Club Membership in Ride with GPS

The BBC Executive Board is pleased to inform the membership that beginning in 2018 it had decided to provide a new benefit to Club members by purchasing a club subscription to “Ride with GPS” (RwGPS), a route mapping internet site. This was not a replacement to the current club's cue library, but rather an added benefit. Since then, RwGPS library has been greatly populated with many interesting cycling routes and its use has been enhanced and well utilized by our membership.

Many of you have probably been directed to this site as some of our ride leaders have been posting such links on club ride announcements. By subscribing as a Club to this innovative technology, we have gained a place to store as many routes as ride leaders wish to create and have all routes viewable and easily found on our club account.

Nabil Ali

President, BBC

8 May 2024

Registration Instructions!

The BBC maintains a club subscription to a route mapping internet application called Ride with GPS. (RwGPS). Our subscription allows club members to access our growing library of routes on this application, and with additional permission, to create new routes for club rides. A personal RwGPS account is required which is enhanced for club members via the procedure explained below. The very basic personal RwGPS account is free. Obtaining the same level of functionality granted through club membership would cost an individual $80 per year as of this writing.

Many of you have probably been directed to RwGPS maps as more and more of our ride leaders have been posting a link on club ride announcements. Some advantages to having the route on RwGPS are that a potential rider can see exactly where the ride goes and can see an elevation profile as well as total elevation gain. Knowing where a ride goes can be valuable if a rider does not feel safe on certain busier roads. He/she could also use the map to see a potential shorter way back if growing tired. By subscribing as a club we gain a place to store the many routes that ride leaders wish to create in one place accessible to all members.

Furthermore, if certain easy standards are utilized when creating rides, we have a very quickly searchable database which facilitates finding rides on our club account.

The process of establishing your access to the club account begins with following this link. If you already have a personal RwGPS account, the link will either take you right into your account or ask you to sign-in to it. If you do not already have a personal RWGPS account, there is a path to establish one. No matter where you end up, note the orange bicycle logo on the upper left of the screen. That will take you to your RwGPS home page and you should see the BBC logo at the bottom left of the page (may need to scroll down to it). If you do not see this, click on the above link again. When you click on the BBC logo you will gain access to the club account.

To facilitate access to the club account after the initial connection process, you may create a bookmark on your internet browser to take you directly to your RwGPS home page. Once there, you simply click the above-described BBC logo to enter the club account. Or, this link will take you directly to the sign-in page of the club account. On that page click the orange button on the right labeled sign into club. As a general member you may search the route library, view any route, and print cue sheets as a PDF. There is also a way to download the route into your smart phone or other cycling navigation devices, such as Garmin Edge, which will provide turn by turn cues as you progress through the ride. General members cannot create routes, add other routes to the file, or make any changes to routes. To print a four panel cue sheet, select the more button from the top left of the page that shows the ride, and then select print map & cue PDF. Do not change the parameters as they change for everyone.

Ride leaders who create routes for the club will need to request that “route manager” authority be added to their profile. You may request this authority by email to this link.

In order to create a database of routes that will allow finding rides easily, route managers will be asked to agree to conform to some standards and naming conventions which will be provided. Please utilize the help pages included in the RwGPS website, and watch their instructional videos. If an answer is not readily found, email your question or concern to this email link. The following club members are the administrators for this account: Larry Kenney, Nabil Ali & David Schallich.

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RwGPS Instructions to Route Managers

The route manager authority has been added to your RwGPS profile. This enables you to create new routes, and copy, change, or delete routes unless those routes are locked. To maintain an orderly and useful database of club routes it is important that route managers agree to follow some rules and conventions.

The current design of RwGPS only allows an administrator to lock or unlock routes, thus it is anticipated that most routes will not be locked. This makes the following rule very important: only make changes to routes you have created. Over time we will need to decide what to do when a route manager leaves the club or the route no longer works due to road changes, etc. For now, however, we need to adhere to this rule.

We need to have some conventions on how we establish routes so that club members can easily locate routes that they may wish to ride.

The following describes some basic expectations that would facilitate smooth operation of this system: 1) the route name ideally will describe the location, but many club rides are known by other names and that is acceptable. The “Route Name” field, and all fields in the club route library can be used as search criteria; thus telling where the route goes is informative. No matter how a route is named, it is particularly important to follow some standards for the “Tags” and “Location” fields. The “Location” field is auto-filled by the application and may or may not show the start town. If the start town is not shown, the field should be changed via the “Set City” button at the bottom of the route library window; 2) the field in the route library called “Tags” can have more than one item. As there is no other way to identify the route creator, the first item in “Tags” should be the name of the person who made the route, e.g.; Jim Smith. This will also make it easy for managers to find their own routes when searching for them. The tags are applied after the route has been saved to the club library by means of the “Set Tags” button at the bottom of the library window; 3) the second tag should be the county in which the ride starts or mostly rides in. There should be only one tag for any given county, thus we need to be consistent in how we name each county. See the tags already entered and follow style; 4) other tags may be useful in certain circumstances, such as special events, etc., but we want to keep the total number of tags to a minimum.

Routes in far away places (beyond MD, southern PA, DE, northern VA) that are very unlikely to be used by club members should not be added to the club route library. To create cue sheets, click on the “More” box found near the ride title. Then click on “Print maps and cue PDF”. Please do not change the settings for cue sheet creation as everyone's rides will also have their cue sheet settings changed.

The cues automatically generated are often misleading or sometimes, not correct. The cue sheet should be carefully reviewed and compared to the map and your memory of the route, and changes should be made where necessary. Instructions for route editing are found on the RwGPS website. Unless the ride is in a test phase, please make the privacy setting to either “members” or “public”. Thank you for helping to make great routes for our club members. Please address any questions or concerns to this email link.