12 January, 2012

Everywhere you want to go

Post by Alec Burney

You can get there on a Rando bike.

I've been riding mine for a bit more than a year now, and it's taken me to a few places.

Photo by Mary Gersema


It's probably no coincidence that during that time, I've met three other people riding VO Rando frames in Maryland and Virginia. Hi Bob, Mark, and Steve!

last years' rides. This view: 170mi x 110mi

The snapshots in this post are my GPS tracks from those rides, all layered one on top of the other.

When you zoom way out, it's just a big ball of spaghetti, covering almost all of Maryland and Northern Virginia, with some stray strands in Southern Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and one reaching offscreen to North Carolina...





Catoctin Mountain. This view: 5mi x 8 mi
If you look closer, though, some order emerges. The Rando has taken me across Catoctin Mountain (right) every way you can go! It's a good climber, and you can be sure that it's seen more than a few "gut busters" in the last year...

The rando has also passed through Gettysburg, PA (below) several ways, but it looks like we missed a few. We'll have to fix that!
Gettysburg, PA. This view: 2mi x 3mi
We also seem to really like the area around Frederick (below, left), scouring the quiet country roads on ride after ride....
Patuxent river, MD. This View: 25mi x 14mi

Frederick, MD. This View: 35mi x 24mi
I've also taken the Rando to explore the Patuxent river (above, right), and even Washington, DC (below).
Washington, DC. This View 3mi x 1.5 mi
Photo by Mary Gersema



PS: If any of you collect routes, you can download the ones shown here from my ridewithgps page.

Curious about how to make your own tracks? I use motionX; some of my buddies use Garmin, and there seems to be an option for Andriod users too.


Thanks for reading! Happy riding, everyone!
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8 comments:

  1. ruthworkssf1/12/12, 4:32 PM

    Thank you for this post, it really makes me miss the 80's, when I was a teenager riding with the Oxon Hill Bicycle Club. Beautiful photos.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous1/12/12, 5:35 PM

    Hey yourself, Alec. What a great idea to overlay all those brevet routes and other rides on one map. Now if all those lines were bike lanes or paths or otherwise free of cars and trucks, well, what a world we would live in. Garsh. See ya in the Spring.
    M

    ReplyDelete
  3. Alec1/12/12, 7:45 PM

    Thanks, Ekr. The photos are courtesy of riding buddy MG of Chasing Mailboxes ( http://chasingmailboxes.wordpress.com/ )

    Agreed, M. I've been known to go far out of my way for a bike path in order to find some peace and quiet. I hope you've been enjoying the spring-like weather this week!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ian Oberholtzer1/13/12, 10:35 AM

    What kind of front rack is that? And where can i buy one?

    ReplyDelete
  5. bmike1/13/12, 6:37 PM

    if you have the gps data, you can overlay all those rides, at the same time, in topofusion. see some examples:

    http://vimeo.com/8514651

    http://vimeo.com/8514633

    ReplyDelete
  6. web1/14/12, 3:52 PM

    Alec,
    I'm interested in trying motionX on my iphone but looking at reviews online, it seems that it quickly drains the battery on the phone. How do you work around this?
    Best,
    web

    ReplyDelete
  7. Alec1/16/12, 10:28 AM

    Ian Oberholtzer:

    That is the front rack of the upcoming camper racks. I've been using it just about every day for about 9 months.

    bmike: thanks for the links - topofusion looks really powerful. You're the bmike of little circles and bikeforums, right? Hi there!

    ReplyDelete
  8. bmike1/30/12, 3:56 PM

    alec,

    yes, littlecirclesvt is me.
    and i organize the new england randonners events here in vermont.

    hello!

    -bmike, mike b, etc.

    ReplyDelete