Gravel Grinder News: GPS Navigation News, Craft Cadence Gear & More

Gravel Grinder News: GPS Navigation News, Craft Cadence Gear & More- by Guitar Ted

In today’s Gravel Grinder News we have a new Ride With GPS feature debuting and news about review items from Craft cadence. Plus we have information regarding a new gravel grinder to be held in Southwestern Texas in November. Let’s jump in!

Ride With GPS Debuts New “Surface Types” Feature: Have you ever planned a route and then ridden it only to find that it really wasn’t all gravel? Maybe you want to devise your own training route featuring a mix of paved and dirt sections but you don’t have a resource available to discern what the roads you want to use are like? Well, Ride With GPS has a new feature that may help you out there. Called “Surface Types”. It is a feature that will allow riders to discern which roads are paved, unpaved, or have unknown surface types before heading out. A big plus here is that Surface Types will be updated via rider inputs, so accuracy of the information should only improve as the feature gets used by more people.

The press release has the following features for web users listed for this new Surface Types application from Ride With GPS:

● Take the guesswork out of route planning to ensure that you’re leaving the house
prepared for what’s ahead and on the appropriate set of tires.
● Surface type is visible when planning, editing and viewing a route.
● Surface type categories are visible as a percentage breakdown of your total route as well
as visually presented in the elevation profile and route line.
● If a user doesn’t like or want surface type information, they have the option of turning it
off on the route line and/or elevation profile.

For mobile devices:

● On mobile, surface type info is available when planning, editing and viewing routes, both
in the route line and elevation profile
● Surface type information is also visible when navigating your route
● When navigating, surface type transitions are shown in sections. One can toggle ahead
between changing surface sections to explore what’s ahead.
● Plan a new route or edit your existing route on the go!

UPDATE: There was a question regarding how maps would be updated with correct surface types by users and if that would end up being reflected only on a rider’s route or if the Open Source Maps on RWGPS would also be updated. I contacted RWGPS and received the following answer from their customer service representative, Dan:

“There are two ways that riders can correct surface type on Ride with GPS:  

1. Manually Editing Surfaces in the Ride with GPS Route Planner – (How to here: https://ridewithgps.com/help/surface-types#change-surface)

When using this method to manually edit surface type information on a route, the update will only be reflected on the individual route edited, not on future routes. All riders who access this specific route will see the surface type reflecting the edits that were manually made.

2. For a rider to make an impact beyond their individual route, they can update surface type information permanently by contributing to OpenStreetMap (OSM) (How to here: https://ridewithgps.com/help/edit-routing-data). These changes will typically be reflected in our maps within about two weeks. Routes will need to be re-drawn after these updates are made if they haven’t already been manually edited using method one.“

For more information on Surface Types or anything regarding Ride With GPS, see their website here: https://www.ridewithgps.com

Craft Cadence Gear On Test: Riding Gravel has just received a set of products offered by Craft Cadence. We will have separate reviews coming for each of these items but for now, we have these introductions to make.

First up is the Craft Cadence Handlebar Bag which is a 3-3.5L capacity, waterproof bag for commuting or for storage of gear/nutrition on longer rides. Webpage here: https://craftcadence.com/collections/bags/products/craft-cadence-waterproof-handlebar-bag-3-5-4-litres-yellow-black

The Craft Cadence Essentials Case is a wallet type storage bag for GPS units, phones, tubes and levers, or credit cards and money, or any combination thereof. Webpage here: https://craftcadence.com/collections/essentials-case/products/craft-cadence-essentials-case

Craft Cadence also sent us this fine looking jersey made from 100% recycled materials. Webpage: https://craftcadence.com/collections/men/products/craft-cadence-classic-recycled-performance-jersey-black-male

We will have a more detailed breakdown on each of these three Craft Cadence items and more about how they worked for us in separate Quick Reviews coming soon.

Cycling Pros Start Red Bull Sponsored Gravel Event In Texas: Colin Strickland and Payson McElveen have known Texas as home and want folks to get into it via a gravel event they have cooked up with their mutual sponsor, Red Bull. The event, to be known as the “Red Bull Rio Grande Gravel Event” is set to take place on November 13 with registration opening soon on September 17th. There is a 500 rider field limit for this 100 miler. The event will take place out of Marfa, Texas which is in the Big Bend region of the state. 

The route will have lots of climbing with an estimated 10,000 feet of elevation gain, or more, and the roads will present a bit of difficulty which organizers warn will require skill and hardy equipment to navigate. Hit the link in the above paragraph for all the event details.

NOTE: Images and information used in this post were provided by Ride With GPS. Images for the Craft Cadence products are property of Riding Gravel, Red Bull Rio Grande Gravel logo courtesy of the Red Bull Rio Grande site. Products sent to Riding Gravel from Craft Cadence were sent for test and review at no charge to riding Gravel. We are not being bribed nor paid for this post in any way and we always strive to give our honest thoughts and views throughout.