Google Maps and Cycling
If you follow me on Twitter or we’re friended on Facebook you might have picked up on the fact that I’m somewhat of an avid cycler. I like to ride and I like to explore. Finding new bike trails and routes is part of the fun. This is why I was excited to see this morning’s Google blog post “Biking directions added to Google Maps.”
Now you can get driving directions and choose “Bicycling” to get bike specific directions. That’s nice and all, but here’s the part that I like even better. Looking for more trails around Cherry Creek State Park? First, find the park at Google Maps, then click on “More…” and check the “Bicycling” box. All those green lines are the trails.
- Dark green indicates a dedicated bike-only trail;
- Light green indicates a dedicated bike lane along a road;
- Dashed green indicates roads that are designated as preferred for bicycling, but without dedicated lanes
This is going to be a great resource for finding and planning rides. I’m pretty stoked. Will it replace my paper map of the Denver area trails (sold via the Denver Bicycle Touring Club)? Nah, but it will definitely be the first place I start now.
Oh, and check out the Satellite view – the trails really “pop” in that view:
iPod Shuffle (3rd Gen)
I picked up a new little gadget this week. I have to confess, I was seduced by how it looked on the shelf. Yup, I now own my first iPod – an iPod Shuffle 4GB (3rd generation to be precise.)
I’ve only had it a few days so just a few thoughts to share. For me, the primary use will be on long distance bike rides. I’m sure I’ll also use it at the gym this fall and winter.
As a bike rider I think this thing is simply brilliant. I just clip it to a jersey sleeve or, if I’m wearing it, a camelback strap and don’t worry about it. The volume and track controls are on the headphones and easily reached and adjusted by touch.
Suppose you don’t love the apple headphones though… Well then this probably isn’t your first choice in an iPod. Oh sure, my much better quality headphones work with it – as long as I don’t want to adjust volume or manage tracks. That’s a bummer. Makes it a pain to use in my car via FM transmitter too.
I’m told that there are adapters available that will allow one to use their own headphones yet still have some control. Would love a pointer if anyone happens to have a suggestion of where to look.
Back on a positive note, the size of this thing is awesome. Clipped to a sleeve I soon forgot it was even there! Too light to even pull on the material.
It also has something called “VoiceOver” which is actually what clinched the deal for me.
VoiceOver is the exciting new feature that makes iPod shuffle the first music player that talks to you. It entirely changes the way you browse and navigate your music. Say you’re listening to a song and want to know the title or the artist. With the press of a button, VoiceOver tells you–without interrupting your music. But the fun doesn’t stop with songs. For the first time ever on an iPod shuffle, you can have multiple playlists, and VoiceOver announces their names, too. So you can easily find the right mix without taking your eyes off your run, your ride, or whatever you’re doing.
Very handy when making mental notes of songs to dump next time at home…
That quote also mentions multiple play-lists but I haven’t figured out how to manage which list I’m hearing. Once I figure that out I can start using my Shuffle for podcasts (as a separate list) too.
(note the image link above is an affiliate link and I’d love it if you’d use it!)
Windows Mobile GPS Apps?
Help me lazyweb! I’m looking for suggestions… A while back I discovered TrackMe, an application that would use my Windows Mobile device and GPS to track my bike rides.
Now, TrackMe seemed to work well enough, but I have to admit the footprint seemed rather large. So, before I install it again, I’m curious as to if anyone has suggestions for alternatives.
Goal? I want to use my winmo device to log my rides and, in some reasonably intuitive way, generate maps of said rides – ideally with some key data like distance and avg. speed.
Suggestions?
(Yeah, I can find options with web searches but I’d prefer suggestions before randomly installing stuff…)
TrackMe: A Quick Look
I continue to be intrigued with the idea of tracking or mapping my bike rides. Back in June I found Gmaps Pedometer which I initially liked. However, tracking the longer rides via double-clicking waypoints for each and every turn got old. Fast!
My neighbor sent me over a link to TrackMe this week and I had a chance to give it a run this afternoon.
To use TrackMe, your Windows Mobile (5 or 6) device needs GPS — either built-in or external via something like Bluetooth. You also need to install a load of other “framework” stuff, so the footprint isn’t all that light, but it definitely seems to work well.
I took a 16 mile ride this afternoon with it running. When I got home I exported my file (as a kml) and checked it out on Google Maps. Looks like a few waypoints were dropped but in general it’s a very accurate representation of my ride. Here’s a shot of the top part of the course:
Cool, huh? Click on any of those markers and there’s more detail to be had. For instance:
I particularly enjoyed clicking around to see my speed fluctuations.
As you can see by the pictures above, I’m using TrackMe with Google Maps. You can also integrate it with Google Earth. However, I don’t currently have that installed… in fact, until just now I hadn’t realized that there was a Linux version of it. Guess I’ll try it out soon.
There are a lot of features and options for TrackMe. Fortunately, it pretty much “just works” right after an install. But be sure to read the full TrackMe product page. For instance, I just noticed that there’s a much easier way to show my data on maps by using Luis’s site directly.
The only negative I noticed was related to battery usage. My ride was about 1 hour and it used up about 50% of my battery life — and that was with using the built-in screen blanker. I may have to look at the options a bit deeper before heading out on a long ride.
Have any other interesting or cool GPS / PDA tools that I might want to try with my bike rides? Drop a comment, I’m definitely interested.
Reference
Features
- Ability to generate KML and GPX files that can be opened with any tool that supports that type of file.
- Realtime tracking with Google Earth or Google Maps.
- You can create and manage your own trips
- No internet connection is needed when using TrackMe (Offline mode)
- Ability to display your current position on your PDA
- Geofence with SMS and email notifications
- You can send your current position by email or sms to other person
- Ability to upload pictures. TrackMe will extract the GPS information/Creation date (if any) from the pictures and it will match it with your existing GPS data
- Search for closest user based on your last uploaded position
- GPS powersave mode available
- You can use your own server instead of my free server
- Stealth mode
- You can force updates with your own custom icon and comments.
Requirements
Gmaps Pedometer
I rode my bike to the gym tonight. Was a little odd to start my workout already warmed up – not a bad thing though. The ride is easy enough and I think I’ll try to do this more often.
Once I got home I was curious about how far, exactly, I had ridden. I found a site that makes it very easy to find out: Gmaps Pedometer.
It is a reasonably simple web app that uses Google Maps to help you find distances. Anyone who walks, jogs, runs or bikes might find it useful when wondering about distances.
Heck, it’ll even give you a (weight-based) calories burned estimate.
Get started by using the map portion to find your area. I find that toggling the map to Satellite or Hybrid mode makes locating bike trails a lot easier. Click the record button and then double-click along the route to draw straight lines from point to point. When you’re done, you can even save the route and share it with folks (click that link)
As the route grows, so does the Total Distance counter. Turns out my ride tonight was just shy of 8 miles, which is decent (but very slack!). After a good workout, jumping back on the bike for much longer would’ve been a lot more daunting though.
Here’s part of my route:
It even pops little mile markers up along the way. I jumped off the trail right about the 2 mile marker on that route above and cut across an apartment complex and then a few blocks of surface streets to the gym. I see a better way a bit north of there for next time… And there’s a helpful bonus: future route planning.
If your route has lots of turns or curves, be prepared for lots of double-clicking. Each time you double-click it draws a straight line from that spot to the previous spot so you might have to “cut” some corners…
I’m a little late to the party on this one. Based on the About info, it’s been around almost 2 years! But I’ll be using it now that I’ve found it.
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