Eight members of Team DeLorme’s cycling group made the long trip from Yarmouth, Maine, down to New York City to participate in the 2008 NYC 5 Boro Bike Tour. The weather was great and the opportunity to ride through the heart of such an impressive city without any automobile traffic was amazing!
The 5 Boro Bike Tour is even bigger in person than described on Bike New York’s web site. You really have to be in the middle of the pack to appreciate what 30,000 cyclists look like! I’ve uploaded video clips (See a couple of favorite videos at the end of this post) from a helmet cam along with some photos taken by people in our group. Check them out to get a feel for the magnitude of this event. I see why the ride has earned the title of ”largest recreational cycling event in the nation!”
As usual, the Earthmate GPS PN-20 was with me throughout the ride. While it was impossible to get lost with that many riders, it was still good to see where we were on the route. I’ve included a screen shot from our XMap software so that you can see how I’ve linked the video clips into the map to make a nice project file for sharing with the other riders.
I’ve also included a few screen shots from the PN-20. Again, not that necessary when there are 30,000 riders all pedaling in the same direction, but it was still nice to see the aerial imagery of the buildings and the parks while I was riding.
On behalf of Team DeLorme, I’d like to thank all of the members of Bike New York and all of the volunteers that made the NYC 5 Boro Bike Tour such an enjoyable event. We’ve been part of many cycling tours and are amazed at the number of riders that participate in this ride. Thank you for giving us such a unique means of touring your great city!
I’d also like to extend a sincere thank you to our very gracious hosts for giving us a place to stay and helping us find our way around New York. There’s nothing like local knowledge, even when you have a GPS!
-Chip
Central Park
All Kinds of Bikes and Riders
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May 7, 2008 at 8:00 am |
So did you give the shirt away?
May 7, 2008 at 8:31 am |
We did have one rider talk with us about our Atlas & Gazetteer maps during the first rest stop. I was holding out for a blog reader or maybe even a PN-20 owner but no such luck… to be honest I didn’t see any other GPS devices in use. I guess a sea of 30,000 riders being guided by an army of volunteers and police officers didn’t really need the latest in GPS based navigation technology. I did get lots of questions about the helmet cam and the PN-20 on my handlebars… I guess I’ll have to hold the Team DeLorme t-shirt for another challenge… Keep your eye out for an upcoming blog post!
May 30, 2008 at 10:05 am |
I would like to do a similar project on my 7 day tour of the Erie canal in July from Buffalo to Albany NY, but I am an armature. Can some one help me to do this
June 24, 2008 at 2:58 pm |
I would recommend checking out forum.delorme.com for details on how to use Topo USA with GeoTagger and a GPS device. There are several informative posts on how to view your track log on the map and then add images to create a view like the one I’ve posted here. Review the Help documentation for more details on the process.
Thanks,
Chip
July 10, 2008 at 2:22 pm |
[...] Neat GPS / video project @ the DeLorme blog using their Xmap software, Chip writes- Eight members of Team DeLorme’s cycling group made the long trip from Yarmouth, Maine, down to New York City to participate in the 2008 NYC 5 Boro Bike Tour. The weather was great and the opportunity to ride through the heart of such an impressive city without any automobile traffic was amazing! [...]
December 23, 2008 at 12:42 pm |
Chip,
I ordered a PN-20 today and while I’m waiting for it to show up I was wondering where I can find bicycle routes posted by other people in other places to download to the unit. It appears the capability is out there, but I can’t seem to find what I’m looking for. Maybe the included software has the correct links?
Here’s what I think I should be able to to. Say I want to go to Chesterton Indiana for a bike ride. I would like to bring up a map and see where people who live there ride and be able to pick one of their routes, download it to my unit and when I get there and take the ride without worrying about getting lost or flipping through maps.
In turn, I know my area like the back of my hand, so I’ll post some routes for people who want to ride around here. Since I live here I can update when I know something like when a bridge is out. Other people who take my route may discover that first, so they should be able to comment on my route.
Okay, that’s a search enabled public data base, user modified, of bicycle routes. Can I have one for Christmas?
December 23, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Merry Christmas!
http://www.eartha.com/cycling/
Before you start looking for the Chesterton, indiana routes I have to warn you that we haven’t achieved the user data density that I would like to have seen. We have a small number of users and they are spread through several different activities. You can certainly post your content and look for content from others though.
We’ve also designed Topo USA to import GPX files from other applications. If you searched for cycling routes and found them in a GPX format you’d be able to import those into Topo USA and then put them on your PN-20.
I hope this helps!
Chip Noble
DeLorme
May 11, 2009 at 9:02 pm |
hi,
I participated in that ride but forgot to fully charge my gps. by any chance do you still have the tracklog?
thank you