RideWithGPS.com: Premium or not?

pedermj2002

I've finally gotten a Garmin Edge 820, and am very pleased with what I've seen so far. Can't wait to be on the road with it.

I've seen a few people using RideWithGPS.com, and it seems like a pretty decent site. What I'm not sure about is if I should go premium on it or not. Is there anybody here who uses it? Did you go premium if so? Why or why not?

Any and all information will be gratefully accepted.

Thank you.

cloggsy71

I use Strava Premium. If you want to join in with MFP Cycling Challenges, you'll need a Strava account

pedermj2002

No worries there. I already have and use Strava, too. Just been pondering if I should be using RideWithGPS in addition, and I think I've found my answer.

Edge 820 has FE-C. A smart trainer that supports FE-C can be controlled by the 820. Which means I can go out, do a ride, save that ride on the 820, and then repeat that ride on the trainer.

RideWithGPS has the ability to slice up rides and rejoin them. Which means I can grab a tough hill (I have a few near to my house that I'm thinking of), stitch those hills together along with some flat intervals to give some recovery time, and suddenly have a very solid workout of learning to take on hills better. The slice/join feature, though, is premium only.

So, I guess I'll be signing up for premium there to be able to put all of this together.

claygone

I have used RideWithGps premium in the past, but for what I do premium is only good for navigation. But it does have lots of features that are useful.

NorthCascades

pedermj2002 wrote: »

RideWithGPS has the ability to slice up rides and rejoin them. Which means I can grab a tough hill (I have a few near to my house that I'm thinking of), stitch those hills together along with some flat intervals to give some recovery time, and suddenly have a very solid workout of learning to take on hills better. The slice/join feature, though, is premium only.

What I'm about to say might not be useful at all. It comes down to how much you value $$$ vs effort and time in front of the computer.

You could ride a route today with that hill, and a flat, and mark where those sections begin and end using your lap button. If you export the resulting activity from Garmin Connect as a TCX file, it's meant to be edited in software like Notepad, and the hill and flat sections will be isolated and clearly marked. You can join them together and remove the rest of the ride, duplicate them to your heart's content, etc, in about five minutes.

NorthCascades

pedermj2002 wrote: »

I've seen a few people using RideWithGPS.com, and it seems like a pretty decent site. What I'm not sure about is if I should go premium on it or not. Is there anybody here who uses it? Did you go premium if so? Why or why not?

I use the basic version.

I have an Edge 800 which is ancient, and a Fenix 3 watch. My 800 has maps but they're not perfect and logging roads are their main weakness, but those are fun to ride. (I got lost outside of Darrington once.) The F3 has GPS but does not have maps.

I can plan a route in RWGPS, export it as a TCX, convert it into FIT, and then load that onto my watch for turn by turn navigation. The watch will chirp and vibrate and tell me to go left on NF Road 58, or whatever. It'll tell me about 100 yards before the turn, and then it'll tell me again at the turn to confirm I'm making the right one. There are other tools that will also let me generate turn by turn directions but RWDPS is easy and the files it makes have the street name in them, it doesn't just say "go right" it says "go right on Main Street."

Garmin has updated their own route builder tool, and rumor has it the one in Connect now lets you build out turn by turns with street names. I haven't had a chance to try it yet. If true, I'll probably stop using RWGPS. Connect has everything I need in terms of a logbook.