A Great Motorcycle Journey Is Like Building A Motorcycle App

If you'd not heard, a new version of the ESR App is now available and I wanted to explain the genesis of the crowd-sourced features and the motorcycle crash detection technology included in the EatSleepRIDE Motorcycles App.

It all started with a long awaited ride with friends, filled with hope and excitement of finding monumental stretches of twisties, delicious burgers and ideal places to rest nearby. But what happens when you don't find the monumental roads, when riders get separated, when crashes happen? At EatSleepRIDE we've come up with a solution-a powerful smartphone App designed specifically for motorcycle riders http://App.EatSleepRIDE.com.

You know, a great motorcycle journey is not unlike building a motorcycle App. It can break you. It can change you and you can find yourself in the depths of despair. Just when you think you've given all you can give, you lose your way, blow a tire and a pheasant hits your left side mirror. But if you have a group of riders around you, they keep you going and a hard gravel road turns into pavement. Before long, you're flying in quiet rhythm with the nature around you.

A few years ago, four friends had the idea to create a mobile App that would not only get us riding more often, but keep us together on the road, help us meet other riders, give us real opinions on gear and provide our community a stronger voice, all the while keeping us safe. We had no idea how hard the journey would be.

Motorcycle riders are a powerful lot, but we're vulnerable on the road. We continue to be affected by every story of a life lost needlessly. When we told people we were building a mobile app that automatically detected a motorcycle crash and notifies contacts of the rider's last known location, they told us "that's cool, but can you really do that?" Yes we did, but we didn't know it then.

Around the same time we dreamt up the idea, we were riding the Blue Ridge Parkway and met a guy who told us about his buddy Franky from Atlanta, Georgia. They'd been riding in a group of four riders, gotten separated but already planned to meet up at the rest stop at the end of the parkway. Franky didn't show. They looked for him, riding back and forth along the parkway. Nothing. Police were called; they searched for two days but came up empty.

It turns out, Franky went off the road somewhere along the ridge. There were no skid marks and no indication of where he went off so he was impossible to find. A few months after the tragic accident, a hunter found Franky and his motorcycle at the bottom of the ridge. An autopsy revealed that he'd managed to stay alive for four days.

We never want this to happen to anyone again and if we can prevent it, we will.

The EatSleepRIDE® App is packed with great tools but it's also easy to use. Standard features let you record and replay your ride with speed, elevation and lean angle. Location features make it easy for riders to share their location publicly or privately so that they can stay together over large distances. Riders can meet people to ride with or find the best motorcycle routes nearby.

CRASHLIGHT® is a premium feature. The revolutionary safety crash detection technology automatically detects a motorcycle accident and notifies pre-set contacts of the rider's geographical location. If things go wrong, you're in control of your safety team.

The EatSleepRIDE Motorcycles App with standard features is currently available for iPhone and iPad devices for $2.99; an Android version coming soon. CRASHLIGHT is now available for $4.99 per year. For more information about the App, please take a look at http://App.EatSleepRIDE.com or see the post below.

-Alex Crookes, co-founder