Do you ride with a Tether ?

[Sledtillded]

My nephew is riding in Sic. This weekend and our family was notified by the RCMP There this morning that his SPOT was activated and SAR was being sent out. A couple things to learn from this one. Looks like another group had a rider pinned under his sled with the throttle stuck wide open with his arm inside the skid and on the track. Not sure of all the details but looks like some lost fingers and heavily damaged arm. I just started riding last season FULL TIME with my tether attached. Even on the trail. Did it originally because of a ghost ride........ This is a way better reason to wear one if your not already doing so, and I hope this individual is ok.

One more thing that came out of this is 911 was activated on the SPOT and of course the RCMP were advised, who in turn calls your contacts that you set up. Since we had no idea who was in trouble u assume the worst. If yur ok, send that message after the 911 to avoid a lot of anxiety back home. For the record, I don't have a SPOT but will be getting one. Our group always has one I don't know exactly all the options available when sending a message but am sure some one can advise here.
Cheers !


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[LBZ]

The one time I sent the 911 I sent an all is good message twice after. Wife had a momentary panic attack but was OK after the messages. Good advice. And wear your tether, and do up your helmet strap.

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[RXN]

Thanks for sharing.
I'm a firm believer of always wearing my tether. I installed them on my two sleds that didn't have. I've also influenced others I've ridden with to wear theirs.

I need to do some looking into on those SPOT beacons, sounds like they can be quiet the life saver.

 

[ferniesnow]

Thanks for sharing.
I'm a firm believer of always wearing my tether. I installed them on my two sleds that didn't have. I've also influenced others I've ridden with to wear theirs.

I need to do some looking into on those SPOT beacons, sounds like they can be quiet the life saver.

I like the inReach for just that purpose. 3 pre-programmable messages and always the two-way communication so you can send the SOS and then send special messages to individual contacts.

 

[RXN]

I like the inReach for just that purpose. 3 pre-programmable messages and always the two-way communication so you can send the SOS and then send special messages to individual contacts.

I'm actually doing some looking into that inReach, I messaged their sales department with my questions.

 

[rknight111]

I always wear my tether. And have an Inreach that I can also text from through the app on my I phone. Phones in airplane mode and is communicating with the Inreach, with the earth mate app you can text back and forth with seconds delays. it works quite slick.

Hope the person is ok and has minimal damage to himself.


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[aocbiz]

I always wear my tether even when loading or unloading.
Thanks for the tip on sending the OK after a 911, I never even thought of that.

Hope the guy that needed help is alright.

 

[EmEight]

I always ware a tether. And one thing that has bothered me ever since I started sledding is, why dont all sleds come from factory with tethers? This seems like a no brainer to me. But as far as I know skidoo is the the only one that does. Not sure about Yamaha. I have had throttles freeze and stick wide open and it is really scary to imagine how fast a sled can go with no rider on it. And if it was to hit someone, wow not good.

 

[Sledtillded]

I'm actually doing some looking into that inReach, I messaged their sales department with my questions.

I have heard about the Inreach and that text option sounds like the way I would go A one way message just sets the other end into panic mode. I am sure this has been beaten to death but please post back the answers to your questions. Definitely my next purchase. Be interested to know costs of plans etc


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[Luke The Drifter]

I always wear my tether. I've gotten into a few situations this season where it's saved my bacon. With the way sleds are being ridden in the hills these days (more aggressively), it blows me away that only one manufacturer has a tether standard on every sled they make.

 

[moyiesledhead]

It boggles my mind that people are still riding without a tether. I just don't get it.

 

[Clode]

It boggles my mind that people are still riding without a tether. I just don't get it.

it blows me away that sleds don't come with them....gotta get one for my new cat yet....I like the pingle tethers

 

[Sledtillded]

I always ware a teather. And one thing that has bothered me ever since I started sledding is, why dont all sleds come from factory with teathers? This seems like a no brainer to me. But as far as I know skidoo is the the only one that does. Not sure about Yamaha. I have had throttles freeze and stick wide open and it is really scary to imagine how fast a sled can go with no rider on it. And if it was to hit someone, wow not good.

Very good question. Should be standard equipment "ESPECIALLY" on a mountain sled where the possibility of falling off and getting trapped underneath is very real. All of my old Yamaha's have them, assume they still do
I installed one on my Polaris at a cost of $50.00. Pretty cheap insurance. IMO

We had a Doo ghost ride last week end into a stand of trees, pretty much wrote off a 15. Rider wasn't wearing his tether. Had a discussion about if the engine is dead does it actually slow a run away sled down. Not sure if it varies between manufacturers. We did some on hill testing And my Polaris slowed down a bit for sure The Doo's didn't slow down much at all either way running or not.
Here's one for the manufacturer eye balls reading this. Design a tether that ties into an electric actuated caliper on the brake disc to slowly apply brake pressure to avoid a runaway on a dead sled. Would help to stop the track quicker, if your arm-leg - head was in the track Pretty sure everyone reading this has had a ghost ride in their group at some point.


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[slededjr]

Makes no sense to ride without tether. Even more stupid to sell a sled without one??? I seen too many bad things related to not having a tether.

 

[Jake jenkins]

I always wear my tether. And have an Inreach that I can also text from through the app on my I phone. Phones in airplane mode and is communicating with the Inreach, with the earth mate app you can text back and forth with seconds delays. it works quite slick.

Hope the person is ok and has minimal damage to himself.


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I actually came across this guy in my travels today , just north of Eco bowl we went for help and came back and got his sled out and drive it back to the owls cabin , chopper took over 4 hours to get there looks like he will lose 3 if not 4 fingers , we found one and kept on ice but it was in rough shape . Doesn't look like he had his tether on as when we went to get the sled it was wrapped around his bars

 

[BIGFOOT]

​Always...

 

[ducati]

Honestly I never used to ride with one and now I won't ride without. Too many close calls and had a guy from a different group ghost ride his sled into mine while we were eating lunch because he was not wearing a tether. I jumped out of the way and it did about $4000 worth of damage to my sled that had 200km on it.

 

[eclipse1966]

there is a youtube video of a guy pinned under the sled in Norway and ever since watching the video I installed one and wear it faithfully.

 

[EmEight]

I always wear my tether. I've gotten into a few situations this season where it's saved my bacon. With the way sleds are being ridden in the hills these days (more aggressively), it blows me away that only one manufacturer has a tether standard on every sled they make.

That being said about only skidoo having factory tethers, there could be some improvements on it. I'm a tall guy, just under 6'4", and the tether is on the right hand side of the sled. When side hilling on the left side occasionally I am hanging off the sled ,wrong foot forward, so far that I pull the tether. Only on a very steep slope tho. And I have added a carabiner for an extra couple inches in length. The other problem I have with it is that quite often when doing a small hill climb into a side hill, the tether will wrap around the back side of the handle bars. Break or throttle side. This usually ends in it being pulled. If one is in a tricky spot it can make for a bad situation. When I added a tether to my 09 m8, I made a bracket and mounted it to the middle of the handle bars. Right below the riser. And never once had a problem with it. They need to rethink the position of the tether. I have heard of the teth air product, and it seems like it might be the way to go. I personally have not tried one.

 

[RGM]

That being said about only skidoo having factory tethers, there could be some improvements on it. I'm a tall guy, just under 6'4", and the tether is on the right hand side of the sled. When side hilling on the left side occasionally I am hanging off the sled ,wrong foot forward, so far that I pull the tether. Only on a very steep slope tho. And I have added a carabiner for an extra couple inches in length. The other problem I have with it is that quite often when doing a small hill climb into a side hill, the tether will wrap around the back side of the handle bars. Break or throttle side. This usually ends in it being pulled. If one is in a tricky spot it can make for a bad situation. When I added a tether to my 09 m8, I made a bracket and mounted it to the middle of the handle bars. Right below the riser. And never once had a problem with it. They need to rethink the position of the tether. I have heard of the teth air product, and it seems like it might be the way to go. I personally have not tried one.

Clip the tether to itself making a loop and wear it on your left hand. If you end up underneath the sled you just have to yank your left arm to kill it.