Unfortunately, I haven’t had much time to do much riding lately. We’ve had a number of sick kids lately, and a lot of rain. I have been able to get some decent workouts in, however. Here’s what I’ve done this week:
Sunday, May 24 Worked like a dawg in the yard. Mowed and bagged grass, dethatched a 1500 sq. ft. area with a dethatch rake (it will kick your butt), laid grass seed and fertilizer, set up a sprinkler system. All told, about 5 hours of hard work outside.
Tuesday, May 26 Did the ArcTrainer for 30 minutes at the gym on my lunch break.
Wednesday, May 27 Was at home with a sick child. Did an hour on the bike trainer while he napped.
Thursday, May 28 Again home with a sick child, did another hour on the bike trainer while he napped. Was mighty tempted to eat a big bowl of MooseTracks ice cream instead, but resisited the urge.
Friday, May 29 Upper body weight workout at the gym.
Little Circles has an awesome post where he summarizes the equipment and food he used on a recent 226 mile New England ride. In his post-ride breakdown, he covers saddle balm, energy gels, front and rear bags, rain jacket, lights, and more. I’m in the process of adding to my collection of gear for long distance riding, and I’m sure I’ll refer back to his list again when creating my own wish list of bike gear. If you’re into riding long distances, definitely check out his very helpful and thorough post.
I’m really liking the RideWithGPS.com website. It does a good job at tracking bike routes, and the interface is awesome. The developers have left several comments on this blog, so I know they appreciate feedback. They’re continuing to improve the site, and according to their blog, they are looking for ideas on how to improve the site. RideWithGPS has multiple ways to give them feedback. You can leave a message on their site, or you can comment on their blog. Since I wanted to visually show some recommendations, I chose to offer some ideas with this blog post. My suggestions below are basically to steal some ideas from Bicycling’s new Training Log.
1. Add a summary tab to the list of the tab interface
Summary is clean
RidewithGPS’s tabs are awesome, but I’d like to see a summary tab that incorporates information like the screenshot above. I appreciate the weekly, monthly, and yearly totals on the summary page. I can honestly do without the table that Bicycling has, but others might find it useful.
2. Mileage and Mapping of routes is optional
Mileage/map optional
Some routes, such as bike paths, are really hard to map out on a website. Also, I’m likely to ride on our bike path a certain amount of time, then turn around and go back. Bicycling’s Training Log allows me to enter a route without requiring a map (or GPS) and without requiring mileage. This allows me to enter the mileage separately when I log an activity. Currently, with RideWithGPS, I would have to map out the 33 mile bike path ride I did yesterday before I entered it on my log. My understanding is that the developers are working on ways to enter activities without requiring a map. I will definitely appreciate this feature.
3. Script for embedding stats
Embed stats on your blog
Bicycling’s training log allows you to embed stats on your blog or website, simply by cutting and pasting a bit of javascript. The developers of RideWithGPS seem to be very gifted folks, so this would likely be an easy to implement. Also, I would imagine that allowing people to embed stats on their blogs would be a great way to publicize RideWithGPS, as well as promote the social nature of the site. The widget that Bicycling has looks kind of generic too, so I imagine RideWithGPS could make a much cooler widget. RideWithGPS’s map and histogram embeds are very cool and easy to use. Embeddable stats would give users another option to share their data (and spread the word about RideWithGPS) all over the place.
4. Import/Export of stats
Export stats from training log
Since Bicycling lets you export stats from your training log, one way that RideWithGPS could acquire some users is to allow an easy import feature from Bicycling. The import of routes from MapMyRide works flawlessly. Since Bicycling allows you to export data as an Excel file, it RideWithGPS should be able to import this data. This seems like this would mostly be a matter of deciding which fields mapped where, then scripting the import of the data.
5. Make the search interface more intutive
Route search is very powerful
Searching for routes in RideWithGPS is very easy. There are multiple ways you can search. The only thing holding the route search back right now is the lack of content there to search.
Searching by zipcode is not intuitive
It appears that currently the only user information that is searchable is the zipcode and the username. A search for Athens or OH does not find me as a user. You can only currently find me by typing my zipcode or my name. It took me a few minutes to figure this out, and as a librarian, I’m trained to figure out how to search things. A little bit of text telling user what to search (name, zip, etc) would make it easier for users to connect with others. I’d also like to see the state and city fields searchable here as well. Finally, I’d also like to be able to search for users in a mileage radius as well. I don’t know all the surrounding zip codes in a 50 mile radius, so the system ought to be able to help me find others nearby. I think the community aspect of RideWithGPS has a great deal of potential, but users need to be able to find each other in order to maximize the potential.
These are just a few suggestions that I have with how to improve RideWithGPS. I’m not an expert programmer by any means, so I don’t know how easy it would be to implement my recommendations. I do see that RideWithGPS is already one of the better mapping and log tools available to cyclists, and I am excited about what the site creators will bring to the site. The developers seem genuinely interested in developing a tool that others will use, so the end product, with user imput, can potentially be the best service available. I’m looking forward to where they will take the site.
I took a longer lunch yesterday to get a ride in on the Athens Bike Path. Despite my legs feeling a little weak initially, I managed to crank out 33 miles in 2:05. It was a gorgeous day for a ride. There were lots of folks on the bike path who were smiling just like me, happy to be out in the nice weather riding, running, walking, or skating. On the leg back from Nelsonville, I met a guy named Bill. He caught up with me and we rode together for about 10 miles. He said since he was retired, he was able to ride the path at least 3 days a week. He easily kept up with my pace (about 16.5 mph), which shows that cycling is a sport that you can do all through your life.
The video embedded above is mostly my ramblings at various points in the ride. There’s even a surprise near the middle of the video. Hint: It’s remarks about those really laid-back riders. 😉
Me legs definitely feel like I rode 33 miles, particularly when walking up and down stairs. Not sore, just a bit fatigued. Perhaps tomorrow I can get back on the bike path, only this time I’ll tow the boys in the trailer.
I just found the Change Your Life, Ride A Bike blog via The Old Bike Blog. The Change Your Life blog highlights how riding a bike has impacted folks’ lives. Thom, the creator of the Old Bike Blog, was feature in a recent post. I thought what he said about learning to fix your own bike was pretty cool:
I started the Old Bike Blog to chronicle my progress on restoring the Columbia, and within about five months, I was done. I had absolutely zero previous experience, just a few tools, and a healthy dose of concern that I would never be able to get the thing put back together correctly. But in the end, I successfully dismantled, cleaned, sanded, painted, re-greased, and reassembled my bike. Today, it is my grocery bike, and has been joined by several other old bikes, all of which I’ve restored or refurbished. My learning curve has been (and still is) extraordinarily steep, and I discovered not only a passion for the work of restoration, but also the absolute importance of really *knowing* your bicycle, inside and out, front and back. It’s something everyone *can* do, and I believe very passionately in the democratizing potential of do-it-yourself bicycle mechanics. That’s how riding (and working on) bicycles has changed my life, and will continue to do so for many years.
I’m still learing to work on my own bike. One of the reasons I don’t work on my bike more often is I’m afraid of having it down for too long; that is, me taking too long to figure out what I’m doing and missing riding. His comments there do give me some confidence and inspiration to attempt to learn and *know* mby bike more.
