Sixty kilometres from the nearest community, and 1000 kilometres from the nearest hospital able to deal with my injuries, without a Spot Gen3 it would've been like tryng to find a needle in a haystack locating a fallen motorcyclist somewhere in the expanse of Australia's Great Victoria Desert.
Within minutes of being thrown from my bike, my fellow riders were able to activate the 'SOS' button on the Spot Gen3, sending a GPS based message through communications satellites to the GEOS Rescue Co-ordination Centre (in the United States) who inturn immeditaley contacted the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, based in the capital city of Canberra.
Apparantly all distress beacons go through a countries national authority so as to make sure everything is co-ordinated from the one authority. AMSA, once they had my co-ordinates were able to pinpoint where I was, where the closest emergency services were located and send help.
Within 45 minutes of pressing the emergency beacon both the police and ambulance services had arrived and were offering assistence. The information provided by the Spot was also able to help them determine whether an aircraft would be able to land to extract me from the scene. Had one of the riders needed to return to the nearest town and alert the authorities we would've been looking at least 2 hours.
While the Spot was great and helped with the rescue, a few key lessons were learnt, some which I believe all adventurers, whether on motorcycles or not, should consider.
My Spot always travels in my tankbag, while friends have theirs mounted to the bikes handlebars. In this instance both would've been useless. My 260 kilogram fully loaded BMW F800GS flipped a number of times before landing on top of me. I was pinned under the bike, only able to move my left arm a short distance.
The handlebars were destroyed along with everything associated with them, had I had my Spot mounted there it would no longer have been in reach. My tank bag had been ripped from the bike and was laying around 30 metres away, I couldn't get to the Spot regardless. I had a lifesaving tool yet was unable to use it. Had I been on my own, in this extremely remote area, pinned under the bike with broken bones and spinal injuries the situation could've been fatal.
The Spot Gen3 comes with a carabiner and strap, designed to be attached to your person. The device itself weighs around only 120 grams, and is no larger than the smallest mobile phone. Fix it to your jacket, somewhere it can be reached regardless of the situation.
Every motorcyclist who does some form of riding off the beaten track should have a Spot Gen3, it is so much easier than tryng to fumble around with a satellite phone or worrying about cellular coverage in remote areas. And while there's plenty of mobile apps that provide GPS coverage do they actually allow an emergency beacon to be activated and then sent to real emergency authorities?
For the small cost of the device (around AU$200)) plus an annual subscription of a similar cost, the Spot Gen3 is great peace of mind anywhere in the world, and could be the difference between life and death.
More information - www.findmespot.com
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