September 14, 2018
*OCD doesn't mean the medical condition Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, but Obscenely Complete Detail!!!
??
My July 6th blog entry Prepare for a Bucket-List Ride gave a little hint of the planning that I did for the 48 State ride.
A couple of people have expressed some interest in additional detail on how I did this. So the audience for this blog post really is those that are interested in either the 48 State ride specifically -or- generic detail on just how intense planning can get for a ride like this. Once you've done this a time or three, you get your own ideas on how things should be researched, organized and "presented".
Thus began my learning about this; how to create and manipulate the data so that I could understand just where a GPS is trying to send me. This took some time, but as I soon learned, it was nice for someone to send me a file for the ideas - only. Unless they're somewhat close to me or my route, it's little more than a series of reference points another rider used for their ride. I mentioned in my pre-ride-start blog post about this. Yeah, another 800 miles of riding to make the actual 48 state ride shorter. Was it worth it? In my case, yes.
I finally had to decide on a route, and from there the details of the route were to be assembled.
A spreadsheet was created, and from here I began to populate it with the locations needed for stops.
"C'mon, can't be that difficult - 49 stops, right??"
Naah... Example: Nevada was around 560 miles from one end to the other. I need two gas stops -plus-, I need to run over into Utah, and collect that, since I'm this close. A few other states needed more than one stop. Per IBA ride rules, stops need to be within 350 miles anyway. For nearly all motorcycles, to do that requires auxiliary fuel cell capacity. Nope, not worth the expense - to me. My stock range is around 240 miles, and I'm good with stopping a bit before that anyway - just to have reserve range if needed.
Now, the routing exercise becomes one of efficiency. (this is where that OCD starts to kick in...)
I had the 'middle' of the route pretty set from a couple of different sources, which were remarkably similar. Upon discussion on Internet discussion forums, I made the decision, though it would be nice to ride a nice, twisty two-laned road like US-12 through Lolo Pass, I really need to beeline to Washington, collect that, then move on to cross Montana. 680 miles of Montana.
So, each day was made into a Google Map - here's day 1: https://goo.gl/maps/42PZmruZAtE2 In a few days, I created an entire set of eight more of these, based on the stop locations that others had used on their 48 state routes. This is why I made the comment I did a while back about planning a ten day ride for nine days.
I then took each stop and obtained the latitude and longitude coordinates. This is also the time that I studied a bit around each location. Alternative fuel locations? What about eating options? Lodging? The ten or 15 minutes spent just using Google Maps & Google Earth to scout the area around each stop was well worth it. Just enough to be marginally familiar with the area.
"Why? You have a perfectly good day of riding with that map? Use it!"
Yes, but now I'm improving - more OCD. Google Maps uses phone data, while my built-in GPS on the motorcycle uses no data. So, the bike GPS needs to be the primary route source, while those Google Maps if they're needed, needs to (a) match and (b) be able to be converted into a file the bike GPS can use.
I'm not going to go down that rat-hole on the specific detail of how I did that. I'm glad I took notes as I did it, but not certain I could re-do that process again. I'll have to try it and improve my notes for any future efforts I may want to do.
An earlier blog post mentioned how I created the route from Oklahoma to New Mexico. Let Google Maps plot a route from the Oklahoma stop to the New Mexico stop I had chosen. "Yup, looks good to me!" - done!
Each rider has certain ride parameters you want to stay in - fuel range, rest durations, things like that. Again, once you've done this a time or three, you know what you're comfortable with, and you also know what makes you squirm. Friday-afternoon major metro area traffic, early-morning, before-sunrise deer-country ride start, things like that. All of that wisdom has to be readily accessible and understandable when you're in a well-rested state - and in a fatigued state of mind.
Once I got back onto my planned route - and besides the couple of times I'd wandered off course, I did manage to stay pretty tight to the plan for the entire ride. Now, in a few cases - specifically, day 7 when I finished off the south-eastern corner, I was on the route, but was not stopping at pre-planned locations. Again, the validity of the photo album storage for the receipts turned out to be a fantastic idea, especially during these periods of the ride. I wrote about that in some of the pre-ride blogs I'd done.
With the ride is done, the IBA ride submission process is next. I'm used to submitting info for rides with a dozen stops, maybe two dozen - but not 60+. This is going to take some effort - or is it?
*OCD doesn't mean the medical condition Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, but Obscenely Complete Detail!!!
??
My July 6th blog entry Prepare for a Bucket-List Ride gave a little hint of the planning that I did for the 48 State ride.
A couple of people have expressed some interest in additional detail on how I did this. So the audience for this blog post really is those that are interested in either the 48 State ride specifically -or- generic detail on just how intense planning can get for a ride like this. Once you've done this a time or three, you get your own ideas on how things should be researched, organized and "presented".
Research - What do I do with this info?
Over the last couple of years, I'd collected three different files from people that were gracious enough to send them my way when I asked for them thru various forums. All three of them were in the *.GPX (GPS eXchange Format), which is used for interchange of GPS data (waypoints, routes, and tracks) between systems. All three of them had different starting and ending points - of course - as they were derived for a specific rider and where 'home' is for them.Thus began my learning about this; how to create and manipulate the data so that I could understand just where a GPS is trying to send me. This took some time, but as I soon learned, it was nice for someone to send me a file for the ideas - only. Unless they're somewhat close to me or my route, it's little more than a series of reference points another rider used for their ride. I mentioned in my pre-ride-start blog post about this. Yeah, another 800 miles of riding to make the actual 48 state ride shorter. Was it worth it? In my case, yes.
I finally had to decide on a route, and from there the details of the route were to be assembled.
A blizzard of data to organize
There was a steep learning curve that I was able to overcome eventually with the Garmin software program called BaseCamp (I hear a lot of booing in the audience...) At the same time, I was getting some advice with "Just use Google Maps...". I really, really wanted to have a better idea of the route, so my first iteration was a one-per-day route created with Google Maps.A spreadsheet was created, and from here I began to populate it with the locations needed for stops.
"C'mon, can't be that difficult - 49 stops, right??"
Naah... Example: Nevada was around 560 miles from one end to the other. I need two gas stops -plus-, I need to run over into Utah, and collect that, since I'm this close. A few other states needed more than one stop. Per IBA ride rules, stops need to be within 350 miles anyway. For nearly all motorcycles, to do that requires auxiliary fuel cell capacity. Nope, not worth the expense - to me. My stock range is around 240 miles, and I'm good with stopping a bit before that anyway - just to have reserve range if needed.
Now, the routing exercise becomes one of efficiency. (this is where that OCD starts to kick in...)
I had the 'middle' of the route pretty set from a couple of different sources, which were remarkably similar. Upon discussion on Internet discussion forums, I made the decision, though it would be nice to ride a nice, twisty two-laned road like US-12 through Lolo Pass, I really need to beeline to Washington, collect that, then move on to cross Montana. 680 miles of Montana.
So, each day was made into a Google Map - here's day 1: https://goo.gl/maps/42PZmruZAtE2 In a few days, I created an entire set of eight more of these, based on the stop locations that others had used on their 48 state routes. This is why I made the comment I did a while back about planning a ten day ride for nine days.
I then took each stop and obtained the latitude and longitude coordinates. This is also the time that I studied a bit around each location. Alternative fuel locations? What about eating options? Lodging? The ten or 15 minutes spent just using Google Maps & Google Earth to scout the area around each stop was well worth it. Just enough to be marginally familiar with the area.
"Why? You have a perfectly good day of riding with that map? Use it!"
Yes, but now I'm improving - more OCD. Google Maps uses phone data, while my built-in GPS on the motorcycle uses no data. So, the bike GPS needs to be the primary route source, while those Google Maps if they're needed, needs to (a) match and (b) be able to be converted into a file the bike GPS can use.
I'm not going to go down that rat-hole on the specific detail of how I did that. I'm glad I took notes as I did it, but not certain I could re-do that process again. I'll have to try it and improve my notes for any future efforts I may want to do.
An earlier blog post mentioned how I created the route from Oklahoma to New Mexico. Let Google Maps plot a route from the Oklahoma stop to the New Mexico stop I had chosen. "Yup, looks good to me!" - done!
Each rider has certain ride parameters you want to stay in - fuel range, rest durations, things like that. Again, once you've done this a time or three, you know what you're comfortable with, and you also know what makes you squirm. Friday-afternoon major metro area traffic, early-morning, before-sunrise deer-country ride start, things like that. All of that wisdom has to be readily accessible and understandable when you're in a well-rested state - and in a fatigued state of mind.
The ride - and the aftermath
I have my data, I have it loaded on the bike, and I'm using it daily for the first five days - it's working well. When I make that decision on day five to go to Maine to end that day of riding, rather than start the day backtracking, I didn't really toss the plan, but more like paused the plan. I still needed to hit the same locations...well, the Massachusetts location was different, but I did regain the route quickly.Once I got back onto my planned route - and besides the couple of times I'd wandered off course, I did manage to stay pretty tight to the plan for the entire ride. Now, in a few cases - specifically, day 7 when I finished off the south-eastern corner, I was on the route, but was not stopping at pre-planned locations. Again, the validity of the photo album storage for the receipts turned out to be a fantastic idea, especially during these periods of the ride. I wrote about that in some of the pre-ride blogs I'd done.
With the ride is done, the IBA ride submission process is next. I'm used to submitting info for rides with a dozen stops, maybe two dozen - but not 60+. This is going to take some effort - or is it?
The "Presentation" - Advanced Obscenely Complete Detail!!!
That spreadsheet is now going to save me a LOT of time. Day one thru five...on the schedule, but man, did I screw up a few things along the way. Day six to the end? Better, but wow. Nothing catastrophic, but...the attention to detail required to do this sort of stuff is what keeps some riders from actually turning in their documentation.
A common management phrase used during my career was "organization is the key to success." It has worked quite well for my LD rides so far. The pre-planning really did save me a lot of post-ride effort...here's what it looked like. For this, I've split it into two sections, left side and right side.
You'll note each day and date for this segment is listed. Below that is the distance & time that Google calculated along with my hotlink to my Google Maps daily route. Google Maps will vary in times calculated, based on actual traffic conditions at the time the calculation was generated. Thus, these were considered estimates. If the Google Maps daily route was to my liking, the 'link ok' annotation was made. This is a Google Sheet, thus I had this anywhere I had data.
Note the red arrow simply shows I'd hidden some lines. The green arrow does show how I'd annotated each data anomaly I had when I sent this to IBA for certification. It's the rider's responsibility to provide sufficient explanation required. I had a few of these...but it was all my secondary data.
Below the gray bar, I'll explain the column and purpose for each one:
A - This was the waypoint names for the GPS-specific route that I used for the bike GPS (Day# - stop #) I didn't care that it was a Shell gas station, I just wanted to make certain it took me to the station that I'd selected as the stop location.
B - State sequence number, then a letter that designated how many more times I'll get a receipt in that state. I'd borrowed this from another rider. Each new state incremented the number, but there were many states that I'd have more than one stop needed. Thus, the letters were added (see the bottom of the image for Montana, which had a total of four stops. The photo album receipt storage also had these sequence numbers for tracking.
C, D, E, F - Physical address, City, St, ZIP - in case I needed to enter the data in another search engine. This is also needed for old-school receipt verification; the log sheet better match what's on that receipt! Yes, there were a few that it did not match; explanation in the log sorted that out.
G, H (not displayed) Lat, Long Originally derived from Google Map, but converted to lat/long for bike GPS use.
I - Just what stop this is. Redundant? Oh, perhaps, but a lot easier just to know that stop D2-003 is marking a corner of the route, and that I have a long run until my next planned fuel stop.
Continuing with the right-side of the spreadsheet...
J - Odometer on the bike - referenced to the photos taken of the receipts. Now, the process is only a few years old, but the person that came up with this is another genius. Writing the bike's odometer reading on the receipt marks it as "here I am". That's been around for a while. Taking a photo of the receipt - along with the bike's odometer improves that marking. Rather difficult to fake a photo like that. So, for the verification team, confirm odometer, confirm image number, move onto the next location. At least, that's how I hope it worked out.
K, L - Time Stop & Time Go - So, back in the 'olden days' documentation was a log, manually written while the ride was in progress. Times were taken from whichever means a rider chose to use to mark a non-moving event. Technology surely has improved this! The data you see was derived from GPS track data and/or GoPro camera timestamps. Both the cell phone and my bike's GPS collected the GPS track data. Now, because it's quite trivial to manipulate, GPS track data can never be used or submitted as a primary data source by the IBA. Technology that many of you used (Spotwalla) to monitor my progress was the secondary data source that can NOT be manipulated by me or anyone else for the IBA to verify locations, times and places.
M - Image number - photos taken of the receipts have an individual number (used for certification) I used a tool that actually put the image number on the receipt photo. Again, tying all of the puzzle pieces together - more OCD!
None of the following pieces of info were submitted to IBA - for my use only.
N, O, P - After-the-fact data on fuel. Cost at each fill opportunity, price per gallon, gallons used. Took all of this off the receipts. I'd estimated my fuel cost & consumption before the ride; relatively close on overall fuel cost, and a wee bit better on fuel consumption.
Q - this sheet can be turned into a printed log...this column was to be used as a checklist...but I didn't use it.
R, S, T, U - My calculated leg times, distances, segment pace and overall pace to that point prior to the ride happening. These were derived from the times/distances that Google Maps generated. The BaseCamp times were similar. No, I haven't plugged in my actual leg times, distances, segment pace and overall pace. That seems like rainy-day activity to me.
Summary
Well, that's how *I* did it. Never having done a ride this complex meant I really wanted to do the best I could to understand it before seriously considering it. Doing the math - based a lot on how I personally felt like I would ride it - gave me a bit of hope that it really was achievable.
"Plan the Ride, then Ride the Plan." Another way of stating OCD? Perhaps.
Watching another rider do a similar ride only a few weeks before I did mine also helped with recognizing how I would react and respond to similar situations.
Hope this helps someone grasp the data collection process I used and will continue to use on future IBA rides, where applicable.
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