ridewithgps.com updates - What we have been up to!
cullenking
Posts: 12
Hey all, it's been a really busy several months! I haven't jumped around the forums chatting with anyone for quite a while, so thought I'd take some time to remedy that today by giving an update on http://ridewithgps.com progress.
Over the last 6 months we have seen traffic grow by over 7x! We have also broken past the 100k mapped routes milestone, which is a big leap. We are almost to 1000 new maps a day, so everyone can find new routes nearby.
We have added Garmin Communicator support for Garmin Edge 500 devices, which means users with that device no longer need to use another application to pull logs off the unit. Additionally, we have expanded our range of supported devices considerably, so most Garmin handheld units now work with Garmin Sync. Additionally, we made map previews work with all but the Edge 500 devices, so you can see what activities are stored on your GPS unit. Here is a screenshot in action:
We now have elevation for the entire world available on our site. Additionally, we have improved the accuracy of our elevation calculation functions, which means you are getting the most accurate elevation data ever.
The reliability and performance of the route planner has been improved considerably, and there is still more room to further better our mapping tools. This means we will continue to have the fastest planner out there. We have also improved editing functionality on routes, however it's still not optimal and is being actively worked on.
Additionally, we have added support for users with power meters. Your power output can now be overlayed on the elevation profile along with speed, cadence and heart rate. Notice how when overlaying cadence as well, we can see that power output increases as cadence decreases. This is a very basic insight, however we are working on much more detailed performance analysis and graphing functionality.
Just for fun, Zack created a trip playback functionality, that lets you playback your trip in 3D when you get home and upload your TCX file. This is one of my favourite to do while drinking a beer after a hard ride in hot weather. Notice the playback controls in the lower right. Sorry for the lower resolution, it makes it slightly hard to read.
I am leaving out a ton of improvements to keep this short, however you can see a log of all our changes at http://ridewithgps.com/changelog.
Finally, I am now full-time on the site, which means new features, bug fixes and support have all drastically improved. I really encourage you to come back and give us a shot if it's been a while, or signup and try us out of you haven't already. You won't be sorry.
Feel free to give feedback, suggestions, criticisms etc. Over 2000 conversations with various users have helped shape our service up to this point, so we definitely appreciate anything you have to say.
Over the last 6 months we have seen traffic grow by over 7x! We have also broken past the 100k mapped routes milestone, which is a big leap. We are almost to 1000 new maps a day, so everyone can find new routes nearby.
We have added Garmin Communicator support for Garmin Edge 500 devices, which means users with that device no longer need to use another application to pull logs off the unit. Additionally, we have expanded our range of supported devices considerably, so most Garmin handheld units now work with Garmin Sync. Additionally, we made map previews work with all but the Edge 500 devices, so you can see what activities are stored on your GPS unit. Here is a screenshot in action:
We now have elevation for the entire world available on our site. Additionally, we have improved the accuracy of our elevation calculation functions, which means you are getting the most accurate elevation data ever.
The reliability and performance of the route planner has been improved considerably, and there is still more room to further better our mapping tools. This means we will continue to have the fastest planner out there. We have also improved editing functionality on routes, however it's still not optimal and is being actively worked on.
Additionally, we have added support for users with power meters. Your power output can now be overlayed on the elevation profile along with speed, cadence and heart rate. Notice how when overlaying cadence as well, we can see that power output increases as cadence decreases. This is a very basic insight, however we are working on much more detailed performance analysis and graphing functionality.
Just for fun, Zack created a trip playback functionality, that lets you playback your trip in 3D when you get home and upload your TCX file. This is one of my favourite to do while drinking a beer after a hard ride in hot weather. Notice the playback controls in the lower right. Sorry for the lower resolution, it makes it slightly hard to read.
I am leaving out a ton of improvements to keep this short, however you can see a log of all our changes at http://ridewithgps.com/changelog.
Finally, I am now full-time on the site, which means new features, bug fixes and support have all drastically improved. I really encourage you to come back and give us a shot if it's been a while, or signup and try us out of you haven't already. You won't be sorry.
Feel free to give feedback, suggestions, criticisms etc. Over 2000 conversations with various users have helped shape our service up to this point, so we definitely appreciate anything you have to say.
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Comments
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As a regular user I'd just like to say thanks for the time and effort you put into this free resource.
Garmin Training Center allows users to compare 2 different workouts on the same graph. This is useful for comparing fitness over time on the same route. This would be a very useful feature on ridewithgps, particularly being able to compare more than 2.
If you do add this, PLEASE allow users to plot Distance against Time (with either measure on either axis). Garmin doesn't allow this, but it's the easiest way to visualise performance.0 -
Just started using this and it's fantastic. Is the intention to keep free access or will it become pay to use over time?0
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very nice, I will try it as it already looks loads better than bikely.com - just as a thought if you could import your routes from bikely that would be great !0
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Very nice but the "We are working toward paid accounts with extra features" comment on the home page worries me as I hate it when I get used to a service and then I either have to pay for it or some of the good features suddenly become pay only. This is particularly irritating when one has uploaded a number of routes/activities and if one has started to "depend" oi the service.
Are you in a position to clarify exactly what will remain free in the long term before people invest a lot of time and effort uploading stuff and recording their activities? I can't speak for others but without this information I'd be unlikely to make the switch from the systems I already use without this information.
Nice system though.
QWeblog at:
http://www.pedalbiker.blogspot.com0 -
northernneil wrote:very nice, I will try it as it already looks loads better than bikely.com - just as a thought if you could import your routes from bikely that would be great !
Can you downlaod from bikely in gpx format and then just upload them to ridewithgps?0 -
No plans to try out OS maps on it? Like on www.bikehike.co.uk?
I tend to go down to bad lanes when planning routes round places I don't know, and I can't zoom in on sattelite view because my connection is too slow, so bikehike is still the best.0 -
'We now have elevation for the entire world available on our site. Additionally, we have improved the accuracy of our elevation calculation functions, which means you are getting the most accurate elevation data ever.'
Rubbish! A local hill still shows as 1.2% on the steepest section when in fact it's about 13%..........................0 -
Pross, GiantMike, Porkyboy: We will always have a free account option. Additionally, existing users will always be grandfathered (we won't take features away!) if we decide to limit the scope of the free account down the road. Neither Zack or I appreciate losing something we value, or feeling forced to pay for something we may not feel is worth paying for. However, with that being said, we are working towards premium accounts that have premium features, aimed towards competitive cyclists. These accounts will have features not available on the free accounts, and if we decide on limiting free accounts, they will have no upload limits or anything like that.
We are in a tricky position, because the internet has trained people to expect free free free at all costs. However, the big sites who have done this "training" have all received 5 years of funding from investors, millions of dollars, with the explicit intent to just grow a userbase. When the money starts running out and they have a big pile of users, they are told "ok now go make money off them". This leads to sites like MMR, where the sheer quantity of advertisement makes your eyes bleed. So, we want to make this a viable business with a stable revenue model based not on advertising (we may take premium adverts at some point, but only in a tasteful manner and on free accounts) but rather on selling a service people feel is worth paying for. If we don't do this, we will not be able to afford extra hardware to keep our service going, bandwidth to feed users data, or Zack and I to continue development and keep the site bug free.
Sorry for the slight rant, it's just a bit tough as a web developer who wants to start a business but doesn't want to go find venture capital funding. People just aren't used to paying for something, when unfortunately, the alternative is a huge amount of advertising.0 -
GiantMike: we are working on activity comparisons, it's just slow going to do it well. But, Zack is going through and making some cool stuff happen - it will get released eventually, just not sure when. However, Distance / Time will happen much sooner in a normal trip view than activity comparison, hopefully in the next couple weeks?
northernneil: we had an import functionality back in the day, but rethought it after receiving a cease and decist order from map my ride. They don't have any legal grounds, however we didn't want to get tied up in any legal proceedings at that time. We are considering reimplementing the import functionality, and hope to have something going soon. It really eased peoples ability to move between services, and was a big success when we had it.
freehub: I am adding in OSM support (http://openstreetmap.org) soon - it's not too hard I just have been putting it off because I am running from bug to bug, and have lots on my plate.
Mozza1: I didn't say the elevation was perfect, just that it was more accurate than ever, and, I contend that we are still more accurate than the competition. The problem with elevation is the source was made by the USGS in consortium with NASA, so the accurate elevations are all over the US and territories. Overseas, there is no single high resolution dataset, rather there are thousands of specific, different format high resolution datasets for small areas. As a result, in the UK there is only a single elevation point every 30 meters. I am using some complex math to interpolate between these huge gaps, however if your hill is only say 60 meters long it has three points. No amount of math allows me to accurately tell if the inbetween sections on that short of a distance are at 5% or 11% - I need a longer more sustained hill to be accurate.0 -
Thanks for the explanation. Very interesting & your assumption about it being a short hill is correct hence it showing about 1.2%.0
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Just signed up... any way of transferring my routes and back training data from mapmyfitness ?
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jimmythecuckoo: right now we don't have a way due to MMR's insecurity about data portablity. We however have plans to re-enable an import feature from MMR and the other major services, it's just not in place yet. However, if you have a backlog of TCX files sitting on your computer, you can bulk upload them to our service, which makes things much easier.0
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cullenking wrote:
freehub: I am adding in OSM support (http://openstreetmap.org) soon - it's not too hard I just have been putting it off because I am running from bug to bug, and have lots on my plate.
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I think we all can wait if your end product is good quality.
Could you not implement this though:
http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsi ... ta/viewer/
Either in full view or in window view next to the main window like on bikehike? I don't know if there is problems there such as potential conflicts with bike hike? But that link is to the best maps for the UK available, all the roads on there you can tell if passable or not, the one you linked to has bits missing.0 -
I suspect cost is an issue on OS maps, you need a licence to use them and they ain't cheap!
Cullenking - thanks for the response, I understand the need to make money to justify the considerable time running such a site must take. I guess once you have a decision on paid for content users will let you know if they feel it offers good value. I for one would rather pay a small fee than be bombarded with adverts.0 -
cullenking wrote:jimmythecuckoo: right now we don't have a way due to MMR's insecurity about data portablity. We however have plans to re-enable an import feature from MMR and the other major services, it's just not in place yet. However, if you have a backlog of TCX files sitting on your computer, you can bulk upload them to our service, which makes things much easier.
I dont have the files downloaded but will keep an eye out for the MMR import going live again.0 -
freehub: I will look into OS stuff like on bikehike, as well as other topos for the US. Not sure how it will work with different areas/licensing etc.
Pross: yeah most of our users seem to be pretty amenable to various account levels, as long as the price is right. We are going to really brainstorm and probably survey users to see what they respond with, but I am not sure. I'll have to read up a ton about the topic, as pricing is a big psychological thing. We definitely want to be a good value, and the people that use us regularly all are willing to help out. The sheer amount of donations has surprised us, and has been a great help in getting to where we are, so we are going off that data a bit as well.
ijmmythecuckoo: cool, it'll be a couple months is my guess, but we'll get it out as soon as time allows.0 -
this is a really, really great site. Cheers!point your handlebars towards the heavens and sweat like you're in hell0
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Pross wrote:northernneil wrote:very nice, I will try it as it already looks loads better than bikely.com - just as a thought if you could import your routes from bikely that would be great !
Can you downlaod from bikely in gpx format and then just upload them to ridewithgps?
yes you can !
did think of that - get that man a cigar0
