Treasure Hunt Rally

The first running of Grim Riders' Treasure Hunt rally took place on Saturday. You can read my report on my website here.

i-gotU GPS Tracker

I know several people who use SPOT trackers to record their rides and have thought the idea of having a record of your rides would be useful. However, SPOT trackers are quite expensive - this is because of their primary use which is to act as a safety device, meaning that you can always get a message through if you are inured somewhere out of mobile phone coverage. Whether you are likely need that sort of support within the UK is something of a moot point.


I had read about other GPS trackers and came across a review of the i-gotU GPS tracker on the gadgeteer's site here. This discusses the use of the device far better than I can do here!


I decided it was worth looking into, especially as I found one on sale in Maplin's in Telford marked at £29.95 (I think it was meant to be £39!). After a few trials I first used it on a ride this week. The only issues I had with the device were firstly where to secure it - it is very small (about 4cm x 2cm x 1cm), and I ended up attaching it with  some dual lock to my right hand winglet; and secondly to get used to remembering to press it each time I stopped to take a photograph. having synchronised the time on my camera with the time on the GPS software I was ready to go.


On my return it was fairly simple (following the instructions I downloaded from i-gotU's website) to upload my route into the Trip software, where it instantly appears in Google Maps, and then import the photographs from my camera into the route - these were time matched so they appear in the correct place on my route. Each photograph is also stamped with the time and the longitude and latitude where it was taken. After creating an account on the Trip website I then uploaded the route and here it is (note route probably looks quite convoluted - this is not because I kept getting lost, but it included visits to several landmarks I cannot show on a public forum!). I particularly like the 3D view, when you click on the Start icon a little motorcycle follows the route round.

Catching Up on Stuff

Okay, it is now April and nearly six months since I last wrote anything in this blog, and I have felt bad about that but increasing time pressures at work have meant what time I have had to spend on motorcycling has been spent either on riding or on building up my website.


So what has happened over the past six months - I will try and list what I can think which will remove my guilt at not having written anything for so long, and at the same time get me up to date:

• there have now been seven Grim Riders newsletters, being sent out to over 160 riders interested in long distance rallies. 
• the charity ride for 2010 was launched with fifteen Battlefields to be visited through the year. Already 46 riders have signed up with nearly £1000 raised to support the work of the Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance.
• completed the Round Britain Rally for 2009, gaining a Gold Award (am gradually working up to an All-Rounder!). I enjoyed attending the annual dinner in Meriden in February. The RBR for 2010 starts from today, have worked out where (nearly) all the 89 landmarks are for this year. Unlike any other event, the amount of research needed to locate the landmarks seems to take nearly as long as it would to visit them all!
• the first Grim Riders' ride also took place in February with the Winter Challenge on the 6th. The aim for those (few) entering was to visit five landmarks from any one ride, thereby gaining a Challenge Bronze award. 
• on the subject of rides, also added a couple more - the Windmills and Circuits Rides.
• took part in the first rally of the year, the South West Peninsula Spring Rally on 27th March. This was again well run by the South West IAM and I was pleased to see a good increase in the number of riders taking part this year.
• entered the Brit Butt Rally and IBA Ireland's Bally Rally.
• have done little work on the GS apart from sorting out the lights after all the auxiliary light switches stopped working (just wired them into the standard lights on the GS, much simpler!) and having an extra fuel tank fitted on the back of the bike - can now get 44 litres and cover over 400 mile between stops (for fuel at least!).

Fuller details of all these events can be found on the website. Shall try to keep more up to date here from now on!

Grim Riders 2010 Ride

Completed the roadbook for Grm Riders' charity ride for 2010 last night. This will replace the British National Parks Ride which has been so successful this year, with 77 riders taking pat, visiting well over 500 parks, and raising over £2300 for the Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance in the process. Details of the ride will be published after the closing date for this year's ride which is December 10th.

Brit Butt Rally 2010 Entries

Entries are now being accepted for next year's Brit Butt Rally, organised by the UK branch of the Iron Butt Association. Entry forms can be found on the Brit Butt Rally website at http://www.britbuttrally.com/#/entry-form/4531156941, they will be drawn on the 24th December. After three days there were reported to be over 60 riders entered, for an undisclosed number of places.

Newsletter 2

The second Grim Riders newsletter was sent out this week - it can also be found at https://share.acrobat.com/adc/document.do?docid=4ba03257-4372-4b71-aec2-c825fc998454.
It includes details of a Winter Challenge Ride on Saturday 6th February 2010 and a proposed treasure hunt scatter rally on Saturday 24th April.

Snake oil?

The subject of deer whistles is a difficult one to argue for, although I have found several people quite adamant in their opposition to them. The basic idea is that the small plastic device, when attahced to a moving vehicle, emits a sound which cannot be heard by the human ear but is enough to startle deer and will, hopefully, stop them jumping into the road in front of you - thereby saving you from the resulting accident and preserving the deer's life too. Since it's functioning depends on nothing happening it is had to prove that they work - hence the accusation of 'snake oil'.

I have had a deer whistle stuck on my bike for the past few years and have never hit a deer (several birds and a rabbit, but no deer) but that, of course, proves nothing - their are plenty of people riding around without deer whistles who have never hit a deer.

I can offer the following recent experiences, which encourage me to continue carrying the whistle.
A couple of weeks ago I was heading home just after sunset and suddenly saw a muntjac deer by the side of the road, looking as if it was about to run out but completely stationary. It was so still that I checked the next time I went past in the light in case someone had erected a small statue of a deer there!
Last night I was heading home from meeting friends in Moreton when exactly th same thing happened, except this time there were two fallow deer stood by the side of the road. A mile further up the road there was a dead deer in the gutter, which had clearly been very recently hit by a vehicle.

Maybe deer whistles are snake oil, but any sudent of American history (or anyone who has watched QI) may know that the use of 'snake oil' as a dismissive or derogatory term was coined by the sellers of patent medicines and tonics in the nineteenth century to stop people using the snake oil which was widely used by the Chinese immigrants. It was, of course, the snake oil which was the more effective of the two preparations and actually worked.