The Long Way Down - Splunkers Ride for YoungMinds

You may have seen Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman navigate the globe on various two-wheeled machines, but they lacked one thing...Splunk!

What if the team had access to predictive analytics for the motorcycle maintenance, or the riders’ heart rates to measure fatigue of the riders in order to take breaks at the right time? A motorcycle and a human can generate a magnitude of data sources, it's having the right tools in your toolbox to be able to ask the big data questions. 

Now Let's Get to the Point...

Motorcycles can be a great release for a lot of people, the wind in your hair (or beard), those long winding roads, the camaraderie of a group outing. Sadly, some people don’t have that release, especially with the younger generation. 

This is where organisations like YoungMinds come in. They are the UK’s leading charity fighting for children and young people's mental health. Their mission is to see a world where no young person feels alone with their mental health, and all young people get the mental health support they need, when they need it, no matter what. Their work ranges from providing a reassuring conversation, specialist mental health support, or simply the knowledge that they are not alone in how they are feeling, YoungMinds will make sure that all young people get the support that meets them where they're at as quickly as possible.

We at Splunk believe this is such a great cause and have even personally been involved with YoungMinds in the past and seen first-hand, the great work that they do. That's why today, the 14th of October, 

• 3 intrepid Splunkers will be completing an arduous country long ride
• 2400 miles ride from John O’ Groats to Lands End 
• over 5 (very long) days, to raise awareness of both the cause and YoungMinds. 

This is the next in a series of challenges that have been organised by the all-round top Splunker Murray Baum, a huge advocate of YoungMinds. To get an idea of previous challenges, check out Murray's post when he and the team cycled for 24 hours!

This will not only be an epic riding experience for those involved but will also go hand in hand with Splunk's mission to better enable the Youndminds team to deliver a current, fresh mental health and wellbeing service for all those younger people in the United Kingdom. We have an opportunity to assist those who need it the most. This is a generation of talent working to find their path in life, confidence and their happy place to live life to the fullest. Splunk can and will make a difference.

As well as talking about all of the good work YoungMinds do and the upcoming adventure for the Splunk bikers, I have missed one point. This blog started by talking about “what if” riders had access to their data and to a tool to be able to analyse big data. Well, look no further, the entire ride will be splunked. We will be collecting data from multiple data sources to track the riders and their performance using the Healthpost app by Ryan O’Connor a big brain boov at Splunk.

Here's a sneak peek of what's coming, but tune in to part 2 of this blog series, where we will explore how we captured this real-world data and the analysis of the ride and riders.

Safe riding, see you for part 2!

Ben