It’s that time of year – when we sit back and reflect on the rides we’ve taken, rallys we’ve attended, the new friends we’ve made and the biking experiences enjoyed over the past year. This is also a great time to start planning our upcoming trips in the new year and thanks to mobile technology, motorcyclists have access to some great tools to review their past routes and rides as well as plan upcoming trips. Here at RoadDirt.TV we’ve had the good fortune to partner with our friend Blake Conner and his team at REVER, one of the newest and most user friendly motorcycle ride tracking, planning and sharing apps to hit the mobile phone scene in some time.

REVER was designed by motorcyclists with a heart for riding and brains for designing and building a simple yet feature rich mobile app. This app incorporates tools for the individual as well as ways to discover, track, plan, navigate and leverage the power of social media and group connections. The App (available for iOS and Android) is superb for solo rides as well as group trips, and like most current technology – provides ways to meet new riders with the same passion for the sport we all love. Allow me to walk you through the features of REVER.

Like most new apps, REVER offers a limited free version which allows for a majority of the features a rider would need. A rider can track (roads, trails, racetracks and OHV areas), create custom routes, share & copy rides and join challenges & communities without costing you a penny. Just be aware that the free version is an ad-supported model. The Pro Version comes in at a low cost of $4/month (billed annually) and offers all the features of the free version, and so much more. REVER Pro rids itself of ads and delivers turn by turn nav, premium maps (online and offline) importing and exporting of maps and the ability to track your friends rides (iOS only), create your own communities of riders as well as a killer 3D Map viewer. For a mere $1 a week we feel this is an incredible value for what you can do with this software. For simplicity sake and brevity we will be reviewing the Pro version in this article.

I’ve been using REVER for most of 2019 but had a chance to really put it through the paces a few months ago on a four day trip with my regular riding buddies, up and down the Blue Ridge Parkway. Note: This app is designed to be used on mixed surfaces and can track roads as well as trails, so all you dual-sport riders can take that Tiger 1200 or BMW R1250GS off road and track that ride with no problem. Most of us riders use these apps for basic trip tracking and want to tap the screen to start recording our ride – a feature where REVER really shines. The User Interface (UI) is clean and crisp using colors that work in bright or low light. The buttons are large and located at the bottom of the screen so use is easy for smartphones mounted to handlebars. The app offers the ability to select Plan a Ride, Load (an imported route/map) or simply start tracking. Excellent additional information is available at the top of the Start Tracking screen including time & distance, plan a specific ride or route, local weather and a new feature called Connected Bike powered by RLINK.com. The RLink device is similar to a LoJack device for your motorcycle, in that provides security and certain bike status alerts such as the bike’s location, battery status and many other features. Look for a separate review of the RLink product and services in a future article here.

The rider profile in the Pro version offers “LiveRIDE” to let your friends know when and where you are riding. This is a great feature as they provide the ability to share a link to your ride to meet up as well as sending a Safety SMS message to your friends or community should you have an issue. As a Pro user you also have access to ProPERKS, providing discounts on rider related gear and services like EagleRider (Another RoadDirt.TV partner).

The meat of the app resides in what it tracks during a ride which includes The Name of Your Bike (from your profile), Total Ride Time (TRT), Distance (In miles or kilometers) Avg. Speed, Max Speed, Elevation and your starting & ending points. This data is then used to populate maps to show where you could really get on the throttle vs slower speeds or (UGH – Traffic!). The elevation data is parsed and imported into a very cool 3D view of your ride. From the finished trip screen you can easily “Favorite”, “Like” and share your rides with friends or your online community. You can also add Photos from your ride within the ride screen which can be handy to record specific locations of interest or special events…

While this app is very feature rich and provides an excellent “On Board” experience, one of the biggest features (in my opinion) is the ability to login to your account via a larger screen, i.e. laptop/desktop or tablet. Let’s face it – today’s smartphones are bigger than ever and super easy to use but sometimes it’s just easier to jump into a UI via a larger screen to navigate, see, share and enjoy some websites. REVER gives you the same capabilities in the Web UI that they do within the APP and as an official “Apple Fan” I find this feature worth the price. This option covers a UX (User Experience) for all ages.

Like any program or software I use, after enough time within the solution I tend to start thinking about “Nice to Haves” or features I wish were included in the program. REVER has done a superb job so these ideas are mine, based on my own experience and weaknesses identified while I ride – especially with a group. Oddly enough, I would like to track my ride as closely as possible as far as actual seat time which requires me to pause the app when I stop so I’m not diluting my TRT. The ugly truth is that I am constantly forgetting to pause the app when I stop for fuel or a break to stretch. It would be great to use the accelerometer feature in smartphones or in a smartwatch to prompt you with a reminder to pause the app when you’ve stopped.

One other idea was related to this particular road trip which ran across four full days. For multi-day trips or week long rallies it would be nice to overlay or stitch together the total route ridden for an entire week or trip. This feature would be great for those die-hard long distance touring riders, and could be leveraged with friends on social media or within a REVER community.

Aside from a few suggestions, we have found the REVER app and community superbly designed for a broad cross section of motorcycle riders. Whether for street, adventure or off road riding, REVER is able to track rides and allow sharing details with our fellow riders. Perhaps the biggest feature is the way the app encourages the building of individual riding communities exposing riders to new routes, rides and new friends. Suffice it to say REVER is doing their part to add value to any biker’s experience, helping individuals meet new riders as well as create interesting and fun communities of riders with common interests – after all, that is one of the greatest benefits of riding motorcycles.

Be sure to follow the REVER team on Social Media under @REVERmoto and #MakeEveryRideCount.

Phil