What's new

Map my Ride Community or a Ride Resource List

Wolfman

Speeding Up
Jul 31, 2007
631
19
I was looking around MapmyRide, going over old routes, routes I'd mapped but never had the chance to explore or ride, and trying out some new routes.

As I was looking around, I noticed routes from other TCC members that were nearby. As I flicked through these routes, I then found myself checking the community section to see if there was a specific TCC Group list of rides. There wasn't.

Actually, I was wondering if such a group list on MMR would be a nice idea, or alternatively a sticky thread of nominated routes. These could be sorted by category such as

- beginner/easy
- intermediate
- advanced

or by area:

- Chiba
- Yamanashi
- Kanagawa
- Chichibu

and could also provide reference to the the main river routes out of the city.

Such a resource would draw on the accumulated knowledge embedded in TCC providing a codified resource that would allow people to easily select from a menu of identied routes that they could then sample at their leisure.

When I first started riding, even though I was reading TCC I had no real idea where to go in Tokyo so ended up pottering along Omekaido out to Okutama all the time. Actually, Omekaido through Tokyo is perhaps one of the most miserable roads around with high levels of traffic and lights every ten or so metres. Such a resource would enable people to bypass this kind of negative learning experience, and present clear signals on the range of rides and routes available.

Even though the information is already there, you often have to know what you're looking for, such a resource would probably make ride route identification quite a bit easier.
 
I use Map My Ride quite a bit but have not looked into the groups/communities function. But as you say there are lots of routes on there created by TCC members. Would be nice to organise them as you suggest.
I'd be willing to put my routes on such a community page.

AW.
 
Great idea.
Would also be nice to agree loosely on some standards for what 'easy, intermediate, hard' mean.

Would doing one Wada/Otarumi loop be easy? To many of us, yes. But not necessarily to a total newbie and not possible for a mama-chari. (?)

Thoughts?
 
Somewhere (here or on Positivo) there was a comparison table, which (I think) used Wada as a base scale of '1', then rated other hills accordingly. I think that would be better than 'easy, etc', as after completing a ride you would have a good idea of what to expect on others.

I think MOB's 'Kanto cycling book' project may have had something like this in mind too.

Perhaps a Wiki might be nice, so members could add their own stories/tips/ratings of rides.
 
I'm game, I use the app on my iPhone to record my rides, sometimes, and other times I use the webpage to plan a route.

>> 20Km Loop Around Tokyo's Center <<

This is a quick 20Km or so around Tokyo's center that I do fairly often, on my way to or from the hospital for treatment, or just to get some miles in on my battle of the bulge :eek:

Not a bad ride, no real hills, thankfully, as I have trouble hauling my excess bulk up them hills :eek: but I'm working on it.
 
I tweaked the >> route << a bit today, avoiding some of the worse traffic areas, still, it is in Tokyo and there is a lot of traffic on weekdays. On a Sunday morning ride this would be a fairly quiet route. 22km/13 miles or there abouts, I know that is a warm up ride for many :eek: but for me it is a good daily work out. My pace traffic, stoplights, and a bit of map reading tossed in (my iPhone went for a swim, so I can't use the MapMyRide app) and I was at 20.5Km/hour for 64 minutes, that is not a fast pace, but for me it was a good ride.

Maybe I can get some other newbies to come along on a Sunday morning ride with me, do the ride, maybe one pit stop and then some lunch afterward in Yotsuya?

Cheers!
 
Back
Top Bottom