The GPS Geek

ArcGIS Online

The GPS Geek — Thu, 03 May 2012 07:39:12 +0000

I have been playing around with ArcGIS Online and I’m debating whether or not to implement it permanently on my site. My best guess at this point is that I won’t use it for everything I map, but it seems to have its place. I am using it right now on my new “Trailheads” page on a test basis. So far, I’m liking that it allows me to layer multiple files (I am currently using .kml files) onto a single map. It can even load .gpx files that way, so it might have a use for track display possibly in conjunction with waypoints. It can certainly handle more complex web mapping than Google Maps can.

Here is an example of the map I’m displaying on the Trailheads page.

View Larger Map

The way it works, at least with .kml files, is that I host the files on my server. I then login to my ArcGIS Online account and create a new map there. With .kml files, I have to set the symbology of the .kml when I create it. ArcGIS Online does not create .kml files. I used Google Earth to create the ones used here. I used custom symbols on my map, which I had to host on my site, and reference as a custom symbol in Google Earth (to the URL for the relevant symbol). In ArcGIS Online, I told it to load the .kml files on my site and it displays them the way I created them in Google Earth. One advantage of doing it this way is that I can make a change to the .kml file on the server and it will eventually update on the ArcGIS Online end. I cannot define refresh times for .kml files, though, so I have no idea what sort of lag to expect before the map reflects changes to the data. That will be one thing I test. Once I create the map on ArcGIS Online, I have to save it there before I can embed it here. If I delete it from my account there, it will no longer display here.

ArcGIS Online can load certain data directly, also. I haven’t tried that functionality yet, but I do wonder if it will allow me more control over legend items than the .kml format allows. With .kml, there is a line in the file with tags for each feature on the map. If I display the legend, each icon will show “gibberish” next to the icon. It doesn’t matter if the text is different for each item or not, each feature will get an entry in the legend labeled “gibberish”. On this map, the symbols are pretty self explanatory and I don’t think a legend is necessary. But for a more complex map, this could be a problem with using .kml files.

Feel free to comment on what you think about the ArcGIS Online maps, and possibly also which basemap layers you prefer for the kinds of data I display on my website.

Nosara, Costa Rica March 2012

The GPS Geek — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 23:57:29 +0000

This trip has been in the planning stages for quite some time. The wife and I paid a visit to the Costa Rica Yoga Spa in Nosara, on the Nicoya Peninsula. It’s an outstanding resort, and the food was incredible. The retreat was organized and taught by one of my local yoga instructors, so I knew most of the people in attendance. There were a couple people there I had not met before, however, and enjoyed spending time with them.

The Nosara area is a pretty significant surfer/American expat community. There’s a sizable Tico population, but most of them can speak at least some English. Still, my rusty Spanish came in handy and I found that by the end of the week, I could communicate pretty well in Spanish with a lot of locals. The town of Nosara itself has fewer expats. Most expats are closer to the beach in communities like Guiones.

The area has this really interesting dichotomy going on. There are a good number of amenities available – cell service for those who have international plans, good running water and sewers, reliable electricity, widespread recycling, etc. Many of the stores in Guiones and nearby are ultra-modern and look like they belong in any big American or European city. But paved streets are rare here. There are some paved roads in the towns themselves, but the pavement is pretty rough. The roads between towns are rather rugged dirt roads. Some of them are quite steep at times, require river fords, and flood out entirely during the rainy season.

Food available at a lot of restaurants in this area is incredible. The fruit is, of course, amazing, and the fish is pretty awesome. But more unusual is the fact that there’s very good vegetarian food, some vegan options, and really good pizza. There are even a few ethnic food options out here. Finding these places can be tricky. It’s hard to just show up and find a place to eat. Some in the little towns themselves have signs around pointing the way, but others are tucked off the beaten track in the forests with views of the beach.

Robin’s Ice Cream in Guiones, La Luna in Pelada, and La Bahia near San Juanillo are three places I visited with outstanding food. There are more options, but these are the ones I visited. Miss Sky zipline tours (recently mentioned in this article as being the longest in the world!) is a pretty awesome company. The staff was a lot of fun, and they run tours on a network of ziplines with 13 zips as of spring 2012 and plans for expansion. The longest they have is over 850m long and takes over a minute. The tour also includes a stop to swim in the river.

We booked our kayak tour with Drifters Kayak Tours with DK. DK is an American expat from Georgia and has quite a pedigree of guiding folks on whitewater tours in the States. We did a wildlife viewing kayak trip on the Rio Montaña followed by a short visit to Playa Nosara. It was a great float.

I still need to compile video footage and GPS data from the trip. That will come as an update to this post so stay tuned.

Geocaching.com drops Google Maps for OSM

The GPS Geek — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 04:11:07 +0000

This past week, Groundspeak announced that it’s switching away from Google Maps and to OSM (another announcement about the changes, explaining why). Looks like Geocaching.com is responsible for something like 2,000,000 hits to Google Maps per day and Google wanted to start charging. Fair enough. But how does this change work in the real world?

Don’t get me wrong, I like OSM. The capability to make edits and refinements to the map data is second to none. Google introduced a similar capability awhile back, and the implementation has been junk, IMO. For example, most mapping websites have a GLARING inaccuracy in my neighborhood. The street I live on is shown with the wrong name, and the street with the correct name is shown in a place where there is no street. Farther to the North, there’s a short street that is very much there, but there’s only one house on it. Sat images clearly show it, but it is not on most mapping sites. I was able to create an OSM account, and fix the problems in my neighborhood. I added a street, deleted another, refined the geometry, and fixed the names. OSM approved the edits and now it’s the only mapping site that shows things CORRECTLY. I was also able to add a local bike trail to the map. I submitted similar edits (minus the bike trail) to Google and those fixes have yet to appear. I don’t even remember how long ago that was.

I certainly appreciate that about OSM.

However, I do NOT like how Groundspeak has implemented OSM on geocaching.com. I’m not alone, either (thread 1, thread 2) That’s just a start – there are plenty more threads like those.

Some people would be willing to pay a higher premium member fee to bring Google Maps back. My post here isn’t the only one discussing this issue, either (post 1, post 2). In the 2nd link, rediguana suggests a pricing structure which would have folks who wished to use Google’s maps pay extra for that feature to be enabled. There are a lot of creative suggestions out there.

I will say this regarding my own experiences with the maps. Even though I like OSM, I am disappointed with the implementation of them on geocaching.com. I’m having similar experiences to other folks who are getting horribly slow page loads. When I switch to satellite imagery, it barely works at all and I definitely can’t get the map to zoom all the way. Since I use the maps functionality of Geocaching.com pretty heavily, I really can’t get anything done using the mapping on their site.

A lot of the users of the geocaching.com site probably have little prior experience with OSM. I’m sure some do, and are aware of its strengths and weaknesses already. However, for those whose first experience with OSM relates to this debacle, I fear that they’ll be turned off to it in short order. Groundspeak needs to get its act together and fix the buggy code that’s messing things up.

You can draw parallels between this issue and Garmin Connect dropping Google Maps for Bing. Bing’s satellite imagery has come a long way since the initial switch so more rural areas like mine have better coverage. I don’t know about Bing’s worldwide coverage right now, but this OSM switch just screams “hasty deployment” to me because Groundspeak was about to be hit with fees from Google. OSM on geocaching.com is essentially unusable for me right now. Thank goodness I already have GSAK, which still allows me to use Google’s maps when researching caches.

In an ideal world, I think it would behoove Groundspeak to give users as many options as possible for mapping caches. Keep Google’s maps, but add Bing and OSM to give folks choices. Spread out the mapping service hits (make OSM the default, even…just fix it first), and then possibly spreading the load out like that will be less of a burden to any one service. I am suspicious that OSM’s servers weren’t prepared for the traffic geocaching.com was going to add and that the useless maps might be a symptom. Only time will tell.

In the meantime, what do you think of this?

Zombie Apocalypse: TheGPSGeek-style

The GPS Geek — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 03:02:05 +0000

Let’s face it, zombies are cool. Zombie films and books are entertaining. But thinking about and actually preparing for a zombie apocalypse actually encourages us to think about other potential disasters like floods, storms, earthquakes, epidemics, and the like. Taking real preparations improves our ability to deal with any future disaster – hypothetical zombie-caused or not.

I like zombie films as much as the next guy, and I’m actually IN one of them. In the summer of 2011, I participated in the filming of Christmas with the Dead as a zombie extra. The scene where I can be found was actually filmed 2 doors down from my house. How could I not jump on that opportunity? My role was fairly simple. I just needed to look and act like a zombie, since the scene involves a group of zombies and there are a lot of wide angle shots. The crews filmed some close-ups, and I can only hope to make it into one of them. Since the film’s not released yet I can only hope.

What sparked me to write this post was a link to an Amazon list someone put together and I couldn’t help but think I could do better than that. My criticisms of that list have a lot to do with the items chosen and the items omitted. The list creator obviously thought weapons were important. But there are too many heavy melee weapons. The crossbow is a smart choice with potentially reusable ammo as long as you can retrieve your crossbow arrows. But you could even learn to craft your own over time if you don’t know already. I think that’s something folks should consider over the long term. I really don’t think you need to carry a crowbar, a machete, an axe, and a slingshot. Assuming that a “light and fast” technique would be the ideal method, those weapons in combination are just too much. There’s no debating the utility of each item on its own, but given overall utility, I’d choose the crowbar (good for bashing heads and prying doors) and the axe (good for splitting heads, cutting firewood, hacking through a wall in a pinch, and other random tasks). I would, however, make some changes of my own. I have other issues with water carrying items on this list, and other random items. What follows are my first choice items.

Weapons

In a zombie apocalypse, weapons are key. You won’t last long without them. I’m going to break up weapons into two categories: Expeditionary and Fortification Defense.

Expeditionary

Light and fast – but also silent. Also important are a combination of ranged weapons and melee weapons.

First choice of a quiet ranged weapon would be something archery-related. A bow or a crossbow.

Here’s what I would consider a midrange model. You don’t need some multi-thousand dollar model. But whatever you choose, make sure it’s something you CAN actually use and are accurate with. Remember, you need head shots. Torso shots do no good.

A bow would work, too. Whatever you’re most comfortable with is the one you should choose. Make sure you have plenty of ammo, whatever you choose. Retrieve your arrows if you can, but you don’t want to be second-guessing a shot because you may not get your arrow back.

I would also opt to carry a handgun. Yes, it’s noisy. But I’d have it more for backup purposes than anything. You’ll have a lot of options, but be sure to choose something with a common caliber. During the zombie apocalypse, you’ll be scrounging for whatever you can find so common is good here. I’d also tend to choose a larger caliber, too. .22 and 9mm are certainly common, but since they’re smaller calibers you’ll need to be placing your shots well to make a difference. .40 S&W and .45 ACP are fairly common and will pack a punch when you need one. As with any other ranged weapon, make sure you practice and are skilled with your weapon of choice so you can wield it effectively.

Now, for melee weapons. I’m not going to go recommending goofy stuff like katanas or anything like that. While certainly an effective weapon, it will require a lot of training to use effectively. It’s also a single-use weapon. You can’t use a katana to jimmy a lock or break into an abandoned building. Melee weapons in the zombie apocalypse need to be multipurpose.

I think a framing hammer would be an

ideal light, multipurpose melee weapon. Straight claws

are both lethal and useful. Couple this with a tool belt and you’ll hardly notice it’s there.

I also like firemen’s axes. Good for splitting heads, but also made for breaking into buildings and such. This pretty well covers any weapons needs for a mobile expeditionary force. If you have multiple members in your party, make sure everyone has their own small backup weapons, but you can have the larger primary weapons split up between folks. You can have ranged and melee “specialists”, if you will. This can really help keep the load down.

Fortification Defense

Noise and weight are much less important here. I still think it’s a good idea to keep some quiet ranged weapons and melee weapons easily accessible for those occasions where you want to maintain cover, but here we can break out the big guns – literally. We still want firearms with common calibers, but for primary defense, we want weapons with long range and pinpoint accuracy.

I think a .30-06 or 308 Win would be a good choice in semiauto. You might wonder why I don’t choose a fully auto AR here. My reason for that has to do with ammo conservation. Semiauto, I think, is a good balance between rapid fire and ammo conservation. If you can get your hands on a fully auto AR and plenty of ammo during the zombie apocalypse, I think it would make more sense to use that weapon if the walkers get closer to your fortification and you find yourself in danger of being overrun.

I think a shotgun or a few is also a good choice. Something like this model with interchangeable barrels is a good idea. A rifled barrel can be used with sabot slugs for

hard-hitting midrange shots. A smooth bore can be used with buckshot for spread in close quarters. There’s a reason the Hornady Z-Max 12-ga shotgun ammo is 00 buckshot. While the Z-Max label is all marketing (any buckshot will do), there’s a reason they put that label on buckshot. One shell could take down multiple walkers. These would be good to have around in case your fortifications are breached by a zombie horde of if you’re trying to clear structures in an urban environment.

Of course, a .50 cal machine gun or a few mounted high in spots with a good view can be effective against an incoming horde, or against raiding rivals. Having more firepower than the other guys can keep them from causing too many problems and that’s something worth keeping in mind. A lot of weapons will be more useful against the living than against the dead.

The Bug-out-bag

This is a common topic of discussion among folks who enjoy talking about these things. First and foremost, you need to ensure that you include the “10 Essentials“. This is a common concept among the hiking and backpacking community, and none of these items really should be all that surprising. I like the following list of 10 Essential “Systems” from the above REI link, but originally published in 2003 in Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills.

Navigation (map and compass)
Sun protection (sunglasses and sunscreen)
Insulation (extra clothing)
Illumination (headlamp/flashlight)
First-aid supplies
Fire (waterproof matches/lighter/candles)
Repair kit and tools
Nutrition (extra food)
Hydration (extra water)
Emergency shelter

Because of the space and weight requirements of the weapons so important in a zombie apocalypse, I think the items in the 10 Essentials should be as small and light as possible. For navigation, I’d definitely keep towards more basic low-tech methods. If you can navigate by the stars, awesome. But you’ll need some kind of map of the way things “were” before the zombie apocalypse that you can then draw on to update it based on changing conditions. It will at least help you to identify the locations of potential resources or places to avoid. GPS might work for a time after the apocalypse, but expect it to fail at some point afterwards.

I think in the zombie apocalypse you might have more pressing concerns than sun protection. But you won’t have much success if you have a severe sunburn. Sunscreen should be easy to find. Carry some. Wear a hat that covers your ears. Wear long sleeves and pants, if not to protect from the sun, but to block splatter from a melee attack. Sunglasses can keep splatter out of your eyes, too. Use good set with impact resistant lenses and they’re also good safety glasses.

Insulation/extra clothing is a given. If it sometimes gets cold, pack an extra jacket or pants, extra socks, whatever you’ve got. Having a change of clothing so you can wash your other set can help you feel a lot better when things aren’t going as well as you’d like. Rain gear falls into this category, too. If it’s raining, you can begin suffering from hypothermia at a surprisingly high temperature. The same goes for clothing to block the wind.

Illumination – key. Go with LED, rechargeable if possible. Get a solar charger or a hand crank charger while you’re at it. The super high-powered tactical flashlights are great, but they eat batteries like no tomorrow. Good luck keeping something like that fed when batteries are hard to find.

First aid – absolutely yes. In the zombie apocalypse where medical services are nonexistent, a small cut can get infected and jeopardize your life. Medicines will expire in a relatively short amount of time. Get what you can, but most stuff will be no good after awhile so you’ll need to make do. Pick up some books about local medicinal plants and start learning to identify them before you need them. Your med kit should deal with wound care. Various bandages, wraps, stuff to immobilize a limb, and whatnot.

Fire will be important. You may need it for illumination if your primary sources die on you. You might use it to fight zombies, and you will be cooking your food with it and heating your shelter with it. Keep several methods on your person to start a fire. Use lighters while they’re available. Firesteels are great fire starters. Matches will also go bad eventually, so use them while you can. In the back of your mind, think about how you’ll start fires when these items are no longer available to you and learn new ways to start a fire. Sparks from an old car battery, rubbing sticks together, a lens from an old pair of glasses, whatever is necessary.

In the zombie apocalypse, I doubt you’ll be spending much time repairing things until you settle down somewhere. But still, in some cases emergency repairs will be necessary. Stick with the basics. Duct tape, a needle and thread, maybe some glue. You can worry about repairing your stuff when you’re behind fortifications.

In your bug-out-bag, keep some shelf stable food for a couple of days. You’ll need plenty of calories because you’ll be on the move. Military MRE’s are an option, but not the only one. Consider commercial freeze-dried or dehydrated meals (or dehydrate your own). MRE’s are heavy because the water is still in them, but freeze-dried and dehydrated meals weigh less because there’s no moisture in the food. Rehydrate them and you’re good to go. In this category, I think you should consider methods to acquire food on the go. First in this list should be knowledge of edible wild plants. A book would be a good idea to keep for reference purposes. Some plants are only edible after a specific preparation to remove the toxins – pokeweed is one local plant that comes to mind that requires parboiling in at least 3 changes of water to remove toxins. A means to hunt silently should be considered, too. Once you’re in a place to settle down, snares are an excellent method to catch small game. But they’re pretty useless if you’re on the move. Your archery gear will be an important component of your bug-out-bag for obtaining food. You won’t be catching much small game with it, though. Toss in an ultralight coil of fishing line with a hook. Tie it to a stick and you can catch yourself a meal instead of relying on squirrels and rabbits.

Hydration – for this, use what you can get to carry it. But given a choice, I will not be choosing heavy canteens. This is one of my complaints with the Amazon list I prefaced my post with. What’s with the military canteens and whatnot? Natives often used the bladders from the wildlife they killed for carrying water. You don’t want a ton of container weight. I totally agree with that idea. The Nalgene Cantene is great. A few different sizes, they’re light and pack down small when empty. Also worth considering is a hydration pack with a large bladder. A tube to drink from and you’re good to go.

Getting clean water will become an issue when infrastructure is down, though. This will take some serious consideration, because all those rotting corpses will make for a lot of contaminated water. And if zombies come from a virus or bacteria that can survive in the water and be transmitted by drinking the water, you want to be doubly careful about what you drink. Fire and a durable container will be good for boiling, but this takes time and uses fuel. Eventually it’ll be your only method, though, as resources like chemical water purification and cartridges for pump filters become scarce. For a bug-out-bag, though, I’d suggest a pump filter and some purification tablets. Use what you can find after the apocalypse, but make sure your bag has these options before you go anywhere. And probably some bottled water, too, to get you started on your way.

Finally, you’ll need some shelter. What you use as a shelter will depend on where you are. At minimum, I suggest a ground cloth and a tarp. This can be used to keep you dry in an open location. If there are trees around, I STRONGLY recommend a hammock, however. Something like this Warbonnet Blackbird that has an integrated bug net. String this guy up high in a tree and you can sleep in peace out of the reach of any “walkers” that might happen by in the middle of the night. You can stretch your tarp above it to keep you dry in the rain, too.

That pretty much covers the 10 Essentials, but that’s not everything you’ll need. Everything from here on is stuff I think that you’ll find very important during the zombie apocalypse.

You’ll need some tools. I didn’t include it under the repair kit section because I don’t think you’ll need it to fix your gear, necessarily. In some cases, maybe, but you’ll need some stuff. I would start with a basic heavy duty multi-tool for your bug-out-bag. I like a good Leatherman, but Swiss Army Knives and Gerber tools would also be good choices. Knives, pliers, screwdrivers, saw, cutters, etc. You’ll be using this quite a bit. I would probably attach it to my belt so it’s on my person even if I become separated from my bug-out-bag.

Cord/rope. You’ll want something with some strength, but you don’t want the weight. Paracord just isn’t very strong to do much work. I am a big fan of Amsteel. You may have read that I hang my hammock with it. It’s plenty strong. You’ll need a sharp knife to cut it, too. It’s also slippery enough that you could probably fashion some snares out of it in a pinch.

Don’t forget a bag to carry your gear in. It’s probably the most important component of the bug-out-bag. Obviously you can’t carry all this stuff without a bag. But you don’t know what size of bag you need without knowing what you’ll put in it. I recommend a backpacking pack for this. Not an ultralight model. The extra zombie gear puts us well out of the ultralight category even if all of our 10 Essentials only occupies 5lbs. Find something comfortable that lets you move while you’re wearing it. You might consider multiple bags, especially if there will be multiple members of your party to spread the load.

Which brings me to my last item, and probably the most important one on the whole list. Despite the glorification of the heroic loner on many books, movies, and TV programs, you’ll need a team or a community to make this work. Do your planning in a group. Decide on an early warning system to get the word out to meet at a staging location so you can take stock of your group members, your gear, and share information before setting your escape plan in motion. Set multiple locations for your evacuation so you can have alternates in case of trouble. Early on in the zombie apocalypse, transportation should be plentiful. Fuel may or may not be, depending on how fast everything came down. Make sure you have fuel stockpiled at the centralized meeting location so you can use it to get a head start. Ideally have at least enough to get you to your destination. The faster you can get to a defensible location the better.

Bugged Out

Once you reach your defensible location, you will need to make preparations to survive there indefinitely.

Your defensible location needs to have a water source that can be accessed in case of a zombie siege. That will be the first resource to draw you out if you run out. Zombies are infinitely patient. You will need people who have different skills to make this work. You need someone with the skills to build or at least supervise the construction of defensive structures if your location does not already have them. Walls, lookout towers, strong buildings, etc. Start with tents to sleep in, get your walls and lookout structures built, and then get internal structures taken care of. An ideal location would have most of these items taken care of already. It depends on what’s available to you, but it’s likely you’ll have to build or repair something so you need someone with those skills.

You also need people with skills to keep your group fed. That means skilled hunters/trappers/fishermen and those skilled with growing plants. You will need to bring vegetable seeds with you. Start growing them when you can. Until then, you will need to forage. That means foraging from the wild, but also foraging from stores, homes, and using the resources of civilization while they’re there. Use what you can to get through to the planting season. Stockpiling rice and beans will become important early in the zombie apocalypse.

You will need people skilled with machinery. If you want to rebuild once the zombie population starts to drop, you will need someone who can repair and/or build machinery. You can manufacture biodiesel, so you can have cars and trucks, generators, electricity, and the like. Bringing back some civilization will be important to your group. This includes people who have skills with electronics. Electronics gear will be left behind once the power goes out. But when groups begin to rebuild electric grids, things like communications equipment and computers will become useful again. If you have recovered any of these items and plan to use them, make sure you’ve got people who can repair what might need fixing immediately or in the future.

You will need people with medical knowledge/training. Doctors, nurses, veterinarians, whoever you can get. Human doctors will be necessary for obvious reasons. A veterinarian can do many of the same things and in many cases, even more. There’s also a strong chance that you will wind up relying on horses for many things. Dogs may also become very essential with hunting, early warning, and companionship. Cats will be important for their abilities to keep the mouse/rat populations down. A veterinarian will be important to keep them well, too.

If your group is successful and you begin adding survivors, you’ll likely want a spiritual leader and psychologists to help them cope with the stresses of the things that have happened. Just make sure that your group doesn’t become a bunch of religious zealots. Plenty of disaster movies have shown us the horrible things that can happen in these types of situations.

You will need to set up a leadership structure to make sure everything gets done that needs doing. Set it up however you like, but everyone in the group needs to agree on how things will work once the apocalypse begins. I would recommend a method to allow everyone in your community to contribute to leading the community. Transfer of power needs to occur at regular intervals. Everyday people need a voice of some kind, so they are happy and productive members of that community.

Good luck with your preparations. Have you taken any so far, specifically with zombies in mind? What’s in your bug-out-bag? What about general disaster plans? Does your disaster preparedness only happen coincidentally to your current outdoor recreation?

Is My Bike Worth Upgrading?

The GPS Geek — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:07:22 +0000

You’ve had a bike for awhile and you’ve decided the bike has some limitations. You want to upgrade it because you like it otherwise. “Is it worth upgrading?” you ask.

Well, it depends.

It depends on what it is and what you plan to do with it. How old is it? Do you plan to keep the upgraded parts longer than the frame?

Let’s start with the bike you’ve got. You can’t put any hard and fast rules, “these bikes are worth upgrading and these bikes are not worth upgrading” because you can find exceptions to any rule. Let’s say you’re starting from a sub-$100 ‘mart bike. This is about as close to “it’s not worth upgrading” as you can get, but there are still some situations where an upgrade might make sense. Namely, a bike like this might be worth some low end used take-off parts from a low end LBS bike. You might know the stuff…usually either house branded or lacking any brand identification at all. It’s usually heavy, but it’ll be worlds better than what that ‘mart bike came with. Cost is the name of the game here. If you’re planning on putting a $300 suspension fork on a ‘mart bike you spent $60 on, you’re wasting your money.

A low end LBS bike might be worth a bit more upgrade attention. Again, no hard and fast rules. If you score a deal on a nice component, go ahead and toss it on there. You’ll maximize your investment in the new component if you keep it long after the low end bike is gone. But at some point, money spent upgrading a low end bike will be better spent saving for a whole new better bike. One reason for this is because low end bikes have so many low end components that could certainly benefit from an upgrade. My philosophy on this is to ride and enjoy the bike while you can. Eventually, stuff will wear out or break. When you NEED to replace something, go ahead and consider a slight upgrade to get a little more performance out of the bike. When your riding skills progress beyond the capabilities of the bike (say, for example that as you become more skilled you decide that you really like all-mountain or downhill riding more and you cannot do so safely on a Trek 4500) or when your preferred style changes (say you had a low end all-mountain hardtail and you decide that you really would rather have a super light race singlespeed), you need to change bikes. Plus, new bikes are just fun and maybe you don’t want to change styles – maybe you just want to add another bike to the stable/quiver/whatever you want to call your collection of bikes.

Also keep in mind how old the bike is. Lots of factors at play here. Let’s talk about the fatigue life of materials for a moment. Pretty much every material has a usable life. Aluminum probably has the shortest life span. Titanium, steel, and carbon fiber enjoy longer life in bike components. Even if it was once a very expensive, high-end frame, tossing a brand new $600 race caliber suspension fork on a 12 year old aluminum frame is probably not the wisest choice. That frame is nearing the end of its life. It will break sooner rather than later if ridden hard. Best to retire the frame entirely, or at least repurpose it to commuter duty or something where it will get beat on less.

Accompanying the age of the frame is the change in technology, changes in standards, and changes in preferences. Changes in technology might be something like attempting to upgrade a very early mountain bike to accept a suspension fork. The earliest mountain bikes came with rigid forks and had geometries more akin to road bikes or beach cruisers (depending on the bike). When suspension forks came onto the market, they had a longer axle-to-crown length than the rigid forks and so frame geometries needed changing to accommodate this different dimension. The longer a2c length also meant more force was placed on the head tube junction area of the frame, so that area of the frame needed reinforcing. Then, early frames designed for suspension were only designed around 60-80mm of suspension. Putting 100+mm of suspension on one of those frames threw out the geometry and puts more stress on the frame than it was designed to handle. Upgrading suspension on old frames has a lot of problems and pitfalls. Even modern frames are designed with a certain suspension fork travel length in mind. Putting a new fork with more or less than the intended suspension on it will change the frame geometry.

Disc brakes are another technology change. The frame mounts are different than those for rim brakes, they require stronger frame and fork, and they require hubs with rotor mounts. Various adapters have appeared on the market that allow you to put a disc brake on the rear end of a frame without a mount. Most of them can’t be found anymore since just about every frame has a disc mount. Some new forks even come without vee brake posts at all. Even if you want a new fork for an old bike and plan to keep the rim brakes, your selection in forks will be limited by the fact that few forks even have canti posts anymore.

Changes in standards are a big problem. Headtube sizes have changed quite a bit over the years. Everything used to be 1″. There was even 1 1/4″ for awhile. Now 1 1/8″ is the most common with 1.5″ being more common for big hit bikes. Tapered headtubes have recently come onto the market. They have a 1 1/8″ cup on top and a 1.5″ cup on the bottom. This all, of course, corresponds to associated changes in steerer tubes on the fork. This needs to be taken into account for an upgrade. An old bike with a 1″ steerer is going to be hard to find a new fork for.

Axles are another standard change. Everything used to be 9mm axle QR. Now there’s several flavors of thru-axle to choose from (15mm, 20mm, 24mm Maverick, etc on the front – 10mm and 12mm thru axles for the rear). There’s also differing hub spacing. 100mm is pretty much the standard for the front with 110mm used for downhill bikes with 20mm thru-axles, but rear hub spacing is a mess. For mountain bikes, old ones came with 130mm spacing. 135mm spacing became common as gears got added to the rear cluster. It’s the most common spacing used today on mountain bikes. Some downhill and freeride bikes use 150mm rear spacing for a stronger rear wheel. These are just the common rear spacings used on mountain bikes. Sheldon Brown’s site has a nice overview on all manner of hub spacings ranging from 91mm to 160mm. Road bikes and tandems have different standards that muddy the waters quite a bit. What does this all mean for upgrading a bike? You need to know your hub spacing and axle type before you go and buy a new wheelset.

Gearing has changed over the years, too. Mountain bikes have gone from 7 speed rear clusters to 10 speed rear clusters. Cranksets can be found in single, double, or triple configurations. You can always reduce the number of chainrings (go from a double to a single or from a triple to a double or a single) but you cannot add more. Not only that, but singlespeed (freewheel or freehub), fixie, “dingle” (two gear combos that can be manually changed), flip-flop (fixie OR singlespeed freewheel) and internally-geared hubs from 3-14 gear ratios are available. It can be a complicated selection process.

A common “upgrade” that doesn’t cost much money is to take an older geared bike and remove all of the outdated multi-gear drivetrain equipment and make it either a singlespeed or a fixie. With road bikes, it’s super common to switch them to a fixie. With mountain bikes, the singlespeed is more common. But there are plenty of singlespeed road bikes and fixie mountain bikes out there, too. This is actually a good way to repurpose an old frame with odd dimensions limiting component selection. You just have to be careful with the differing standards before changing parts like forks, headsets, wheels, and even bottom brackets. Handlebars are another to keep an eye on. It’s always safer to measure first before buying something new for your old bike.

What’s the lesson here?

It’s a complicated process. Some bikes aren’t worth doing much “upgrading” (like the Next pictured earlier) while some might be worth putting some money or some effort into the upgrade process. In some cases, “upgrade” might actually mean simplification. The fixie conversion picture I posted is a particularly nice one. This frame looks like it was repainted, even.

If you’re thinking about upgrading your inexpensive bike, think about what it is you really want and how much money you’re planning on putting into the project. If you really want a whole new bike (probably the case most of the time), it’s probably best to save up for a whole new bike and make your money go a bit further. If you’ve got a broken Alivio derailleur, getting a NOS LX or a new SLX won’t be the end of the world. If you have a worn-out Rock Shox Dart fork and you replace it with a Tora, that’s probably not a big deal. If you’re rocking a 5 year old SR Suntour fork and you want to put a Fox Talas RLC on there, you’re wasting your money.

A final word here – I don’t consider “fit” parts to be in the upgrade line. Stems, handlebars, grips, saddles, seatposts. If you actually ride the bike you want it to be comfortable. I still wouldn’t go tossing a Brooks saddle onto a mart bike – that saddle is worth more than the whole bike. But by all means put a new saddle on that bike if the current saddle sucks.

By all means enjoy your bike, I just would prefer to see use their money intelligently. Consider the upgrade you want to do. Would it make financial sense to buy the parts new, or would it be a better use to buy the parts used and save a few bucks for later? If you really want a whole new bike then find a way to make that happen.

Long Time No Post

The GPS Geek — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 06:29:44 +0000

It has indeed been awhile since my last update. I’ve been BUSY trying to get my thesis done. I really haven’t done much GPS tracking of any rides lately because I’ve just been riding when I can. And lately, that’s meant lots of commuting duty so I can keep my cycling legs under me.

The Pompetamine has been getting some miles on it lately. It’s also had some changes since I posted up my original build pics. Here’s what I’ve done to it:

It’s the wet season, so I threw on some SKS full fenders so I can keep drier. I also had to get some narrower tires so the fenders would fit. The rear end of this frame has plenty of width, but tire height is a bit of an issue with fenders. I had some 38′s on it, but I dropped down to 32′s. They’re smoother and faster on pavement and can still take a little dirt. But they’re no gravel grinder tire. If I want to do that, I’ll have to remove the fenders to put the old 38′s on.

I put a smaller 42t chainring on instead of the 46t. I found starts from stoplights to be a PITA on the 46t, and I’ve got a bit of a climb on my way home that was just a beast every evening. The 42t just takes the edge off of the climb and starting from stoplights takes a lot less effort. 42×18 works for me on my commute.

I got a Portland Design Works rack just last week. Boy is this thing nice. Bamboo deck, aluminum construction (even bamboo dowels inserted into some of the aluminum tubing), and curvy, sexy lines. This isn’t grandpa’s utilitarian rack. This one has some design put into it to make it LOOK nice.

More reflective tape to increase visibility and a MagicShine taillight.

Now for the pics (and a vid):

Check out that sexy rack. I don’t have any panniers just yet, though. But you can be sure I’ll pick some up. I’ll probably get a set of waterproof ones. I also want to move the taillight from the seatpost out to the end of the rack, but it’s designed to attach to a round post, not the tab. I have some scrap pvc and I might rig something up.

Rear view. You can see the round light on the seatpost here.

I had to get creative for the front fender attachment to get around the disc brake caliper. First, I needed to use a longer bolt with a shim to get the plastic bracket away from the disc tab. Then, I bent the fender stays around the caliper. I did all that bending with just two pair of pliers. A vise sure would have helped out a lot there.

Checking out the reflective bits on the bike. You’ll notice something about the rims. I got these wheels built up with Velocity Dyad REFLECTIVE rims. Do you see them reflecting here? Barely. If you notice in the horizontal picture where the light hits the front of the front wheel that maybe 1/4 of the rim is reflecting brightly and another 1/4 of the rim is reflecting faintly. That pales in comparison to the reflective sidewall of my Crucible tire. I’m a little miffed that the reflective effect of the rims is that wimpy.

Here’s a vid of most of the active lighting on the bike (the brand new wheel blinkie is dead…must have blinked in the store for hours or something). Pay no attention to the audio here. That noise is the focus on the camera. I have the headlight on blink, actually, but the frame rate of the camera is too slow to catch it. The taillight is good, and motorists appear to be able to see it in the daylight just fine. I seem to be plenty visible to people around here without extra hi-vis clothing, even. Now, people do drive EXTRA cautious around here, though. I have passed more than one person on my bike crossing the railroad tracks going UPHILL. It seems to be sport to go 10mph under the speed limit. It’s enough to drive you crazy when you learned to drive in big cities and when you get in the car you just want to get somewhere for cryin’ out loud.

Commuting here is spoiling me in many respects. Drivers around here mostly don’t yell at cyclists. I can remember being yelled at once since I moved here in 2008 and I have more road miles here than in any of my previous residences. And even then, it was just dumb kids. No idiot rednecks in pickup trucks (though I do live in rural Texas and there are PLENTY of pickups – none of them care to cause any trouble), no aggressive businessmen in too much of a hurry, nobody’s thrown anything at me, none of that. The worst I get are the clueless students. In some ways they’re more dangerous because they’re unpredictable. There’s a half-roundabout at the main entrance to campus that I use to exit sometimes. It used to be two-way, but it was somewhat recently changed so that it’s now a one-way loop. It really simplifies traffic flow there. But there’s the occasional idiot that enters at the exit in spite of the prominent “DO NOT ENTER” signs, paint on the street, and whatnot. I was waiting at the exit on my bike a few times when people have entered there. It’s quite scary to see headlights bearing down on you head on and you’re just standing there straddling the bike. I do my best to scare the crap out of those idiots. I’ve successfully had one group actually stop and get out of their car. Small lessons, right?

Saturday’s Ride (in Video)

The GPS Geek — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 21:30:19 +0000

Today’s ride was interesting. Due to the video recording, we weren’t getting a big workout. Mostly just sessioning on the flow trails to get some interesting video. I wanted to practice getting off-the-bike shots with my GoPro.

We had to scrape a guy off the trail on the Downhill loop when he cased it hard trying to ride the drop and made a divot in the trail with his face. Some first aid and he got hauled to the ER to check him out for a concussion and a broken nose.

Please, folks, when riding this sort of stuff, do a few things:
1. Wear a helmet, and if you ride particularly aggressively or clumsily, a full-face model.
2. Know your limits. Don’t let testosterone and peer pressure push you into doing something you’re not comfortable with.
3. Inspect technical features before you ride them. You definitely want to scope out your line so you enter and exit the feature the best you can (and determine what’s required of you to clear it), but at minimum you need to inspect the obstacle itself for safety.

Scooby

The GPS Geek — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 14:18:14 +0000

I was playing around with some old footage from my GoPro and getting an animated map to follow my track. It’s not exactly how I’d like it, but it’s a little taste of what’s possible.

I used Sony Vegas HD Platinum 10 for my video editing. The animated map I created using ESRI’s ArcScene 10 (part of the ArcGIS 10 package) and a shapefile of Scooby that I traced over a GPS track (the large number of trackpoints in my actual GPS tracks makes ArcScene act a bit wonky). It’s not exactly feasible for most folks to make use of ArcScene, but as long as you can export your GPS flyover as an .avi file, you should be golden.

One-One Pompetamine (Road Bike Commuter Project #5 – Finished)

The GPS Geek — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:59:11 +0000

This post has been a few weeks in the making, but please forgive me. I’ve been riding my new bike when I haven’t been working. It’s nice that even though my workload has increased, my riding miles have also increased because of this new bike.

The great thing about this bike is that it doesn’t matter where I take it. It can handle trails OR roads. Now I’m not doing Scooby at the SFA Rec Trails on this thing, but I can get a dose of dirt on it when I need one.

I took the opportunity today to get some daytime pics of the bike. I’m still trying to get good nighttime pics that really show off the glowing frame, but that’s much more challenging to actually pull off than you might expect. Since my first pics of this bike (in the dark on my patio), I have added some reflective tape on the fork legs and the seatstays. I used Duck brand reflective tape from Walmart. It advertises a pretty serious adhesion, so I put down some black electrical tape first in case I need to remove the reflective stuff. So far so good with it. It’s a pretty flexible tape that works well for this sort of application. When I install fenders, I’ll be putting more of it on, but I wanted to get started.

I’m really loving the mustache bars. If you don’t recall from a previous post, they’re Mungo bars from On-One. I really like the comfort of these things for commuting purposes. I settled on a 110mm stem with a 17* rise, and 25mm of carbon spacers IIRC. This position is upright enough to maintain visibility, but aggressive enough to keep a relatively aero position when I need to cut the wind.

I commute with a 2010-era Magicshine headlamp on a 6.0mAh battery from Geomangear.com. Geoman’s batteries are pretty solid. I also have a pair of his 4.0mAh batteries that I use for mountain biking (one of them for my second lighthead that my wife will use, or I will loan to friends who need one since my wife doesn’t night ride often). I plan on adding a Magicshine tail light, and moving my old Blackburn blinkie to the back of my helmet.

Have I sung the praises of Brooks saddles yet? I might start sounding a little hipster for this, but I dearly love the one I put on this bike, and I’d buy a new one at full retail for my next bike with no hesitation. Several people have commented on how hard it is. Honestly, it’s the most comfortable saddle I’ve ever had on a bike! It does squeak a bit at the hardware on the front, but a little lube will take care of that. It’s easily worth the comfort, though.

I keep going back and forth about the drivetrain. I’m running 46×18 gearing right now and it can be a little on the high side for the hills. But then I’ll go the other way 5 minutes later and say that as my leg strength improves, it’ll be less difficult to ride up the hills on my commute. They’ve always been doable, but my major complaint is that I can work up quite a sweat, even when it’s 43 degrees F outside like it was the other morning. I definitely don’t want to be sweating like that when it’s warm out. I may push the taller gears this winter, and then drop the gearing for summertime to reduce my exertion.

Another note about this bike: if you chose to build one with On-One’s fork, do yourself a favor and start out with Centerlock hubs AND Centerlock rotors. I bought a wheelset with Centerlock hubs because On-One “recommends” Centerlock on this bike. And for the frame, sure, I’d go with “recommend” as a reasonable term. 6-bolt is tight on the back end, but you can make it work. The front end is a different story altogether. I attempted to install Avid Cleansweep G2 6-bolt rotors with the Origin-8 Centerlock adapters. When I got everything installed, the wheel would not rotate! The bolt heads were hitting the fork leg, preventing the wheel from rotating freely. I had to break down and order some Centerlock rotors. I ordered the Shimano SLX SM-RT64 rotors, and so far I like them quite a lot. They were such a breeze to install with the same lockring tool I use for my cassette. Even with the proper rotor, the clearance on this fork is TIGHT! Here’s my recommendation: don’t even try to use 6 bolt rotors or adapters. It’s entirely possible that some combinations might work, but is all that trial and error really worth it?

And finally, it’s been a little while since I posted any videos. A photo project on mtbr.com convinced me to pull the GoPro out and get some video of my commute. I tried a couple angles, but these were the only ones that worked out. Helmet and handlebar. I’ve seen some pretty disastrous handlebar mount vids, but I think that option works out great on the road bike. I tried a stem mount pointing up to get a view of my face, but my stem angle prevented me from getting the aim right…and all you could see was my torso. That one needs an extension on this bike, and I didn’t have a lot of time to fuss with it.

Revisiting Strava

The GPS Geek — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 02:51:05 +0000

Quite awhile ago, I posted my Giant GPS Data Sharing Site Shootout, and Strava was included in that review, and not reviewed well. Strava has been showing up in a lot of online discussions lately, and having a lot of favorable comments. It seems a lot of people are starting to use it, and some of those comments suggested that there have been some changes since my big review. That page is rather unweildy, so rather than add all of this there and make it worse, I thought I’d make a new post, and just put a link to it there.

First off, Strava offers embedding with a free account. Seeing as that’s a major thing I use for data sharing sites, adding this feature is pretty important to me. Here’s a short ride from last weekend.

Accessing this feature is easy enough. Go to the activity, and find the “Share Ride” dropdown, and choose the “embed on Blog” option. Copy and paste the code and voila!

There’s a premium membership option that includes additional analysis options if you’d like them, which is a nice option for the folks really looking to optimize performance. Strava’s pricing is pretty reasonable, so it may not be quite as expensive as Training Peaks (nor does it offer THAT much analysis), but the pricing compares well to most other sites that offer premium services.

The neat thing about Strava is that it has segments. You can define a segment as a portion of a ride where you can compete against others. You can define a segment (commonly a climb) and Strava will track your performance on that segment every time you ride it. If you make that segment public, others can track their own performance on it as compared to you and other people who ride it. As you can see, those segments can be shared and embedded, too. With the premium memberships, you can even compare yourself against others in different age groups and weight classes.

It will also link to your Twitter or Facebook account, if you’re interested. There is also a nice suite of unique social features within the site. You can join various clubs or bike shops and have your ride stats compared in different competitions.

When searching for rides, you can filter your searches by climb categorization, you can search for segments, and you can search for a particular athlete.

All in all, I think the additions Strava has made since my earlier review are positive additions that make the service attractive to a wider variety of people. The service supports iOS, Android, Garmin Communicator uploads directly from the device, as well as manual .gpx, .tcx, and .fit uploads allowing for a wide range of device compatibility.