The new and interesting touring gear thread...

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Aushiker
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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby Aushiker » Thu Aug 01, 2013 8:29 pm

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The Spot Gen 3 has been released. Thanks to GearJunkie.com for the heads-up.

From the Spot website
New SPOT Gen3 Features

Choose your Track Rate: New upgraded tracking options, Unlimited and Extreme Tracking, allow you to choose the rate at which your tracking messages are sent – every 2 ½ , 5, 10, 30 or 60 minutes.

Extended Tracking Mode: Adventure doesn’t have a time limit and neither should your tracking. When you upgrade to Unlimited or Extreme tracking SPOT Gen3 will continue sending tracks for as long as you keep moving or until the power runs out.

Motion-Activated Tracking: No matter the tracking service level you choose, SPOT Gen3’s tracking has the added benefit of being Motion Activated. A vibration sensor tells SPOT to send tracks when you are moving and to stop when you do. This conserves battery power and keeps your Shared Page from getting cluttered when you stop to camp for the night.

Longer Battery Life: SPOT Gen3 has nearly twice the battery life of the SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger! Keep the adventure going even longer, without the hassle of changing your batteries.

New Power Options: Now there are more options for how you power your SPOT! In addition to using the included 4 AAA Energizer® Ultimate Lithium 8x batteries, you can use NiMH rechargeable batteries or, line power your SPOT Gen3 with a 5v USB connection.
Andrew

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RonK
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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby RonK » Thu Aug 01, 2013 9:59 pm

Aushiker wrote:The Spot Gen 3 has been released.
Still lacks many of the useful features of the Delorme Inreach

Oh, and the new Inreach SE was released recently.
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FXST01
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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby FXST01 » Fri Aug 02, 2013 9:39 am

I was pondering a Spot messenger and that still seems the way for go for peace of mind of my clan that stays behind to know I have this contraption on my bike. The messenger is much cheaper for purchase and has a cheaper subscription plan as well.

Inreach $299.95 USD

Once off activation fee $49.95 AUD

Subscriptions:
Safety plan $19.95 monthly, 75c per msg, 25c per track point (100 incl)
Recreation plan $32.95 monthly, 50c per msg (20 incl), 15c per track point (300 incl)
Expedition plan $49.95 monthly, 50c per msg (40 incl), 15c per track point (600 incl).
Australian prices for the plans, funnily enough more than what US or EU will pay.

Spot Gen3 $149.95 USD
Subscription $149.99 USD
More add-ons can be bought Basic tracking $49.95 USD

Both are pretty expensive and then a 'must' buy subscription plan. How can you go touring or hiking when you had to give up a kidney to pay for these 'must haves'?

Maybe earlier models will come down in price.
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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby RonK » Fri Aug 02, 2013 10:29 am

FXST01 wrote:Both are pretty expensive and then a 'must' buy subscription plan. How can you go touring or hiking when you had to give up a kidney to pay for these 'must haves'?
If you want to tour solo in another country in a remote area with no cell reception as I was planning to do when I bought the Inreach, it was not a difficult decision. I put my personal safety first.

I chose the Inreach because it let me send free form text messages anywhere in the world via a smartphone app, which made it well worth the extra money in my view. I was able to communicate with my wife who was trekking in the Himalaya at the same time.

Oh, and I was able to choose a plan that is only activated during the summer (For 4 months), so I didn't have to pay a full years subscription for a 1 month tour.

And, at the time the Inreach was cheaper than the cheapest 406MHz PLB I could find. Probably still is...
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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby Aushiker » Fri Aug 02, 2013 10:42 am

RonK wrote:I chose the Inreach because it let me send free form text messages anywhere in the world via a smartphone app, which made it well worth the extra money in my view. I was able to communicate with my wife who was trekking in the Himalaya at the same time.
The Spot Connect has the text sending feature so maybe that is the model that should be compared to the InReach, not the Spot Gen3 which is a different beast.

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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby il padrone » Fri Aug 02, 2013 6:30 pm

RonK wrote:If you want to tour solo in another country in a remote area with no cell reception as I was planning to do when I bought the Inreach, it was not a difficult decision
Crikey that'd be an impossible thing :shock:

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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby RonK » Fri Aug 02, 2013 10:51 pm

il padrone wrote:
RonK wrote:If you want to tour solo in another country in a remote area with no cell reception as I was planning to do when I bought the Inreach, it was not a difficult decision
Crikey that'd be an impossible thing :shock:
Hmmmmmmm
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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby il padrone » Fri Aug 02, 2013 11:15 pm

If you can't work it out RonK, that pictured rider is one Ian Hibell, one of the most prolific and adventurous global cycle-tourists of modern times. He has spent much of the past 40 years touring to all sorts of remote areas, generally solo and also without any sort of mobile phone or locater beacon service. The photo is Ian riding through the Amazon in about 1976 on his traverse from Lima on the Pacific coast to the Atlantic at Belem. How could he do it eh ?

Unfortunatley it was not being injured in a remote land that caught Ian out but rather a drunk driver in the 'civilized' lands of Europe - Greece - who killed him in a hit-run collision.

RIP Ian Hibell.
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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby RonK » Sat Aug 03, 2013 6:03 am

Oh, of course it is. I should have recognised the back of his head!
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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby maxknott » Wed Aug 07, 2013 5:15 pm

just picked up one of thesehttp://www.bumm.de/produkte/dynamo-sche ... luxos.html
apparently the first one in aus, has a usb plug on the switch which is mounted on the handlebar, cant find any english info, and the manual
isn't in english either.
was going to get a supernova plug installed, but the owner of my lbs said this was a better option,plus i wanted to upgrade my front light anyway,
and it was shiny,i'm a sucker for that :wink:

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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby Baalzamon » Wed Aug 07, 2013 5:27 pm

maxknott wrote:just picked up one of thesehttp://www.bumm.de/produkte/dynamo-sche ... luxos.html
apparently the first one in aus, has a usb plug on the switch which is mounted on the handlebar, cant find any english info, and the manual
isn't in english either.
was going to get a supernova plug installed, but the owner of my lbs said this was a better option,plus i wanted to upgrade my front light anyway,
and it was shiny,i'm a sucker for that :wink:
First one in aus......
Incorrect, there are quite a few of us already with this light in Australia
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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby maxknott » Wed Aug 07, 2013 5:56 pm

i stand corrected, do you have a manual in english??

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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby rifraf » Wed Aug 07, 2013 10:25 pm

maxknott wrote:i stand corrected, do you have a manual in english??
Hi Maxknott,
hope this helps:
http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/b&m-hl.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Bout quarter of the way down the page, between the headings "About the Luxos U" and "Compatibility" you should see a heightened blue link named "300kb PDF"
:D
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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby maxknott » Thu Aug 08, 2013 5:42 pm

rifraf wrote:
maxknott wrote:i stand corrected, do you have a manual in english??
Hi Maxknott,
hope this helps:
http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/b&m-hl.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Bout quarter of the way down the page, between the headings "About the Luxos U" and "Compatibility" you should see a heightened blue link named "300kb PDF"
:D
thanks very much, thats exactly what i was after :D

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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby rifraf » Thu Aug 08, 2013 5:57 pm

maxknott wrote: thanks very much, thats exactly what i was after :D
Your very welcome
or "no wucken forries" put in the local WA vernacular :D
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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby }SkOrPn--7 » Fri Aug 09, 2013 9:17 am


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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby RonK » Mon Aug 12, 2013 10:30 pm

Hmmmmm, I think one of these might have to go on the shopping list...
Pat's Back Country Beer

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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby Aushiker » Tue Aug 13, 2013 8:35 pm

RonK wrote:Hmmmmm, I think one of these might have to go on the shopping list...
Pat's Back Country Beer
It looks interesting for sure ... would be interesting to see if anyone has used it.

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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby RonK » Thu Aug 15, 2013 11:35 am

Aushiker wrote:
RonK wrote:Hmmmmm, I think one of these might have to go on the shopping list...
Pat's Back Country Beer
It looks interesting for sure ... would be interesting to see if anyone has used it.

Andrew
The carbonator kit is only $39.95 US and is a useful water bottle anyway, so no big deal to try. The kit includes samples if each of the sodas and they can be reordered from Pats web shop but I can't see the beer concentrate on sale anywhere yet.
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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby RonK » Fri Aug 16, 2013 11:20 am

Well, this is interesting. It's not an emergency beacon or tracking device, but you can send text messages from anywhere via Iridium with no expensive annual or multi-month subscription required.

Text Anywhere offers a monthly package for US$29.99, which includes 100 messages. The overage rate is $0.27 per message, and there is a one-time activation fee of $35. The device itself costs $399.

Given that it is a text only device it is rather expensive initially compared to my Delorme Inreach, but the ongoing costs should be much lower. I'd expect the price will be forced down anyway given the competition in the market.

The Text Anywhere measures 4 x 4 x 1.5 in (10 x 10 x 4 cm) and weighs 7 oz (200 g) without the four AA batteries.

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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby STC67 » Fri Aug 16, 2013 7:14 pm

Has anybody used a Bagman Sport QR Rack?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6f1n9Es ... detailpage" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby Cheesewheel » Fri Aug 16, 2013 8:06 pm

STC67 wrote:Has anybody used a Bagman Sport QR Rack?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6f1n9Es ... detailpage" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Funnily enough, I have a Carradice Bagman 2 Expedition Support Bag Mount - QR coming from wiggle god knows when (I ordered it back in may but the order got messed up so they tried to post me out another one - kudos to wiggle btw ... in the few instances where there has been some issue with an item ordered they dealt with it promptly - but because carradice is a small family run business they can't give me an exact date when i can expect it)

I have a carradice saddle bag that mounts of the seat post stem but if you hit a serious bump (like say bunny hopping a gutter) you can dislodge the bag from the mounting
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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby il padrone » Fri Aug 16, 2013 8:52 pm

I have the Bagman for a saddlebag, it's good but fiddly to mount and dismount the bag. The Sport with its quick-release would be much better. The other option that I also have is a Carradice SQR Tour - a very good sized bag with a really easy QR action using the SQR mount.

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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby ldrcycles » Fri Aug 16, 2013 9:17 pm

Very interesting design but i'm imagining the shock copping a whole lot of filth where it's located?
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Re: The new and interesting gear thread...

Postby Aushiker » Sun Aug 18, 2013 10:10 am

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This look interesting. It is called a Luci Light. Test reports on them at Backpackgeartest.org

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