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Old October 27th, 2016, 08:49 AM   #1
VaFish
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Screwed up group ride, but a great time.

One of our local stealerships had a Fall Foliage ride this past Sunday.

Advertised and 100 miles and a free lunch.

About 40-50 bikes showed up. They split us up into two groups. Cruisers and sport bikes. The cruisers left the parking lot first. Then the sport bikes lined up and headed out. The leader of the sport bikes hit the throttle hard as he came out of the parking lot, started a tank slapper and almost lost control of the bike.

We had a short jaunt on the interstate to get to some nice back roads. After about 10 miles a bunch of us got stuck at a traffic light as the rest of the pack rode off. No worries a fearless leader from the stealership pulled up and lead us on the way. Only he couldn't remember the route, we went about 10 miles past the turn we should have taken. Made several more wrong turns and U-Turns before I noticed that we were stopped at a light for our turn. I pointed out the directions I had printed out and had in the map pocket of my tank bag. We were back on track. We were supposed to stop at a 7-11 in Front Royal, but as we rode into town there was a group of about 6 riders from the ride at a BP station that waved us over, so we pulled in.

While we were waiting at the BP station several of the first group had been calling their friends in the cruiser group. Somehow we had beat them to Front Royal. They were coming into town and were going to meet us at the BP station. As we waited one of the staff members from the stealership pulled up and told us to go to the 7-11. So we donned our gear and fought the fall foliage traffic trying to get onto the Skyline drive and went over to the 7-11. Where we waited and waited. Then we see the cruiser group go riding by. Seems they decided to stop at the BP station. So we don our gear and take off after them.

About a mile down the road they are coming back towards us. They had done a U-turn to come back and get us. Well our leader says he now has the address in his GPS to just follow him. So off we go. Right past the next turn off to the lunch stop. And we keep going. All the way to the end point. Yeah he had the address of the end point, but not the waypoints along the route. We ended up in Lurray, VA, and I happened to know from a previous ride out there of a nice little Pub. So five of us said we had enough and headed to the pub. At this point we had traveled a little over 100 miles and spent more time waiting for our leaders to figure out what we were doing than riding.

Had a good lunch of Fish and Chips, my four fellow riders turned out to be a pretty cool bunch. All of us current or former military. After lunch we decided to head home, one rider and his wife needed to get back home, but the other three of us were not in a hurry we took the scenic route of about 140 miles on the way back. No getting lost, no turning around (well except for one photo), just a really great ride on a beautiful day.

Even though the first half of the organized ride was totally screwed up, the great weather and new friends as well as the ride home made up for it.

So after riding almost 250 miles with some new friends on a gorgeous day what did I turn around to take a photo of?

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Last futzed with by VaFish; October 29th, 2016 at 11:23 AM.
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Old October 27th, 2016, 08:55 AM   #2
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You are in violation of picCode #234uy92 - Improper Orientation. Please rectify this image as soon as possible. Further violations will result in an infraction.

Lol!!! Cool pic
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Old October 27th, 2016, 08:57 AM   #3
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I have no idea what you took the photo of, but that sounds about right for a group ride. I've decided I prefer either small groups of 2-4 riders, or just riding alone, depending on my mood. The pub sounds great, was it Dubliner's Pub in Luray?
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Old October 27th, 2016, 08:57 AM   #4
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Old October 27th, 2016, 09:02 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple Jim View Post
I have no idea what you took the photo of, but that sounds about right for a group ride. I've decided I prefer either small groups of 2-4 riders, or just riding alone, depending on my mood. The pub sounds great, was it Dubliner's Pub in Luray?
I'm with you. I think I'm going to swear off large group rides from now on and only go with a couple friends.

Yes it was Dubliner's Pub. Service was a little slow for 2:30 in the afternoon. But food is great.

Photo is of a dead raccoon someone tied a "Get Well Soon" balloon to.
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Old October 27th, 2016, 09:05 AM   #6
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You are in violation of picCode #234uy92 - Improper Orientation. Please rectify this image as soon as possible. Further violations will result in an infraction.

Lol!!! Cool pic
For some reason I can't get to photobucket, so I just added the photo from my phone. I'll see if I can fix it when I get home tonight.
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Old October 27th, 2016, 11:54 AM   #7
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Sounds like a fine ride... After you left the bossy folks
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Old October 29th, 2016, 11:24 AM   #8
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Originally Posted by csmith12 View Post
You are in violation of picCode #234uy92 - Improper Orientation. Please rectify this image as soon as possible. Further violations will result in an infraction.

Lol!!! Cool pic
Fixed it. Photobucket is back up now.
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Old October 31st, 2016, 08:50 PM   #9
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Poor raccoon! The balloon is funny, though.

We had a group ride kind of like that, involving u-turns because the leader didn't know where he was going. And he wanted to go too fast, with zero patience for the tail of the group, who didn't want to go lightning speed.
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Old October 31st, 2016, 08:58 PM   #10
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Old November 1st, 2016, 04:18 AM   #11
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I sent an email to the dealership complaining about the ride, and offering some suggestions for improvement including having their ride leaders use the technology they sell such as GPS and Bluetooth intercoms. I also suggested they map the route with a GPS, save the route as a .gpx file and make it available to all riders before the ride.

I got an email from the general manager of the dealership, he explained they had some of their more experienced leaders, that had pre run the route, drop out at the last minute due to unforseen circumstances. THIS left them with only one person who had ridden the route in the previous week. There also was a last minute route change due to road construction.

He said for next year they were going to have 4 riders pre run the route and would make the gpx files available. They also would do more to use technology and showcase the products they sell.
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Old November 1st, 2016, 07:41 AM   #12
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When I used to ride in club bicycle rides in the 1970s, ride leaders would pass out one page photocopied maps, with the route highlighted in yellow marker. It's amazing how well that worked.
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Old November 1st, 2016, 11:13 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple Jim View Post
When I used to ride in club bicycle rides in the 1970s, ride leaders would pass out one page photocopied maps, with the route highlighted in yellow marker. It's amazing how well that worked.
They had a list of directions, but not a map. But it wasn't easy to read while riding, even though I had mine in the clear map pocket of my tank bag.
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Old November 1st, 2016, 12:36 PM   #14
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I don't like to try to read maps, GPS receivers, or directions while riding. Years ago I had a bad crash because I looked in mirror a little too long. Any of those things is about like texting and driving, really.
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Old November 1st, 2016, 03:11 PM   #15
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I don't like to try to read maps, GPS receivers, or directions while riding. Years ago I had a bad crash because I looked in mirror a little too long. Any of those things is about like texting and driving, really.
I use my phone with a Sena Bluetooth headset in the helmet. I just listen to the turn by turn directions and turn the screen off. I don't have to look at anything but the things around me.
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Old November 1st, 2016, 03:33 PM   #16
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I use my phone with a Sena Bluetooth headset in the helmet. I just listen to the turn by turn directions and turn the screen off. I don't have to look at anything but the things around me.
What kind of phone and what application? Does it let you change the route from the fastest point between A and B to one that's more fun and scenic?

Love my android but the maps application doesn't allow for modified custom routes. I would love for the kind of thing that a laptop with a mouse can do with google maps, where you can just drag the route to where you want to go and then get a turn by turn directions for that route via bluetooth.
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Old November 1st, 2016, 03:38 PM   #17
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Take a look at the app "CoPilot". It'll do what VaFish described if you have a Bluetooth earpiece of some sort. I bought a very inexpensive earplug type, and some putty that you make your own custom earplugs out of. I just need to get busy and mold an earplug with the Bluetooth earpiece in it.

CoPilot is really neat because it lets you download all the maps for North America and store them in the phone, so you don't have to rely on a data connection while you travel.

The problem I see with getting turn by turn directions is that it doesn't require you to visualize a map in your head, and you don't really learn the route like you do by following old fashioned directions. At least it works that way for me.
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Old November 2nd, 2016, 04:49 AM   #18
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What kind of phone and what application? Does it let you change the route from the fastest point between A and B to one that's more fun and scenic?

Love my android but the maps application doesn't allow for modified custom routes. I would love for the kind of thing that a laptop with a mouse can do with google maps, where you can just drag the route to where you want to go and then get a turn by turn directions for that route via bluetooth.
Samsung Galaxy 5, I use Waze most of the time, it lets you select no highways, but not really the scenic route. It also doesn't allow you to import .gpx files. I've used Rever in the past for that. But it's $60 per year for the premium app that gives you the downloadable maps.
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