I should mention, before we get too far, my close relationship with REVER. I know the key players who produced the app, and have a very positive opinion of them. Because of this, I can see where the proceeding statements could seem biased. The thing is, I want their app to succeed because the app itself is earning success. I also don’t believe that a short review of a product, app or otherwise, can make or break a company. Besides, that’s exactly what a review is, an opinion and I strive to have mine be an honest one. I hope this admission affirms my transparency and allows you, the reader, to trust that I care more about bettering an app that I believe to be innovative and important to furthering the advancement of motorcycle travel/adventure/leisure.
First Off, What’s a Millennial and What Do They Care?
(noun) a person reaching young adulthood around the year 2000; a Generation Y’er. (Google)
Apparently, I’m a millennial. And in my generation, I see a group that, due to the technological advances of our age, is both gaining infinite access to people and information – at their fingertips – that has never been possible before and also losing touch drastically with what’s directly in front of them (well, behind the glowing screen). Our form of communication has moved from word of mouth to emoticon of iPhone. We have more time in the day – some might say “freedoms” – to try new things, visit unfamiliar places, constantly challenge ourselves and have more fun. This, fortunately or unfortunately, can leave us with little time to sit down and casually chat about our day. That’s where Social apps come in. They help people keep in touch who otherwise wouldn’t have the time, the receptiveness, the convenience or the courage. Apps let us catalogue our lives on immaterial electro-albums available to you or anyone else you give access to enjoy. Your memories stored and showcased and browsed for as long as the interweb survives. But you knew this already.
What Does That Have To Do With REVER?
REVER is a navigational and tracking tool that utilizes social platforms to connect the ever growing community of motorcyclists. If the Garmin Montana made sweet, sweet love to Instagram then they dressed their love child in the latest fashions from Samsung and Apple, it would be named REVER. The app is more suitable [read: digestible] for exploration to the modern man, woman, and teen than its predecessors. And the added ability to connect socially through the app over the internet is contemporary technology at its finest. This feature allows the user to share their favorite routes, old and new, on their favorite social media platforms. As with Instagram and Facebook, the app has a “feed” to keep everyone informed on favorite new routes amongst the app’s community without the unsolicited opinions or backtalk. You can share what you do, like what others do, then move on and go do more fun shit. No chit-chat. No baby pictures. No comments on what you “should” have done. It’s a tool that can easily be embraced by the thirsty minds and short attention spans of my soon-to-power generation. Then, manipulated over time to rule the motorcycle world… (cue evil laughter!)
How Does REVER Work?
The point of REVER is to perform as a tool, however you swing it, to plan, track and share your adventures. Step One is to sign up, create a profile, then download the app to your phone. Step Two, if you’re the social type, is to find friends on REVER and discover what routes they’ve been riding, or planning, and ask if you can join. When you’re on said excursion, use the app to “track” the on-road, off-road, dual-sport or race-track experience so you can save it, share it, then return to it another day. If you’d rather trust the “experts,” choose an area and pick a bonafide Butler Maps scouted and rated route that you would only otherwise find in their nostalgic, folded, waterproof paper maps. The best happens when you plan your own. Head to the website and “plan your ride.” There’s the option to avoid tolls and highways or utilize any sort of byway that you could otherwise find on Google Maps. You can even create a path where you know there isn’t a designated or maintained thoroughfare at all… yet. After downloading the GPX file or caching the route to your phone, it’s time to track your adventure! That’s where you take control and REVER takes notes and a backseat – just along for the ride. In the end, you name it, describe it, save it or share it. Then come back again when you’re ready.
How Does It Help The Adventure?
Building routes on the website is far easier than having to use outdated and often frustrating software like Garmin Basecamp. It’s as simple as clicking each desired Way Point onto the map provided; the program will connect the dots. You can even move those dots around if you screw up or wanted to make changes. When it’s time to ride, downloading the route to a GPX file (trying not to limit their users to the app alone) is available so it can be used on a unit that’s already strapped to your bike. Otherwise, it’s even simpler to bring it up on the app on your phone and go about your business. And don’t fret about losing service while you track. All smart phones come equipped with GPS just like any Garmin device, so routes keep running and tracking deep into the forrest. But if know you’ll encounter a lack of service, you can hit the “Offline Maps” button before you go or before you leave cell service and download the map cache to find your location and the roads that could lead you out. Whatever gets you going, the choice is yours to confine yourself to the streets or free yourself in the valleys, mountains, beaches and deserts that you desire to braap across. Paved, dirt, single-track, dual-sport or on the race course, REVER allows its users to be any sort of adventurer. For the competitive types, the app offers “Challenges” or goals for people to reach with their treks which can lead to victory, glory and even a sponsored prize.
The “Track” and “Ride” features are really the next step. For all the “mileage nerds” out there, know just how far you go, just how fast, how high and how low, then brag to your friends – or something a little more gracious… Routes can be saved and shared for a number of reasons other than boasting, i.e. for scouted events and group rides, friends who want to ride your best routes, as well as for efficient backtracking. You can even permit a REVER friend to track your route as you ride so they find your exact location to meet you mid-adventure or even as a safety measure to provide you aid when something goes awry. It’s called “Friend Tracking,” find it. Just make sure to give them permission before you start the route. A user can’t yet broadcast their whereabouts live while the action is happening – but there are some murmurs about a adding that function in the future. Or if you’re trailing a friend on a route that’s new to you, track it so that you can keep the route for yourself to ride another time. And there’s more if you’re creative. Keeping track of ‘tracks’ allows the user to compare multiple uses of the same route. Did you go faster; did you take longer; did you make it to the summit, this time? Or they can compare their different routes, compare theirs with friends and then choose favorites.
Safety is another one of the uses of the “Friend Tracker” feature that REVER didn’t overlook. In the case of an emergency – a mild accident, breakdown or otherwise – the app allows the user to send their route over very few means of communication. If the receiver has the app, for instance, the distressed can finish and share their route on Facebook, then the receiver can load the link onto their phone and be guided seamlessly. If not, the distressed could take screenshots of their location on the map to send to the receiver who can then find their way with that. For those with worried loved ones, the app has an option under “notifications” that allow you to text a departure message (“On the road again”) and an arrival message (“Safe and sound, two wheels on the ground”) to anyone on your phone’s contact list automatically once you start and finish your route. A handy tool that a friend of mine, Modern Metals, used to his advantage when he crashed while crossing the continent. He was able to send his wife his location through REVER, and she found him help and a nearby motel while he tried to recover his XT225.
What’s So ‘Social’ About It?
We’ve talked navigation, but what makes REVER, at least at this stage of the game, different from all other social platforms is its connectivity. The barriers on the social side of the app are as stringent or lax as the user wishes. If you want to keep your plans, tracks and achievements to yourself, you can do so. If you love group rides and want to share with any and everyone the “best” rides you have found, it’s in your hands. A Pro looking to connect to their fans can let them follow their every-ridden-move, quite literally. This is one of the only social (motorcycle) tools out there that users can share an experience with their favorite athletes. As long as they make their routes public, you can ride the tracks made by the likes of Zach Osborne, Andrew Short, Cole Kirkpatrick and many others who are already members of REVER. Disregarding all other attributes, REVER is a cheap and simple means of GPS for someone who’s not yet ready to purchase a multi-hundred dollar unit which would then need to be mounted and wired to the bike. It’s just enough social media for people who don’t like social media, but do love motorcycles. The app provides the immediate satisfaction and special features that the Y generation craves.
How Could It Improve?
Well, maybe I’m just a novice to technological “adventure” tools, and that’s my problem. But so far, I don’t find the interface of www.REVER.co to be all that intuitive. It is simple and easy, yes, but there are times that I wish some steps were more self-explanatory and less redundant. For example: Searching for friends using an email address takes a few extra steps than need be. If you weren’t savvy, you might not even find the option to add new friends (Psst, it’s hidden, seemingly unintentionally, under the “Friend Requests” category, then there’s still one more step before you reach your destination…). This function is not difficult to find, nor frustrating, just tedious. Also, without the ability to continue rides that have already been tracked, you have to either leave the app running on long-distance rides or begin a new separate ride that can never be connected post trip or otherwise.
The program was originally designed for an iOS system, so the bugs in the Android version are plentiful in comparison. Although, I believe this to be an issue that many apps face in their fledgling years. Another qualm is that “Planning” is not yet offered on the app itself. Although “Tracking” and following pre-planned routes are straightforward, there is not a way to start over and create anew from the phone. A quirk I know has been brought to the attention of the REVER team, but is still in development.
More than having functions of REVER that I dislike, I and others have suggestions. For instance, setting permissions to allow any “follower” to actively view your live tracks publicly. Or even just giving blanket permissions to specific REVER friends which can serve as permission for all routes instead of just one at a time. While a person is in motion, a permitted REVER user should be able to view an active route whenever they catch wind of it which I believe can both assist in safety tracking, keeping together groups, and even the social aspect of feeling “part” of an experience even if the viewer is a great distance from the rider. Besides, people can’t always remember to give permission to each individual before they start an adventure. I refer back to my earlier statement about tediousness. Plus, the current “Friend Finder” function is handy, but it’s cell based so if you run out of service, you lose your friend. Once your service is back then the function will load the everyone’s contemporaneous locations. But, I doubt this can be helped until cells could work without, well, cell service. REVER can’t be blamed for the technological pitfall. And for the avid long-distance rider, the ability to insert start times and pauses into the route would make the planning process much easier to observe, track accurately and save battery life (not having to leave the app running just to maintain a single recorded route) during travel.
Why The Bad Ain’t So Bad?
I’ve said the good. I’ve admitted the bad. Now I want to point out how the bad isn’t such a bad thing. Firstly, there’s no such thing as a defect-less app, program or product. Everything out there has had to be brainstormed, beta tested, and failed countless times before just being good enough to release to the public. Then, it’s up to the subjectiveness of consumer-product relationship to make further changes. That stage is where REVER is at. At this point, it’s safe, functional, clever, and for the most part, reliable. The only wrinkles left to iron out are purely technical and subjective. To be able to create an app “unique to most,” the company developing it must take a risk, put their product out there, and then take the beating that comes when it falls short – if it does.
I know personally that the folks at REVER are a highly responsive team: they address questions, issues, praise and suggestions – all within 24 hours most times. And they strive to at least provide you with answers if not a solution as soon as possible. They don’t pretend that the app is perfect, and so they openly take criticisms, something you would see blatantly if you read their blog or received their newsletter, the “REVER Review.” In their “REVER Rider” spotlight, which highlights highly active REVER app users three times a month – once a month during the off-season – a section is included where they ask the rider’s for their honest opinions on what they love, what they don’t love and how the company can make improvements. No edits. They don’t manipulate the responses to suit themselves, they just take it on the chin and try to move on. And they actually listen. It’s one of the first times in a while I’ve seen a company display integrity, and I respect them for it.
Additionally, they don’t hide from their mistakes or errors. When something’s wrong, they admit its wrong and try to find a solution – if not immediately, then in their updates. For instance, the “Android Issue.” Yes, iOS has taken off smoothly from the get go, whereas its distant cousin Android has had an incredibly turbulent flight so far. But, as I’ll point out, this is just the take off. REVER hasn’t even hit its highest altitude yet, and the ride can only steady out (get ready for the complimentary spirits). Not to force the analogy, but REVER’s ‘pilots’ are not new to the motorcycle adventure game, nor the mapping business. A lot of their key players cut their teeth with Butler Maps – a hearty group of motorcycle enthusiasts who decided to launch America’s premier motorcycle map company. So to think they’re not prepared to take on the tough challenges of perfecting a complex tracking, mapping and even social app would surely be a foolish underestimation. And, it can only get better.
Millennials + REVER = Happy Face Emoticon
What makes REVER the Millennials’ premiere motorcycle (m)app is its “real-time” feedback. There’s no sending a letter and praying for a response. Or emailing to no avail. The average ‘Joe’ can contact the company from a number of modes, and expect a response – even better, a solution. Whether you consider it a “social app that facilitates your moto-adventures” or a “moto-adventure app that lets you be social,” REVER is a tool that takes motorcyclists into the future and puts the smile on your happy-faced emoticon. And we can’t go back now.
About the Author
Kyra Sacdalan is a freelance journalist. She is the co-creator of WESTx1000, a multimedia company that creates unique content for motorcycle community. Follow her on Instagram.
