Spot Connect - Group buy?

I want the connect as it lets you post to FB & Twitter which is REALLY useful for the Mexico team and kind of fun regardless, and it works with your phone (via bluetooth). I can get one for $150, but if I get 4 more people to buy one the price drops to $130 shipped (from $170 retail).

Anyone else interested in getting one?

Here is the info from Spot's site: http://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=116

that is pretty cool. I don't have a smartphone so.....otherwise I would be all over it....if i had any money to spare

*that group deal thin...wow! great deal or what?

Yeah which is why I need 4 more people! Beats the pants off of $170!

Also, if you can solder, these things are kind of cool for battery sucking things like smartphones: http://www.ladyada.net/make/mintyboost/

I ordered my kit last week :)

This still on?

I'm looking forward to this, a Delorme version of the spot connect but with the benifit of having two way text conversations with your smart phone! You can get conformation that a emergency signal has been recieved, chat with someone about how your trip is going, if multiple people in your party has them and someone gets seperated from the group you can use them to communicate with each other to help locate everyone...a lot of great uses for two way communications on the trail. I think it will be superior to the connect. Wonder if Delorme will offer cheap rescue insurance like the SPOT unit does?

Here's the link

http://blog.delorme.com/2011/06/03/delorme-inreach-two-way-satellite-communication/

Hodakaguy

I've got the DS bug pretty bad, caught on pretty quickly and am a pretty decent rider (pat pat on self back etc) - that said, at this time what GPS unit and holder would be the best for myself and my KTM 530?

KTM Kirkland wrote:

I've got the DS bug pretty bad, caught on pretty quickly and am a pretty decent rider (pat pat on self back etc) - that said, at this time what GPS unit and holder would be the best for myself and my KTM 530?

I recently switched from the Garmin 478 (previous king of adventure riding GPS units) to the new Garmin Montana, I think it will fast become the GPS unit of choice for ADV style riding. The Montana works great so far, it has a few small details that I'd like to see them add that are missing from the 478 but nothing major (except the ability to turn off auto-recalculation on routing). The biggest benefit of the Montana over the 478 is it's track capacity, my 478 was limited to 15 tracks at 700 points each. Because of the limited track capacity I would spend countless hrs on the computer manipulating tracks to make the entire route fit within the specs for the 478, and then you wouldn't have any room left over for alternate routes etc. Big limitation on a otherwise awesome unit.

The new Montana holds 200 tracks at 10,000 points each! Now I can load tracks at will and carry lots of alternate tracks with me. I color code the main tracks with say red, then color alternate tracks green etc. The Montana offers more characters for way points so I can also label them in a more orderly and recognizable fashion now.

I liked the hard buttons of the 478 unit but the touch screen on the Montana has worked great so far, even with gloves on!

Touratech is making a mount for the Montana that will be available in a couple months, RAM also makes a inexpensive mount that works great.

Hodakaguy

Hodakaguy wrote:

I'm looking forward to this, a Delorme version of the spot connect but with the benifit of having two way text conversations with your smart phone! You can get conformation that a emergency signal has been recieved, chat with someone about how your trip is going, if multiple people in your party has them and someone gets seperated from the group you can use them to communicate with each other to help locate everyone...a lot of great uses for two way communications on the trail. I think it will be superior to the connect. Wonder if Delorme will offer cheap rescue insurance like the SPOT unit does?

Here's the link

http://blog.delorme.com/2011/06/03/delorme-inreach-two-way-satellite-communication/

Hodakaguy

That looks like what I want. Thanks for posting. Do you know when they will be available?

I already bought the Spot Connect waaaay back in June.

That Delorme DOES look pretty sweet and would be way better for Mexico. I recently got my Toshiba Thrive tablet hooked up with a bluetooth GPS for chasing in Mexico. Pretty cool deal, but there's NO WAY I would stick it on a bike! However, if any of you have an android phone, I can help you get yours to do the same thing (offline maps & tracking) that my tablet does. The Bluetooth GPS was $100 and I'm guessing you already have a phone and computer. Then it's just time!