BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

No rush. The site is really buggy still. Any idea if they are going to route the challenge through endomondo again? Or are we going to be forced to go to the Bike Challenge page? https://nationalbikechallenge.org/

Thanks for posting this. I still log on Endomondo through the old National Bike Challenge page, just for myself.

It looks like you can either sync your data with Endomondo, MapMyRide, or Moves, or enter them right at the National Bike Challenge site. This year I have started My Own Team, With Blackjack and Hookers. Anyone is welcome to join.

Mr. Destructicity wrote:It looks like you can either sync your data with Endomondo, MapMyRide, or Moves, or enter them right at the National Bike Challenge site.

I'm currently syncing, since you can't actually enter it into endomondo (I used endomondo as standalone last year, I never visited the NBC page at all). It looks like now you have to go to the NBC page to actively sync? I guess we'll see. The syncing itself is fine, but I have to go to the other page in order to do it. I preferred just logging at endomondo and not worrying about it beyond that.

I may jump ship from the tagorama team.

stefb wrote:I may jump ship from the tagorama team.

I jumped from flock, as I'm trying to encourage a group in Illinois at the moment. I'll probably switch back halfway through (for the sake of the rust-cup) after I've helped get it off the ground here. With any luck, I'll actually be back in PA then.

I'm still logging miles through the old Endomondo campaign/national page. It works fine as a logging mechanism. I'm hoping I don't have to log miles in two places, and also hoping I don't lose what I've put into it, like I did for Jan-Feb 2012.

As others have pointed out, yes, Endomondo is a logging option. But as to the other two important questions: Free Beer from OTB? Rust Belt Cup? Does anyone know the answer? I mean, we can really work up a thirst defending out title ;-{)} PS There's enough interest where I work we may be fielding a team.

Free beer? Yes. Rust Belt Cup? Yes, definitely. Bike Cleveland has already issued a proclamation of war. The 2014 Rust Belt Battle of the Bikes is on. As you can see, the new platform is completely different. The League in building their own site. The scoring will still be the same. One of the biggest changes is that you can now form different leagues among teams and/or workplaces, which will make a few new arenas for competition...but its taking them forever to launch the local challenge page....which makes planning our outreach a little difficult. Thanks for picking this up.

I'm just not seeing how this gets serious. Cheating is far too easy. What's to prevent someone from just typing in lots of miles to help their city win the challenge? Do you really trust Clevelanders not to do this? Look at the Browns. OTOH, I am close to having the Rust Belt Crown 400K approved. This will be a permanent, meaning you will be able to ride it any time you want, after getting the controle card from me. So honest cyclists can rack up lots of points by riding back and forth between Neville Island and Cleveland. (It will be a reversible route, so Clevelanders will be able to start and finish on their end.)

There's nothing at stake, so no, it's not serious, but that's also why I don't expect cheating to be a major problem. The desire to track things for yourself or be a part of something... these are the reasons to sign up, and they're internal, not external, types of motivation. Knowing that you're cheating undercuts those feelings, it defeats the purpose of participating at all. The sort of person who'd choose to participate probably would not be all that inclined to cheat. Not to say it won't happen in some cases, but I don't foresee a large scale problem with it.

Hey, if it is fun, if it involves biking, I'm in. If it involves free brews, I'm even more in! I'm certainly not a mileage leader, but I'll be ding my share.

Hey, my RustBelt Crown 400K Permanent is up! This would be a great way to accumulate miles for the RustBelt Crown, or to stretch your legs before Crush the Commonwealth etc. It's a 400K ride starting in Neville Island and running up to the Ohio & Erie Towpath Trail in Cleveland, then back. You can arrange to ride it any time. Just contact me in advance to print a controle card. More info at http://www.rusa.org/cgi-bin/permview_GF.pl?permid=2295. BTW the route is here: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/4234381. I also have a good cue sheet, better than the one RideWithGps generates, which I'll provide to riders.

it seems that the national bike challenge is still going/limping along with yet another website revision/program change, but is this Rust Belt battle still a thing?

I registered for the NBC again this year. It's a shadow of it's former self. It doesn't look like there's a rust belt challenge going on. It doesn't look like BikePgh has even registered our city for the challenge this year. Pittsburgh doesn't appear anywhere on the list of communities participating. It's too bad.

Well, I sent an email to BikePGH asking them to add Pittsburgh to the bike challenge. I got no response after several days so I went ahead and filled out the form to add a community on the bike challenge website. I included all Pittsburgh postal codes (15201 to 15243). They may or may not accept it. We'll see.

Thanks. I joined some random team this year. I don't even know how I found them... Maybe I searched for Pitt...

Just noticed that when I look at individual results on the bike challenge website, it's giving me results just for riders in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh still doesn't appear on the list of communities. I'm doing way too well considering the number of people I see out riding everyday. :) You all should register! If you use Strava (or a few other ride tracking apps) you can link that account to your nbc account. It works pretty smoothly. I'm pretty sure for Strava, that it will import all your 2018 rides upon registering.

I just saw that Pittsburgh is on the list of communities in the 2018 bike challenge. If you already use strava or one of several other ride tracking apps, you can link your account and have your miles counted towards Pittsburgh's total. You should do it! As of right now, we're looking pretty pitiful...

honestly the challenge has devolved into something pitiful. And it has lost the sponsorship (formal or not) from Bikepgh. It seems that every year it uses a different platform, etc. etc. and the website continues to be non-user friendly. Also, once it loses a critical mass of cyclists from your community, the "why should I care" factor kicks in. I'd love to see it redone, rebranded, and redesigned, but that really needs to start from the national level.

I used to diligently record every ride. They changed the website in 2015? making it darn near impossible to continue as I had been, so I gave up recording rides altogether.