Month: October 2018

The trouble with map apps, and starting to fill in!

I’ve been using BikeGPX to help me fill in holes in my Ride San Fernando Valley project. It’s free, and it works well – unless I make a crazy route that keeps doubling back on itself. The it gets confused and I have to nudge it back on track. But for any normal cyclist trying to ride pre-planned routes, it’s a pretty cool thing. Worth having!

The other “use a map to plan a route ahead of time” issue: Did you know that roads and maps sometimes don’t line up? It’s true! It’s almost like the city is constantly changing or something.

1. This road no longer exists.
2. I was supposed to ride in here, but all the crisscrossing confused the map app.

But even with glitches, the southeast valley is starting to fill up.

Heck, in a couple of years I might actually finish this thing!

New mapp app, new seatpost

It’s really hard to find a decent app that gives turn by turn directions. Runkeeper & Strava don’t do it, which is annoying. I found an app calle Bike GPX that lets you follow a map, but doesn’t have a voice. Annoying, but it worked well enough to (mostly) follow the route.

Also: I am stunned by how different the bike feels with a different seat post. Much more comfortable!

Cushioned

I have a couple of nice bikes. Nothing insanely expensive, but nice. I wear bike shoes when I ride, but I don’t wear bike jerseys/shorts; a t-shirt and gym shorts are more my speed. Having said that: I rode Katherine’s bike home from work today, and it felt like I was riding a bag of pudding.

CicLAvia, part 2

Strava (a ride tracking app) has a function called “fly-bys.” It lets you see what other cyclists using the app you pass on a ride. Normally I ride weird routes at weird times, so I’m lucky if I pass anybody.

CicLAvia was a little different.

…and that’s just who had it turned on for the ride!

Thanks to Brian for letting me steal his route info. I had Strava turned off.