enabled tracking device that allows folks to follow your travels.  To help make this device even more valuable there’s SpotWalla, provided by a fellow rider.  This site makings it easier to connect and share your information.  During the Iron Butt Rally there is a public page that anyone can watch (check out this quick video of the 2011 IBR riders, 11 days condensed into a couple of minutes = https://youtu.be/giUyMna0EPo).  Not everyone shares their tracks as you’ll note none of the riders who when to Hyder, AK in 2011 are shown on this video.  To help with safety, a rider’s identity is cycled so that only the rally organizers know who’s who.  More on sharing tracking information in a bit.

http://ktsridin.blogspot.com/2010/08/leg-2-begins.html
An example of how the SPOT played a roll in the IB 5000

 Back to communication when you’re underway.  Via a bit of trial and error Jennifer now gets emails and text alerts from my SPOT.  I share my SpotWalla feed on ktsridin.blogspot.com, just looks for the links on the right side.  You’ll be able to follow my progress towards rally HQ in just a week!  And if you want to check out a few older feeds (like the 2011 ride) click on those links.

But perhaps the “greatest” upgrade for this rally is the non-wired communications system.  Finally, there’s a fairly reliable crop of Bluetooth enabled devises for motorcycle riders like there are for four+ wheeled vehicles.  Unlike a car’s system, these are battery powered so developing strategies for recharging while underway are important for long-distance (LD) riders.

Here’s how I’m set up.

My phone is connected to my GPS unit.  This gives me a heads-up display of who’s calling and gives me a one-touch “call home” button to dial “the Lovely One” – for anyone that read the 2011 rally blog you should know Jennifer did all of those updates via mostly nightly 60 second phone calls.  This go around I’ll be able to check in a bit more, but my main goal will still be safety while underway.

So, what does all this connectivity give us… well, if you’re the rally organizers it can be a bit of a headache.  As alluded to above, rider safety and security are essential.  To that end, the whereabouts of riders in any type of “real-time data” available to the general public is a bad thing.  Also, there’s a chance that if someone knows where you are, checks traffic/weather and sees an issue along the rider’s route, that person can call and re-route the rider.  This is NOT allowed.  Assistance can be provided (i.e., a person can help make a hotel reservation for you), but it cannot influence the route of the rider.

Once the rally is underway it looks like interested folks will once again be able to check in on the “big picture” of where all the riders who have anonymously shared their location are at the moment.  On the Iron Butt Association 2015 Iron Butt Rally page (http://www.ironbuttrally.com/IBR/2015.cfm) there’s already a link to the public Spotwalla.  As you’ll seen if you go there and click, the page isn’t up yet… come on, we still have a few days before this crazy parade kicks off:  T-minus 13 days!!!