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 When two ABR’s-Jason Clive and Dave Hobin-had a chance meeting on the forecourt of a petrol station, little did they know it would develop into a business partnership. As they stood gassing at the garage they both agreed that long distance adventuring would be so much more enjoyable if they had a cruise control, that wasn’t going to cost in the region of £1000 (for the electronic version), and would take the strain out of the constant grip endured by the throttle hand.
It led to them inventing a gadget that they felt could be so useful that they would soon be talking to a manufacturing company about getting it into production.
There was an amount of head scratching and a lot of research, before they come up with the concept of ‘Throttlemate ’and not long after that they were putting their idea into production.
Such a simplistic idea has been received well among the touring bike fraternity and their new website is up and running, getting hundreds of hits and the little gadgets are starting to sell across the UK and in Europe to countries such as Spain, France, Finland, Sweden, Italy and Norway.
The ‘Throttlemate’ is a polycarbonate clip which clamps to the throttle grip, then by pushing it down onto to the top of the brake lever with the index finger, the rider can relax the grip on the throttle, safe in the knowledge that the bike will maintain a constant speed. To cancel it just shut the throttle. That’s it safe and simple. No more throttle hand cramp.
I met up with Jason at the gathering of the ABR clans in Ullapool and after seeing and hearing all about his and Dave’s ‘Throttlemate’ I had to try one out.
It was installed in seconds and the 600 mile ride home was made pain free by utilising this cruise control.
At £10 each, I bought 2 and fitted the other one to my second bike, I know I could swap them from bike to bike but I’m lazy like that.
To date the lads have sold over 700 so it shows that bikers like the concept.
There may be some concerns about wear on the throttle grip where the clamp sits, but I haven’t noticed this with mine, and grips do wear out over time anyway so it’s not really an issue.
Check out the ‘Throttlemate’ at;
www.throttlemate.co.uk
Watch the video and you can’t fail to be impressed at how ingenious this little device is. For £10 this gadget works, so why wouldn’t you buy one?
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