I had off for Lincoln's Birthday today, and with temps around 40° and no rain or snow, I hoped to get a ride in - in fact, I hoped to do two of the routes I'm planning to do as "D" rides with The Excellent Wife (TEW) and the Freehweelers this summer. So I copied the routes into the GPS and drove off to Cranbury this morning.
However, the .gpx file for one of the routes just choked the GPS unit; it took over ten minutes before the route showed onscreen. By that time, I had started out, going the way I thought I was supposed to go... but that didn't work, it turned out that part of the route was on the way back, and the GPS gave me instructions how to get back to Cranbury. I soldiered on, and discovered a route (about 12-13 miles) from Cranbury to the Mendoker's Bakery in Jamesburg, which TEW thinks is just fine, but I think will be too short. I see I'll need to set up cue sheets for these routes, and not depend on the GPS.
I did the route twice; the second time to make sure I got the mileage right. What I had not counted on was the wicked wind coming from the southwest - I thought I was just that strong going out at 21-22 mph, but I was coming back at about 13 where I was going up over the NJ Turnpike, and I didn't gain much speed on the downhill. I did that twice. I'm not the brightest guy you ever met.
The thirty-or-so miles I did was enough for today (partly because of my disappointment, and partly because I find riding alone is a drag). It turned out I needed to clean the chain and do an adjustment when I got home, and when I hung the bike from the ceiling hooks, it was so filthy that I also gave the whole thing a good cleaning and another polish.
I guess it's good that I now have two routes to Mendoker's, we can do the shorter one one time and the longer one another.(I plan the first D ride to be a ride up the D&R canal path from 518 to Amwell and back; get your wide tires out!)
So, experienced ride leaders: is there a quick way of making cue sheets from rides on MayMyRide or RideWithGPS? And how do you get a ride in the book, anyway? Do you just email the announcement to the ride coordinator for the class?
Hi Jim, You asked if there is an easy way to create Cue Sheets. I use both MapMyRide and RideWithGPS for my blog posts. However, I think RideWithGPS is the way to go for creating Cue Sheets. You'll have to actually create the map by hand using your mouse after you log into RideWithGPS, but after you are done, then you can download (export) a CSV file which Microsoft Excel can read. I assume you have MIcrosoft Excel. The exported Cue Sheet will probably not be 100% accurate. So open both RideWithGPS and Excel on your computer at the same time and just make any corrections in Excel as you see fit. When done, then print out the Cue Sheet using Excel.
ReplyDeleteWith regard to getting a ride listed in The Freewheel, you have to email the appropriate Ride Coordinator by the 10th of the month for listing to go in the FOLLOWING month's publication. So a ride for July has to be emailed by June 10th. Bill Cooper handles D ride listings. See your copy of The Freewheel for contact info.
Thanks, Jeff. I use Linux, and I'm as cheap as they come, so I don't use Excel, but I do use LibreOffice Calc, which will happily open a .csv file. I didn't see that possibility, though - do you have to be a paid member to do that, or am I just being an idiot?
ReplyDeleteI'm not a paid member, and it is available to me. After you create your route/map and save it, then you can go back and view it. While viewing your map there will be three tabs on the right side of your screen: comments, share, and export. CVS is the fourth option under the Export tab.
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