Geoladders.com

[ECOdork]

I came across this site recently. (geoladders.com)

Don't worry George, the discussion/forum aspect of it doesn't even come close to our beloved socaltrailriders.org.

I'm not that competitive of a dude, so I can't comment on the whole "rides", "ladders", "races", etc. thing, but their route descriptions, mappings, and directions are pretty slick. Uncovered several OC rides I didn't know about...although that isn't too difficult of a task...

[Von-Skipp]

Ya this is a sweet site. I think Adam and the other Matt are signed up. I will randomly post rides to build up points. But I still dont get how to win free stuff.

The part I like is that it keep tracks of all your race results, even though ive only done 1. But the Vision Quest is comming up!

[LBmtb]

Talk about lots of content! Good link.

[singleSSpeedster]

geoladders is a great website. they are constantly adding routes too.

IntenseKipp....registration for the 2006 vision quest just opened up at active.com. if you are thinking of doing it, I'd suggest signing up ASAP. Last years ride had about 290 riders (not sure if that included the Counting Coup 40 miler), but I think they are going to cap it at 250 or so riders this year (and it will fill up even quicker this time around).

If you are worrying about training, sign up now. That WILL get your @ss on your bike and plenty motivated.

[Von-Skipp]

with not much to do on rainy day I was thinking.......


I really like the whole concept of Geoladders.com, Ive been posting all my rides and keeping track of miles, ect since the summer.

What if STR had our own mini Geoladder. * Just the guys on STR could post their rides and keep track of miles, elevation, time on our own ladders.

Then maybe a prize give-a-way at the end of each month for having the most miles or best times or most elevation gain, possible courteous of Jenson.


any thoughts or rants??

[dstepper]

Do I get handicap points for being over 50 and riding a rigid single speed?

[Von-Skipp]

Originally Posted by dstepper

Do I get handicap points for being over 50 and riding a rigid single speed?

acourse you do! your just the famous dstepper who I see every time I ride El Moro!!

[TURNERob]

Originally Posted by IntenseKipp

acourse you do! *your just the famous dstepper who I see every time I ride El Moro!!

I ran into Dean on Missing Link Saturday as a matter of fact. Good thing we didn't talk too much longer because it started raining on me right after the rock garden on Rattlesnake. I was pretty soaked and muddy by the time I got back to my car.

[LBmtb]

Originally Posted by IntenseKipp

What if STR had our own mini Geoladder. Just the guys on STR could post their rides and keep track of miles, elevation, time on our own ladders.

Then maybe a prize give-a-way at the end of each month for having the most miles or best times or most elevation gain, possible courteous of Jenson.


any thoughts or rants??

Hm - maybe . . .

[DtEW]

The thing I don't like about Geoladders.com is that although it takes everyone's GPS data, it doesn't to allow you to download anybody's raw GPS data to use in constructing your own navigational routes. You can get printable directions, but this seems to deliberately ignore the fact that the major reason people buy GPS units is to navigate with it. (It's not paper and you don't have to fish it out of your pocket at each trail junction.)

This deliberate "workaround" gives me the suspicion that all the raw data Geoladders collects is eventually going to be processed, repackaged and sold for a profit. That's kind of iffy for me.

Sure, Geoladders provides value as a guide to new trails, but then consider SocalTrailRiders.org, which does what it does purely for the sake of the mountain biking community and everything remains in the public domain. Or even MTBR.com, which only subjects us to advertisements.

If you guys want to set-up a section of STR that does all the stuff that Geoladders does but also allows people to share raw GPS data, that would be awesome.

[LBmtb]

Originally Posted by DtEW

The thing I don't like about Geoladders.com is that although it takes everyone's GPS data, it doesn't to allow you to download anybody's raw GPS data to use in constructing your own navigational routes. You can get printable directions, but this seems to deliberately ignore the fact that the major reason people buy GPS units is to navigate with it. (It's not paper and you don't have to fish it out of your pocket at each trail junction.)

This deliberate "workaround" gives me the suspicion that all the raw data Geoladders collects is eventually going to be processed, repackaged and sold for a profit. That's kind of iffy for me.

Sure, Geoladders provides value as a guide to new trails, but then consider SocalTrailRiders.org, which does what it does purely for the sake of the mountain biking community and everything remains in the public domain. Or even MTBR.com, which only subjects us to advertisements.

If you guys want to set-up a section of STR that does all the stuff that Geoladders does but also allows people to share raw GPS data, that would be awesome.

I'd help out anyway I can. What do you mean by sharing raw GPS data? (I dont own a GPS obviously) Do you mean like routes and stuff?

I don't have the time to program something identical to geoladders or the funds to pay a programmer (unless someone out there wants to volunteer?) to do it but I can hack the forums and add in a 'cash mod' which awards points for certain things. It's supposed to be to award active people on the forums, with extra points for the starters of popular threads and such but I dont see why I cant change it to award points based on rides. I'm kind of working on getting a source for prizes for top point earners, but that's tentative right now.

But ya - I'm always open to ideas on how to make STR better, so just shout out some ideas. \/

[DtEW]

Originally Posted by LBmtb

I'd help out anyway I can. What do you mean by sharing raw GPS data? (I dont own a GPS obviously) Do you mean like routes and stuff?

Yes. The data that you off-load after a ride from the GPS unit into your computer can be saved as one of any number of file formats (*.gdb, *.mps, *.dxf, *.gpx). This file can contain routes, waypoints, and trackpoint logs ("electronic breadcrumbs" that show the exact path that was taken during the ride). This data file isn't big by any means, and websites (singletrackmind.com is one that comes to, um... mind) do indeed share them.

I think if we were to do a GPS-data-sharing-thing, all we need is a mod to the forum software to allow for uploading/downloading of those allowed GPS data formats.

If we wanted to do a Geoladders-competition-type of thing, it would have to be done one of two ways:

1) Honor system. After submitting a GPS data file, we would then input the mileage and elapsed time and submit that. This might not work on a public website.

2) GPS data file analysis. This is what Geoladders does. You don't get to tell the website what your performance was, but the GPS file of the ride is read on their end and your performance is determined for you. People generally don't know how to falsify GPS data files.

Without writing any software, this analysis can be done manually. It's not hard or time-consuming, and with the expected submission volume, it should be doable at the beginning.