San Fairy Ann Cycle Club

The Easyride has a number of routes wriiten out to make life easier for anyone leading a ride for the first few times. Their experience is that this
enables new leaders to make a confident start and that after a few rides they work out variations and then go on the do their own routes from scratch.

Looking at the runs lists it is easy to see that only a small propoprtion of the large number of riders out every weekend act as leaders. The most common response when suggesting to someone that they might lead a run is that they don't know the roads well enough. This is quite understandable as when riding and talking in a bunch there is no need to pay attention to details of the route..

I started riding with a club when I was 15 and after a couple of years was given the job of leading my first run. I spent hours looking at the map and sorting out lanes that we had never been down. Came the day and I realised that these "new" lanes were in fact ones that we used regularly.

Could we build up an on-line library of as many routes as possible? The style and layout need not be standardised - anything from the written junction by junction format of our Audaxes and Cyclo Sportive to a highlighted copy of a map or the printout from a GPS.

An index could show the starting place, destination cafe and mileage and perhaps a note of which group it is most suitable for.

Comments, suggestions, routes (and a volunteer librarian?) to see if it's worth trying.

Ron
I am ( at last doing my first B run lead on Oct 4. The route (with a couple of alterations is on
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/B- ... afty-green

I see that Easyriders have used this website in the past. Although some of the technology is beyond me, such as I seem to have over 600 waypoints! (I only put in a dozen or so) it does give a general description and the route is marked on a map. Perhaps leaders could use this website to build up a library. If we all started the subject with SFACC it will be easy to search and they will be grouped together. My apologies, the link above does not start with SFACC but I don't know how to change it now.

By the way, sorry I wasn't out on a run today on what was one of the nicest days of the year, but I was taking part in the South East Counties Masters Swimming Championships in Guildford. The down side- I was indoors all day - the upside was I won 2 gold medals and one silver. If only I could achieve that on a bike I might even try a tri-athlon!

Ron
I am a brand-new member so I may have this wrong - but each time I go out on my bike I track my journey on my GPS and I can share any/all such routes with anyone who wants them/ on this site / wherever.
My usual routes are based around where I live (obviously) and vary between 20 and 50 miles. If I come along on one of the Marden rides I would also have a track of that route to preserve for posterity. I can share with Garmin (GPX) or Memory Map (mmo) formats.
Tony Brady

Thanks Tony, I know at least 2 other members who do this and I suspect there may be quite a few more.

My knowledge of technology is limited to what I can do on the PC so I'm not sure about the best format for any library that we develop. Also we need to think about those who have neither PC or GPS.

Is it possible to get paper prints from Bikely or other programmes for a non-computerised prospective leader?

Ron
The simple answer is yes. Once you have a route on a GPS you can download it into any mapping software (I dont know Bikely but I have Memory Map, Fugawi and Anquet) and "see" the route on the map which is on screen. Then you print that portion of the screen that has the route on it and it is then a paper map with the route on it. You can also add instructions, information about the route etc. It is also possible to "print" the map to PDF format and then use that non-paper format as a basis to add in all sorts of extra information. Hold the PDF in the "libary" along with the GPS format "route" and you have a completely portable route, suitable for everyone - GPS or no GPS. Technically, there is probably an infringement of Ordnance Survey legislation by sharing such maps - but I have been doing this for some time with our village walks and so far not been carted off to jail. The reverse process works as well - design your route on the PC and upload it to the GPS etc.
Tony

Ron
I have found Bikely and uploaded a couple of routes, seems like a good site.
Where do you want to go with this now/
Tony

Hi all,

I have recorded quite a few a routes (both on and off road) and have also uploaded a few (3 or 4) onto Bikely - try searching for Marden.

I hit a bit of a snag when I tried uploading a 200k audax as it said the file was too large. Has anyone else experienced a similar problem.

I think if all GPS enabled Fairies out there uploaded their 4 or 5 favourite routes as a start then any new leaders would have a good selection to choose from. Also, if all the routes were prefixed with "Fairy" or something similar in the title / description then they'd be easily identifiable.

I'll upload some more routes this week and rename mine accordingly.

Cheers,

Tim.

Tim, have a look at this thread on the Audax section of the yacf forum. it includes one of the many postings of audax routes on Bikely. http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=7678.15

Tim/Ron
Can you add text to Bikely routes? I didn't see that facility.
Tim I haven't got any 200K routes, how many points is that? I uploaded the Miller's Tale without difficulty, not sure of the file size but it is a 100 mile route.
I like the idea of creating your own index by prefixing with Fairy - definitely thinking outside the box.
Tony

Tim/Ron
Can you add text to Bikely routes?

As a technophobe who still uses paper maps I'll leave Tim to answer that.

Tony,

Other than the description, I'm not sure that you can text on Bikely.

Tim.

Tim/Tony

Have a look at Dave Moore's postings in Cafes - Cafe List
http://sanfairyanncc.freeforums.org/cafe-list-t327.html

Could it do the same for routes?

Ron
Fortunately for Tim's wife and children and my wife -we are not technically challenged (at least not in computer issues). It is how we "earn" our livings.
So - we have a number of opportunities.
Bikely - Upside - very accessible, free to use and easy to upload GPX files (may be other file types as well, don't know, doesn't mattter 'cos most folk use garmin anyway) Downside - not easy to index - Tim has a great idea of prefixing with Fairy but other folk could do the same with less care. Downside - you can't use text to add instructions, warnings, cafe stops information etc.
The "Dave Moore" approach is much like I listed earlier - create a pdf and let folk download it. Query from me is that I don't know how the website is organised - who can add files (permissions).
One more challenge - the "Moderator" - who checks what is put on is "good". Who checks for what was put on some time ago is still valid / suitable.
I also like the Bikely approach of generating elevation graphs and categorising off road / on road, recreation etc.

Tony

Tony / Ron,

How about we save the .GPX files and a .PDF description of the route on our website? That way we could moderate and, if people wanted to see what the route looked like, they could import the route into Google Earth or Bikely.

A simple indexed listing of the routes with a simple hypelink to the respective document should suffice.

Ron,

How much webspace do we have at our disposal?

Tim.

Tim,

Lots of space - one of the reasons for the new website. I will check with Russell the exact amount.

I'll leave you and Tony to decide the best system but can we bear in mind potential leaders who would like to know the routes but who don't own a PC (and don't say go into a library because non-ownership is more likely to be technophobia than lack of £)