Tour of idaho Challenge

[pckopp]

Section 6. Easy Peasy.

[pckopp]

Section 7 and the last. Only one error in the file, the last waypoint out of order. I didn't bother with a "fixed" for only this.

900 points of North Idaho adventure!

[redpillar]

You can find the entire T1 2013 edition in GPX format with all the challenge point waypoints posted as well at gpsxchange, search Tour of Idaho 2013. It was remarkably simple to convert the tpo files to gpx using Babel and it is even easier to filter each of the tracks to 500 trackpoints using mapsource or basecamp, so that they can be used by the older Garmin 60s etc.
Easy Peasy. You may very well want to spend more than 15 minutes looking at the maps or you may find your self being shit out by a male ursus arctos horribilis, beside your out of fuel motorbike....

[Countdown]

Good job. They will all fit in one file. I also added some more fun options on Day 6.

[Countdown]

Originally Posted by motorcyclejazz

And all of this, as I mentioned above, is free - a courtesy that you did not extend to one of our contributing editors the last time he emailed you for a track a few years back. .

As I said, I have thousands of miles of tracks posted on GPSXchange.com Also, riders don't have to post a track first to get mine, just take em and ride.

The ONLY thing I will not gladly share are my commercial rides for obvious financial reasons. What did he request?

Jerry

[His Pistolship]

Thanks all for the hard work, especially motorcyclejazz. I can't wait to do this.

[9Dave]

Originally Posted by motorcyclejazz

It looks like I'm going run out of feet to plant here.

Originally Posted by motorcyclejazz

Should you, by some miracle, make it to the Tour flagpole I would not stop wearing any kind of a sign that says "I am Phil from Seattle" unless you want an Idaho boot applied to your fanny.

Really?

Not cool.

[HogWild]

Originally Posted by Countdown

...seems to be a navagation contest.

In places, it will be exactly that! Many of the wayoints are hundreds of feet off any road or trail, and often far from important intersections. If you ride through every waypoint, you'll be riding through people's back yards, through fences, and into other no-go places! And you'll ride past turnoffs way more often than you'll like before you realize you should have turned.

The tracks that pckopp made from the waypoints may be helpful, but they have the same problems since they are based on the original misplaced waypoints.

To me it looks like you have to use the data to create ROUTES, not tracks, and probably have to stick with National Geographic TOPO, ver 4.0 and maybe the same GPS unit that motorcyclejazz uses, otherwise you're SOL.

Motorcyclejazz has done a great job creating data that few can use. And from this statement on the website; "We make the Tour more decipherable and user friendly - one insensitive smackdown at a time.", it seems they have failed at the first part and suceeded at the second.

[Countdown]

Originally Posted by HogWild

"We make the Tour more decipherable and user friendly - one insensitive smackdown at a time.", it seems they have failed at the first part and suceeded at the second.

Scott, I hope you are not including yourself. I have found you to be very a very sensitive guy like most Harley riders and never giving even a light smack to all my lame requests for help. Perhaps this challenge is like nuclear war, you only have to get close, not actually hit the target.

[Proud Highway]

TID is perhaps the most well documented ride of its kind. With all that information it's easy to overlook the numerous express warnings about the nature and difficulty of the ride. Somewhere on the website is says something to the effect that TID is as much a test of wilderness skills as it is a motorcycle ride. I don't know how anyone could be more clear than that.

[Countdown]

Originally Posted by Proud Highway

TID is perhaps the most well documented ride of its kind.

TID is as much a test of wilderness skills as it is a motorcycle ride.

Which rides are less documented? TAT, CDR, and GWT all seem to have extremely accurate tracks, maps, and/or roll charts available?

How do wilderness skills even relate to riding a motorcycle on a designated route? Assume it is not Wilderness which in ilegal.

[HogWild]

Originally Posted by Proud Highway

TID is perhaps the most well documented ride of its kind.

Yes, there are lots of great photos and descriptions on the website. It's clear that the ride includes difficult terrain and situations, which is cool! The issue I addressed is the GPS data. It's probably great if you have the same exact tools as it was created with. But very few have those tools, so to them that data is as good as a book written in chinese is to an English speaking reader. If they don't want to support the much more common GPS formats (which is obviously the case), that's fine. It will just deter a lot of people from taking the ride. That's not right or wrong, just an important point for many potential riders.

The second point I made is that some of the waypoints are WAY off the mark. I'm talking more than 500ft off! It's one thing to be 30-50ft off, but 500ft is pretty excessive. That can make the navigation pretty challenging, which is what I said.

So, from a photo and text description, it seems well documented. From a general GPS point of view, it's poorly documented.

[redpillar]

The second point I made is that some of the waypoints are WAY off the mark. I'm talking more than 500ft off! It's one thing to be 30-50ft off, but 500ft is pretty excessive. That can make the navigation pretty challenging, which is what I said.

So, from a photo and text description, it seems well documented. From a general GPS point of view, it's poorly documented.[/QUOTE]


You must be doing something wrong then. You only need to convert the tpo files to gpx files, which has been done for you on GPXchange.

I found last years tracks to be very accurate even at 500 points per track. This years tracks are nearly the same. There is no where that you go through no go zones on this ride.

[Proud Highway]

Originally Posted by Countdown

Which rides are less documented? TAT, CDR, and GWT all seem to have extremely accurate tracks, maps, and/or roll charts available?

How do wilderness skills even relate to riding a motorcycle on a designated route? Assume it is not Wilderness which in ilegal.

I've read about a lot of TAT and CDR rides and I've yet to see one website with a point-to-point description of miles, terrain, elevation, fuel stops, gear/bike recommendations, accommodations with a detailed narrative of each leg of the trip and video footage. Perhaps they are available in the commercial realm, but I've yet to see anything with that level of information in one place for free.

The primary criticism of the TID seems to be the formatting of the navigation. I'm a GPS neophyte, so I asked a TID alumnus about navigation--I had the Garmin-compatible files emailed to me 10 minutes later.

Re the "wilderness" comment: The designation of a Wilderness Area by the Federal Government has a specific meaning and effect. I assume your capitalization of the word and comment presumes that meaning, however, nothing of what I said or anything having to do with the TID suggests that particular meaning of the word as opposed to the ordinary meaning. Which begs the question: are you confused or petulant?

ETA:
I've taken instruction in SCUBA, rock climbing, firearms, piloting etc; my teachers in these risky hobbies have all taken a similar tone to that of the TID creators. I don't think it would be responsible to promote a ride like the TID without some basic screening of the ill-prepared and/or lightweights. To that end, would you want to encourage people to attempt a 1,400 mile ride in the back country if they couldn't be counted on to read basic instructions? Likewise for the prideful, easily butthurt or plain novice?

There are a lot of sources for qualitative information about the ride on the TID forum and facebook page. I've learned a lot hanging around those areas--enough that I was convinced to abandon my 2012 attempt so that I could better prepare.

[HogWild]

Originally Posted by Proud Highway

I don't think it would be responsible to promote a ride like the TID without some basic screening of the ill-prepared and/or lightweights.

I think this is the best argument in favor of keeping the GPS data slightly criptic for most. I do the same screening thing, though in a different way.