Ride With GPS
12-20-13, 10:37 AM
#26
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I'm over 60, riding for over 40 years, and thought not reliant on it, I find it very advantageous. I can lay out a new route and go out and hammer without slowing/stopping to deal with navigation. It also depends on where I ride. Living out West, routes were simple. A quick look at that map or route sheet beforehand and I was good to go. In the Northeast, routes can get very complicated with all the twisty short little roads. For example, the second ride I did here has 27 turns and different roads in 25 miles. It certainly would be less problematic for a native familiar with the area but as a newcomer I could spend more time navigating than pedaling.
12-20-13, 03:46 PM
#27
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I'm reminded of the crew boss on our farm, who started working our family's land when he was a young boy and worked until he was in his mid 70s, when he had to take off to care for his wife. He was tough as nails, was the first to show up and the last to leave, and had lived through the depression, fought in WWII, and had forgotten more than most of us would ever know about farming.When we upgraded the farm to 12 row equipment, we gave him the first tractor, and at the end of the first day he climbed down off the tractor and said (cleaned up version) "Boys, I started off looking at the back end of a mule working all day to cover 10 acres. Today I sat in a padded seat in an air conditioned cab, listened to the radio, and planted 250 acres before sunset. When somebody tells you about the good old days, they're full of it. THESE are the good old days!"
Getting back to the original question, though, aside from mapping (which seems to be a largely subjective matter), are there any features that make RWGPS stand out from Strava and MMR?
BB
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Formerly fastest rider in the grupetto, currently slowest guy in the peloton
Formerly fastest rider in the grupetto, currently slowest guy in the peloton
12-20-13, 09:35 PM
#28
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really depends on how many other cyclists there are in your area, but Strava has what they call "heat maps" that show the activity on various routes. It's pretty neat. People near me need to ride more
12-21-13, 08:17 AM
#29
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Here's a convenient zoomable heat map: https://raceshape.com/heatmap/
Poking around on this map, it's pretty clear that only a very very small fraction of riders upload rides. Looking some of the places I'm familliar with, Chyenne WY for example shows no rides at all, and I know there are certainly many cyclists there. Also very few rides in Laramie, the home of the U of WY.
Last edited by Looigi; 12-21-13 at 08:43 AM.
12-21-13, 12:24 PM
#30
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Here's a convenient zoomable heat map: https://raceshape.com/heatmap/
12-21-13, 05:40 PM
#31
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I'm 50, and while I'm not dependent on it, I sure do like it.
I'm reminded of the crew boss on our farm, who started working our family's land when he was a young boy and worked until he was in his mid 70s, when he had to take off to care for his wife. He was tough as nails, was the first to show up and the last to leave, and had lived through the depression, fought in WWII, and had forgotten more than most of us would ever know about farming.When we upgraded the farm to 12 row equipment, we gave him the first tractor, and at the end of the first day he climbed down off the tractor and said (cleaned up version) "Boys, I started off looking at the back end of a mule working all day to cover 10 acres. Today I sat in a padded seat in an air conditioned cab, listened to the radio, and planted 250 acres before sunset. When somebody tells you about the good old days, they're full of it. THESE are the good old days!"
Getting back to the original question, though, aside from mapping (which seems to be a largely subjective matter), are there any features that make RWGPS stand out from Strava and MMR?
BB
I'm reminded of the crew boss on our farm, who started working our family's land when he was a young boy and worked until he was in his mid 70s, when he had to take off to care for his wife. He was tough as nails, was the first to show up and the last to leave, and had lived through the depression, fought in WWII, and had forgotten more than most of us would ever know about farming.When we upgraded the farm to 12 row equipment, we gave him the first tractor, and at the end of the first day he climbed down off the tractor and said (cleaned up version) "Boys, I started off looking at the back end of a mule working all day to cover 10 acres. Today I sat in a padded seat in an air conditioned cab, listened to the radio, and planted 250 acres before sunset. When somebody tells you about the good old days, they're full of it. THESE are the good old days!"
Getting back to the original question, though, aside from mapping (which seems to be a largely subjective matter), are there any features that make RWGPS stand out from Strava and MMR?
BB
I like putting them to use for me, and read maps on a screen far more often than I read papper maps. I even use the simple turn by turn on my Edge 500 on occasion. (it alerts you if you go off course) I am just ammused at those who try to let the machines do all their thinking for them. I will use them on rare occasion, like organized rides where getting lost as an opportunity to explore is not a good option. Even then I scope out the route ahead of time using RWGPS, and street view. and use the Garmin Course as a backup in event of poor memory or course markings
The machines think a lot faster than we do, and are getting faster all the time. They will never do it better than we. or at leas I, do.
12-21-13, 07:10 PM
#32
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No one tries to let machines do all their thinking for them. But different people have different mental talents, different comfort with technology, different availability of technology, and different need of technology.
I'm sure people have been scorning new technology since the adoption of fire.
Last edited by Athens80; 12-21-13 at 07:13 PM.
12-22-13, 08:09 PM
#33
Senior Member
Luddite, the machines already read web pages from TCP/IP better than you do, and GPS signals, and shift gears better, calculate wattage and FTP and TSS better, and build better carbon frames ....
No one tries to let machines do all their thinking for them. But different people have different mental talents, different comfort with technology, different availability of technology, and different need of technology.
I'm sure people have been scorning new technology since the adoption of fire.
No one tries to let machines do all their thinking for them. But different people have different mental talents, different comfort with technology, different availability of technology, and different need of technology.
I'm sure people have been scorning new technology since the adoption of fire.
12-23-13, 06:07 AM
#34
Senior Member
To address the original post, what I typically do if I want to travel a new route is first get a sense of where I want to go, then, similar to what CommuteCommando said, I use several tools to plan a route:
- Use google maps with the bicycle overlay to identify bike paths, lanes, or suggested routes. Or, I'll do this in MapMyRide since it has the bicycle overlay.
- Once I narrow down a few options I will sometimes use Google satellite view and street view in areas that could be troublesome to determine if I'm comfortable with a particular section of the route.
- Once I have it mapped out in MapMyRide I save the route. Then on my ride I open the route on my iPhone and it shows the map, my route, and where I am. It doesn't provide turn by turn, but it gets the job done.
What was said by someone else about finding out about gravel roads for planned rides....Some jurisdictions have on-line maps showing all the dirt and gravel roads, depends on where you live I guess. Like cwar I use the google street view feature If I have questions. For me this is not really an issue though as the bike I use on the road uses 700C touring type tires. I actually prefer a couple dirt or gravel roads when planning rides. Back roads are quiet and peaceful. If you have tires that can handle them they are great fun.
Still waiting for RWGPS to offer saved POI's for my saved rides and would be nice if they offered "live tracking" so friends or relatives could follow my position when I chose to want them to have that option.
Last edited by 01 CAt Man Do; 12-23-13 at 06:36 AM.
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