USED & REVIEWED

Posted On 25 May 2024

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This entry is part 23 of 28 in the series AusMotorcyclist Issue#32

DON’T FALL AND… DON’T GET LOST!

DON’T LET IT FALL!
Brake-Fix – Price – $17.95

Ever had that heartbreaking shock when your bike rolled off the side stand? To prevent this, Pro Accessories has made available the “Brake-Fix”. It simply attaches to the brake lever and handlebar. Squeeze the brake on, place the Brake-Fix, pull the black lever to sit it in one of the channels and you’re done. To release, simply lift the black lever.

Of course most geared motorcycles don’t absolutely need something like this, but if you’re prone to parking your bike so it can roll off the side stand, this is right up your alley.

However, the two wheeled machines we see this being a great item for is of course scooters. Inner city scooter riders who need to park their machine on all sorts of weird and wonderful slopes of the road will especially love this. Now you don’t have to worry, just attach the Brake-Fix and you’re safe.

See your local bike shop or visit www.proaccessories.com.au SW

NEVER GET LOST, AGAIN!
Ridersmate – Price – $399

What would you do, if riding by yourself out in the middle of nowhere (as we do) and you happen to have an accident and are down off the side of the road and not able to move, not visible to any passers-by, or on such an isolated road that traffic coming your way is rarer than the proverbial?

Well, I’m sure there have been cases where the rider has perished. A mate of mine almost had this experience a few months back. Had he not woken up and somehow decided to call his wife, I daresay he wouldn’t be here now.

This is where the potentially lifesaving Riders mate comes in. This is a device that is attached to you and somewhere on the bike. If you separate, the bottom of the Riders mate detaches and sends your pre-programmed telephone numbers an SMS requesting assistance, along with your GPS co-ordinates, if you do not reattach it in less than 35 seconds. To cancel the response, you can simply reattach the jack plug to the unit, which will send a second message.

From the minute it’s switched on, Riders mate begins recording and saving data about location, speed, altitude and heading. So, not only is this a potentially life-saving device, you can also save, store and share information about your favourite rides with other Riders mate users on the Riders mate website.

What’s the technology behind it? Riders mate uses advanced GPS and GPRS technology. It’s not a GPS tracker like some other products on the market, rather it works a little like your mobile phone, with a SIM card inside, and uses the GPRS data service to send SMS messages when activated. Mostly, we found that even with only “SOS” service on our mobile, the Riders mate was still able to send an SMS.

Now the part you need to work out for yourself is where is a convenient location to attach the device to you, and somewhere on the motorcycle. We tried around the belt buckle and the left handlebar grip. This was okay, but we found it was too easy to set off. We then tried around the belt buckle and down on the side of the sub frame.

Again, it was kind of easy to set off. The way we ended up using the Riders mate was to attach the device itself to the motorcycle and the small, detaching part to our glove, or end of the jacket. This allowed you to have enough “stretchiness” in the cord to not set it off accidentally, yet if we did happen to fall off, it would detach and send the SMS.

So, if you ride alone in remote parts of our big brown land, consider the Riders mate, which could just save your life. Available direct from www.xenonoz.com or email frank@xenonoz.com SW

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