Eagle Rider : Warning of speed restrictions

A site that uses large files gives a clear alert of likely download times.

The Site

Eagle Rider claims to being the world’s largest motorcycle rental and tour company specialising in Harley Davidsons, the featured bikes in Easy Rider.

Its site aims to play up the same cool outsider-chic of the film with plenty of evocative photos and an “EagleRider video” to appeal to the “pent up outlaw that yearns for the open road”.

It has recently added two rental locations in the south of France (where ‘Les Harley’ are something of a cult) to its 21 across the US.

The Takeaway

Speed, connection speed that is, is as important to internet users as the wind-in-your-beard variety is to the Harley rider. EagleRider shows how a site that uses large files can give a clear user-friendly warning of likely speed restrictions.

EagleRider visitors attracted to “click here to watch our mini-film” find the prompt panel replaced by a table of approximate download times for the 7mb promotional video. These range from 33 minutes 58 seconds for a 28.8k connection to 39 seconds for a T1 1.5M connection. Having digested this, visitors can opt to download or return to the home page.

Even with the rapid spread of broadband most internet users are still in the 17-minute 56K zone for a download of this size. Yet many ‘lifestyle’ sites seem intent on ignoring the implications of this as a visitor turn-off. For EagleRider, the online film clip is a natural plus to its marketing pitch rather than a disposable flourish. Even so, it tries not to burn off potential customers in the slow lane.

First published on 15 July, 2003