Beautiful day for a breakfast ride to Tewksbury, NJ, on the motorbikes…

Our pocket heroes taking a rest

Some ContourHD camfootage shot of Andrey and Juergen riding…

We really enjoyed taking footage with the Vholdr ContourHD camera mounted in a few different locations. In our video around the 6 minute mark, one can really see the Suzuki M109 R inverted fork suspension working well: The video remains steady, while the wheel and fender are seen moving a lot. Also fun was mounting the camera underneath the oil cooler on my BMW, which gives a low front facing angle.

The bikes looking glamorous in the filtered sunlight

In short, I’ve never met a GPS I didn’t like. (With the possible exception of a homicidal rental Volvo S80 dashboard unit, which, along with being directionally challenged in general, frequently insisted to “turn right”, “Turn right NOW!” when we were driving through Tuscan landscape with cliffs on the right side of the car, but that’s another story…)

And since I live on the East Coast, finding scenic and rural motorcycle routes is not so easy, and especially for shorter routes from my hometown in Atlantic Highlands, it pays to do some research and planning, since I like avoiding populated areas, low flying jets on final approach, and NJ scenic features like Heating Oil Storage Towers, Refineries and the odd Co-Generation Power Plant.

This means I seldom use a GPS unit to plan a route, since it auto-calculates the quickest route. Instead I plan a route on the computer, checking out the google maps or google earth satellite images in detail to see how I can plan riding through farmland, avoid crowded areas and highways.

Since I’m an (ex) photographer, I have also started to geotag the images I take along the route, and I have come across some utilities that help me post and share both the trips and photographs afterwards.

I thought I’d share some of my favorite tools to help me do this:

MapToGPX

In google maps I can modify a route easily to suite me by dragging it onto the roads I’d like to travel… However, the problem has been that once I have a suitable route, there is no good way to get a google map route converted and downloaded to my (Garmin Zumo) GPS.  Well, now there is a fantastic tool that does just that: MaptoGPX.
Here an excerpt from their site, as well as another useful link to the GPS Visualizer site:

The Google Maps API is great, but it doesn’t have an easy way to export data in GPX format. This bookmarklet is my attempt at a hack to get information out of Google Maps and into GPX, suitable for loading on a GPS.

This bookmarklet can create a GPX file based on driving directions, an address search or a local search. The GPX file will contain a route, a single waypoint, or up to ten waypoints, respectively. The code for extracting waypoints from local search originally came from this page.

I’ve recorded a short screencast to illustrate:

GPS Visualizer

If you’re looking for a utility to display GPX files in Google Maps, or in a variety of other formats, I recommend GPS Visualizer.

BikeRouteToaster

Image by photokayaker via Flickr

BikeRouteToaster.com is a course creation application primarily aimed at Garmin Edge/Forerunner owners although other users without a GPS may also find it useful for planning rides. It is meant for bicycle rides, but can just as easily be used to plan Motorcycle routes. Courses are created using Google maps and then downloaded from the server. Go to the Course Creator and start creating courses. For more information on specific features please see the Help page.

EveryTrail

Everytrail.com is this really cool site allows you to upload GPS routes and pictures taken along those routes. If the images are “Geotagged”, then Everytrail can put together a nice slide show to display images along the route, and the “significant others” can follow along… I find it’s a really ice way to share a motorcycling adventure, or a hike for that matter. Click here for an example of my Port Jervis trip as displayed on Everytrail.

HoudahGeo

If you take pictures with your iPhone, then your photos are already “geotagged” and contain the location information to easily be displayed on maps. But if you own an older or high end DSLR camera, then the images you take do not have location information embedded. HoudahGeo is a utility that automatically”geotags” your images, based on the images time stamp being matched with a track file uploaded from your GPS. I use a Garmin Zumo GPS when riding, and when I return home simply copy the track file from the Zumo to HoudahGeo, drag my pictures to the HoudahGeo app and the images are then automatically tracked. (I’m on a Mac, for those on PCs, check out RoboGeo)

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Still jetlagged from just having returned from Berlin, it was easy to talk myself out of doing something more strenuous, like for example Mountain Biking or Kayaking. I am quite good at talking myself out of things, or at least waffling about it until it is too late to have a go, and while I can easily hesitate about a BMW ride in questionable weather condition, today the sun was shining, the leaves did not particularly seem slippery, and with Robyn still away in India and Nepal, the few hundred miles I need to put on the bike before the next service period tipped the scale. Besides I also wanted to test out my new Vstream replacement windshield on the highway.

The South Shore BMW rider group was doing a Polar Bear ride to Hopewell NJ today, but the meeting point takes me an hour to reach, and the ride would have taken all day… Besides I like riding by myself, I can stop to take pictures when I like, and ponder the smaller mysteries of the universe, such as the spontaneous materialization of extremely slow driving minivans, only during the sweepy best curvy segments of a route. I’m sure this only applies to Motorcycles, although I think cars are also affected, if the driver is running late.

So after planning a route to ride the sweepy route 527 west, before turning back east to Seaside Heights and a visit to Island Beach State Park, I set out around 10:30. I assumed entry to Island Beach would be free after labor day, the plan was to eat lunch there or in Asbury Park.

Baldrich the Beemer

I often marvel at the technology that allows me to take calls on my Zumo GPS (connected via bluetooth to my iPhone), but having somehow imagined suave on bike conversations, the actual subject matter of such on bike calls are pedestrian in nature and typically revolve around picking up milk, or doctor’s visits. Stopping to take a call from my Mother, I by chance discovered the Ocean County RC Modelers model airplane field. After a short and concise conversation I continued an hour later.

Seaside Heights is a summer town, by which I mean that in November, it is difficult to distinguish it from a post apocalyptic movie set. Stores, Delis, Gas Stations, entire Shopping Malls seem abandoned to such a degree that looting would appear pointless.

So imagine my surprise to discover that entry to Island Beach State Park still costs money! Apparently the reason is that, while Sandy Hook is operated by grumpy college students having to work during hot summer hours while their friends are having fun, Island Beach State Park is operated by the only current life forms in Seaside Heights, a cadre of endlessly cheerful and available retirees.

Thus, declining to pay the entry fee, and facing the questionable prospect of food discovered in the desolation of Seaside Heights or Lavalette, I decided to make a bee-line for home for a nice bowl of home-made mushroom bisque.

In short, a good time was had by all, and as usual I am posting the GPS data and ride pictures on EveryTrail

On a more practical note, I recently ordered a Ztechnik windscreen to replace the stock screen on the BMW R1200RT, and the design to reduce wind noise works marvelously. With the stock screen I was having problems with the wind activating the mike of my Autocom bike communication system, and so it was easy to tell that the new screen is a lot quieter, meaning I can listen to music, navigation and phone calls with reduced volume… Tested this in traffic at about 137kph during a few stretches of heading back home on the GSP. I can post comparison pictures of the V-Stream vs the stock BMW screen if anyone is interested.

Please visit Carla’s blog entry to see the full list of findings, and also to find out how to order a hardcopy of the report if you are interested.

Some of the findings were especially interesting to me, from a BMW RT Touring perspective:

Findings that made me glad I’m on an R1200RT with supplemental PIAA lights

14. Conspicuity of the motorcycle is a critical factor in the multiple vehicle accidents, and accident involvement is significantly reduced by the use of motorcycle headlamps (on in daylight) and the wearing of high visibility yellow, orange or bright red jackets.

18. Conspicuity of the motorcycle is most critical for the frontal surfaces of the motorcycle and rider.

34. Motorcycles equipped with fairings and windshields are underrepresented in accidents, most likely because of the contribution to conspicuity and the association with more experienced and trained riders.

What I found a bit surprising

11. Weather is not a factor in 98% of motorcycle accidents.

17. The typical motorcycle pre-crash lines-of-sight to the traffic hazard portray no contribution of the limits of peripheral vision; more than three-fourths of all accident hazards are within 45deg of either side of
straight ahead.

32. Large displacement motorcycles are underrepresented in accidents but they are associated with higher injury severity when involved in accidents.

39. Crash bars are not an effective injury countermeasure; the reduction of injury to the ankle-foot is balanced by increase of injury to the thigh-upper leg, knee, and lower leg.

16. The median pre-crash speed was 29.8 mph, and the median crash speed was 21.5 mph, and the one-in-a-thousand crash speed is approximately 86 mph.

29. The typical motorcycle accident allows the motorcyclist just less than 2 seconds to complete all collision avoidance action.

33. Any effect of motorcycle color on accident involvement is not determinable from these data, but is expected to be insignificant because the frontal surfaces are most often presented to the other vehicle
involved in the collision.

No Surprises Here, Though…

6. In multiple vehicle accidents, the driver of the other vehicle violated the motorcycle right-of-way and caused the accident in two-thirds of those accidents.

7. The failure of motorists to detect and recognize motorcycles in traffic is the predominating cause of motorcycle accidents. The driver of the other vehicle involved in collision with the motorcycle did not see
the motorcycle before the collision, or did not see the motorcycle until too late to avoid the collision.

10. Intersections are the most likely place for the motorcycle accident, with the other vehicle violating the motorcycle right-of-way, and often violating traffic controls.

43. Seventy-three percent of the accident-involved motorcycle riders used no eye protection, and it is likely that the wind on the unprotected eyes contributed in impairment of vision which delayed hazard detection.

Duh, no surprises here, I guess. Staying alert, defensive and slow enough to react counts for a lot…

Sign up for those MSF classes

And ride a dirt bike

24. The motorcycle riders involved in accidents are essentially without training; 92% were self-taught or learned from family or friends. Motorcycle rider training experience reduces accident involvement and is
related to reduced injuries in the event of accidents.

25. More than half of the accident-involved motorcycle riders had less than 5 months experience on the accident motorcycle, although the total street riding experience was almost 3 years. Motorcycle riders with dirt bike experience are significantly underrepresented in the accident data.

Ride Safe!

On the way already it became clear that Atlantic Highlands retains the fall colors later into the season than the rest of New Jersey, heading west and then north the leaves had mostly fallen, but there was enough of a color splash here and there to make up for it… I only stopped at times to snap a picture, but the weather was fantastic for late November, and the ride was fun.

I’m always torn between trying to join up with the “Jersey Shore BMW Riders”, but I’m a little intimidated at the prospect of riding in a group (and messing up somehow), but the biggest concern as a photographer is that when I see something interesting my ensuing behavior is predictably erratic: First I see something visually enticing out of the corner of my eye, then a debate ensues in my aging brain about wether to turn around and take a photograph or not, and finally I may or may not hit the brakes to the imagined dismay of my fortunately absent ride mates.

Besides, this is a two edge sword in another way: If I do turn around, the picture invariably will not be interesting, but if I don’t, I will scold myself over a lost “once in a lifetime” photo op for the rest of the ride. So you can appreciate that I tend to err on the side of worn down brakes and bad pictures…

Having once again planned the route with my trusty bikeroutetoaster.com app, I’ve also recently become aware of a great way to plan a route using google maps directly. In google maps I can modify a route easily to suite me by dragging it onto the roads I’d like to travel… However, the problem has been that once I have a suitable rout, there is no good way to get a google map route converted and downloaded to my (Garmin Zumo) GPS. Well, now there is a fantastic tool that does just that: MaptoGPX.

Here an excerpt from their site, as well as another useful link to the GPS Visualizer site:

The Google Maps API is great, but it doesn’t have an easy way to export data in GPX format. This bookmarklet is my attempt at a hack to get information out of Google Maps and into GPX, suitable for loading on a GPS.

This bookmarklet can create a GPX file based on driving directions, an address search or a local search. The GPX file will contain a route, a single waypoint, or up to ten waypoints, respectively. The code for extracting waypoints from local search originally came from this page.

I’ve recorded a short screencast to illustrate:

If you’re looking for a utility to display GPX files in Google Maps, I recommend GPS Visualizer.

Once in Port Jervis, it was time to shed some layers of clothing due to the global warming inspired November day, stop for lunch at the Erie Hotel and Restaurant, and then head into squid country to begin the Hawk’s Nest part of the ride… As I was leaving Port Jervis, my Rev’it touring suit, a cherished gift from my father, was drawing some curious looks from the assembled Harley & Chrome Rider crowd. OK, it was almost 70F out, but I figure I’ll be laughing in the rain and 35F degree weather.

About four miles from Port Jervis, the section of New York Route 97 has been frequently used in television commercials and advertisements. It was interesting to switch from the Harley scene to 100s of sports bikes enjoying Hawk’s Nest in a matter of miles. Curiously most of the squids were parked on the scenic overlooks along the route and not riding, but it could be they were so fast as to simply not register with me, though I’m sure I should have heard the whine of passing engines.

A 30 minute drive from Port Jervis along this scenic road will lead to the oldest wire suspension bridge in the United States and a museum/home of noted author, Zane Grey.

The overall trip was approx 320 miles, a good day out…

Check out the trip as posted on Everytrail.com. I used HoudahGeo to push GPS tracking data from my motorcycle’s Zumo into the pictures EXIF data, and when uploading the resulting images, the Everytrail site automatically maps them as follows: Atlantic Highlands to Port Jervis