Footage from Wiley Pardue Road that I shot, today. If ya look closely, you'll see some chickens.
Now, as to the topic at hand... I am here to try to point y'all to some Android-specific applications that can help you to plot the Next Great Ride.
My Tracks (click image to enlarge screenshots): The best free GPS tracking/mapping software out there, bar none. Turn it on when outdoors, tell it to record your track, and at the end of your ride, you can export it to an easily-sharable Google Maps page that not only outlines your route, but reports your average speed, average moving speed, distance traveled, elevations... you name it. If you have a general idea where you want your ride to go, My Tracks will help you record it so that when you get home, you can refine it and research aternate routes further using Google Maps. And since it records the route, others can follow it (or lead the ride when you're not around). Also, if you're just out exploring, use My Tracks, and it will show you where you rode even when you aren't sure. Lots of great ways to use it to plan a future ride.
Waze (click image to enlarge screenshots): Another handy app I just tried out for the first time on Monday's ride. What Waze can do is not much different than your run-of-the-mill GPS for a car, except that it has social networking capabilities. That is, the more people in your area that use Waze, the more it can tell you about traffic conditions, as it automagically updates on traffic slowdowns based on users' (recent) histories on a given route. But it also does the ordinary GPS stuff -- turn-by-turn voice direction --which is why I wanted to test it, yesterday. I knew where I was going; I just wanted to see how Waze reacted to my ignoring its recommendations. :) It did a pretty good job, only failing to tell me in time that I needed to take a right from Little Pond Creek onto Sam's Creek (it spoke up as I was making the turn, heh). Overall, impressive... and it might suggest a route to you that you hadn't thought to take, before, as well.
I'm kind of a safety-nut, so I only put in one ear bud to hear Waze's female voice give me the turn-by-turn, but I could hear it clearly, and it was somewhat intuitive what the few sound effects meant (such as, "you chose to go a direction I had not anticipated... recalculating").
Anyway, I want to encourage y'all to start putting together and leading some rides. I'm honestly a little tired of doing quite so much leading, so I'm looking forward to doing some following for a while.
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Melissa and I met up in Centennial Park on Sunday at the appointed time. A few minutes later, Tonya arrived, and we waited to see who else might show, but it was just the three of us. So, we rode to the Loveless Cafe to see if anyone might meet us at this announced pause-point.
Tonya and her kickass Yamaha...
Melissa and her kickass SYM.
Other riders? It was not to be. It was clammy, cool and cloudy, so we didn't have high expectations. So, Tonya and Melissa and I headed down the Natchez Trace to Leiper's Fork to meet with the other group of riders at Puckett's Grocery.
X-Ray Dave was there to greet us with a hot cup of coffee. Several others were there -- Norm, Vic, Richard, Glenn. Not a bad turnout for a day that looked about ready to piss down the rain, all day.
Fahrenheit, I mean... not 1950s, where tax rates were more progressive, and we we able to build an interstate highway system, rather than argue about mooching grandma sucking up too many Medicare dollars, right?
Ed had posted a ride invitation to Percy Warner Park and Franklin, which sounded like a fun time. We started the ride from The Turnip Truck in The Gulch. All of the Taiwanese "Big Three" were represented: Genuine/PGO, SYM and Kymco.
Ed pauses prior to entering Percy Warner Park to attach his Hippo Hands to his Buddy.
Michele makes a helmet adjustment, and then we're into the park!
Hippo Hands not quite what Ed had expected. Some modifications will be made.
At this point in PWP, Michele spied one of her clients riding her bike up the path. After some exchanged greetings and an incident involving bodily secretions, said client invited us to come have a beer and hear some live music at her bike shop, later.
What a neat shop, this Gran Fondo, yeah. I had no idea you could get a bike that shifts gears wirelessly, electronically... no cables! Or that many of today's serious bicycle wheels feature fewer spokes, and they're shaped like little blades that slice the air. I did know you could buy a bicycle that cost over $5000, but I did not know where, exactly... until today. And I have owned guitars that weighed more than said bicycle. It's a whole different world, but one I was happy to graze against long enough to be curious; Ed can help me figure this stuff out, as he used to work in a high-end bike shop, at one time.
Great ride, folks... and thanks for the awesome lunch at Mellow Mushroom!
As The Man himself once said, "Are we gonna ride, or are we gonna talk about riding?"
Well, today we rode. Eight of us set out to do the West Side's Best Ride from Thorntons, 20 minutes late (as usual -- but we were waiting for a motorcycle guy who's name I think is Allan; he discovered that he had no headlights, and left Thorntons to check at NAPA for a solution... alas, that was at 12:45).
Here's Dan, Michele and Ed, on our first stop @ Old Charlotte and Sam's Creek.
Michele and Norm with some of the scoots lined up at Grumpy's (Wiley Pardue & TN-250).
Richard was pretty happy with the ride.
Michele stowing or un-stowing something at Grumpy's. That SYM Fiddle II is their family's 4th scooter! How cool is her GoGo Gear jacket?
I have found it! If Ross decides to ever run the ride contest, I have the winner. :)
The video is just a piece of it, from just west of the intersection of Old Charlotte Pike and Buffalo Road (I pulled off onto Buffalo Road to set up this clip) to a bend on Sears Road that starts back northeast, just after descending several hundred feet into the valley.
This is the map for the whole ride. Yes, there's some doubling back, but that is to avoid the more boring parts of Sam's Creek Road and River Road (while some of both are unavoidable, the parts those routes get you to are worth the price of admission).
About 90 minutes of riding, and I added 20 minutes to take photos and generally dick around. Details:
1.) Wiley Pardue Road. Home of "The Duck." Norm thinks it's too rough, and on 10" wheels, maybe it is! But on 16" wheels, no problem. The longest, most-fun road I know of, locally. It's in Cheatham County, btw. I was introduced to this road by Matt Barker.
2.) Dry Creek/Gibbs Road. New route for me, today. A great way to avoid some boring Sam's Creek/River Road riding. Man, this is a nice ride!
3.) Little Pond Creek Road. It doesn't last long, but it's an exciting ride.
4.) Sears Road/Old Charlotte Pike. Another new route for me, today, and it's a twisty, hilly ride. Awesome!
5.) Old Charlotte Pike. Mini "tail-of-the-dragon" riding, and between that and the southernmost end of section #4, what made up the video above, riding east to west.
Trust me: #2 and #4, y'all are gonna thank me for finding. :) The Trace has nothing on this stuff.
I can't tell you how jazzed I am to have put this one together after only three attempts at finding "the best ride on the west side." I think most of you will agree, this is a good way to blow a couple of hours when the weather's nice.
Tech details: Camera was a Canon Powershot A1200, mounted on a cheap tripod, mounted horizontally with bungee cords at the front of my P250's floorboard, with the camera sticking out to the port side about 12". I was cautious on left-hand curves, as I was really afraid of losing the camera. :) Map by MyTracks for Android.
Bike tech: Around 2:23 in the clip, I realized I was having vapor lock issues, as I slowed for that gnarly curve. You can really hear it as the bike nearly stalls at exactly 6:00, as I turn right from Old Charlotte Pike onto Sears Road. That's why I ended the clip where I did -- I had to shut the scooter off to pop the fuel cap, and that's what I did right then and there.
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So, @rubygirl asks if anyone's gonna ride. Sunny? Check. 64°F? Check. Guy with two thumbs? You know it.
I now think I have a damn near perfect 90-minute ride. It's a bit boring, but if you think River Road's fun, you'll like it, as we do all of River Road (which to me is about the most boring part of the ride) on this ride. One of the most fun parts to me is the little section of Little Pond Run Road leading up to Sam's Creek... and then of course Wiley Pardue Rd, through the Cheatham Wildlife Management Area (where The Duck was first awarded), and the stretch of TN-250 north to TN-49. Oh, and we started with that section of Old Charlotte Pike that rocks and rolls so very well.
The ride's about half roller coaster, half boring. Something for the whole fam damily!
UPDATE: Oh, right -- WTF? Gas is getting near $3/gallon, again? I filled up today for $3.069; last fill-up was $3.229, I think.
Click to embiggen -- this is just a stone's throw from Soprano's house.
I had to go get in what I suspect is the last ride of 2011 in short pants. I took a nice, long ride around the western part of the area. It was pretty glorious, but got pretty damned cold back in those hollows (or "hollers," as my people say). Riding along, there were 20-30°F changes in temperature.
Photo used under Creative Commons license. Photo by sun dazed.
After leaving the scootnashville.com meet-up tonight, on the way home, I was sitting in the left turn lane at 46th Ave. and Charlotte. A newish Harley Sportster pulled up alongside me in the straight-right lane; a guy with a full-face riding, and a woman in a 3/4 helmet riding pillion. He blipped the throttle, trying (succeeding) to make noise, and I could see she leaned into his helmet to have a bit of convo.
She turns to me: "Wanna race?"
"Sure! Up to 60 (MPH), you're only gonna see my taillight."
She laughs. "Whaddaya wanna bet?"
Having had a beer, I say, "Who you go home with, tonight?"
She laughs uproariously! "Okay! So, what do we get if you lose?"
"Who I go home with tonight?"
The light turns green, but I still hear her laughing. I think her male friend was less than amused...
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This was today's key phrase, and it was muttered many times.
Willy had summoned a ride via faceborg, so I showed up at his doorstep at 1:00, ready to ride. I could see from his lawn the grass had not been cut -- his prerequisite for riding, today. So, we had a chat, went out and hung out in his shed, and he showed me "what remained" of his collection of Vespas, an odd Stella and Bajaj, and a Lambretta Jet 200. Then, Ross called to say he was on his way, to see if he could get a jet from Willy. He arrived, and Willy re-diagnosed his Stella difficulties: Some dumbass installed the wrong spark plug!
So, off we went to Advance Auto Parts to secure some odds and ends.
Later, Norm met up with us, and we rode out River Road. Here we are at the green "S" on the map, below (near the westernmost yellow dot), having some tasty beverages and cooling off after two assholes decided to unsafely pass us.
Norm, the fire tower I know about is where the blue "X" is on the map. As you can see, Wiley Pardue Rd. isn't the only way to get there -- we could have gone north on River Rd., west on TN-49, then south on TN-250. It's right across from this place.
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I pulled into Cafe Coco at 6:30, and Norm was waiting on me. We started talking, and he noticed my seat cover. Well, yeah. A couple of days ago, it was 1/4"... now, you can see. The donor bike has a perfectly cromulent seat, though.
After Ed and Andy showed up, it was 7:10, so we headed out. We went to Ed's house to peer-pressure his wife Michelle into riding over to Las Palmas with us. This is a found kitteh that is now attached to Michelle's Honda Metropolitan's rear rack.
The lineup, including Steve's Vespa GTS250 (he met us there).
We took a nice ride up to the hill off of 33rd Ave. to see the skyline, and then downtown to terrorize the tourists around 2nd Ave. and Broadway. That Stebel horn really gets a Nebraskan's attention. ;)
Anyway, on the ride back, I stopped long enough to get this shot in Centennial Park.
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