mathieu
Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
Posts: 134
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« on: July 09, 2013, 02:37:54 PM » |
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Hi all,
After having toured the GDMBR in both directions, I am studying on a parallel dirt route for touring next year, roughly from Tucson to Vancouver, through Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Washington and British Columbia. There are only a few ‘officially’ mapped routes in these states from which I can draw. I see that Google Maps for bicycles has several bicycle routes in these areas, but the problem is that I do not see a way to judge their difficulty, except by a superficial impression from a 3D helicopter view.
This brings up my point: would it be possible to implement a grading system for dirt roads?
For example, using a 6-point scale similarly to the old UIAA mountaineering scale: 1=easy, 2=little difficult, 3=difficult, 4=seriously difficult, 5=very difficult, 6=extremely difficult.
Presumably the word ‘difficult’ should be interpreted as ‘technical/strenuous’ for bikers.
Probably roads would be in the lower part of the scale and single-trails in the upper part.
So ‘1’ would stand for ‘hard, smooth, level road’ and ‘6’ for ‘extremely stony, steep, exposed single-trail, HAB except for the elite’.
Of course, there is always the provision of weather conditions and season -as in mountaineering- but I believe some form ‘normality’ could be defined. Probably in mountain areas there should be a differentiation for going a road in one direction or the other.
When I look to the map of Arizona (I have the Topographic Recreational Map from GTR Mapping), I have the impression that with a clear definition of ‘difficulty’, a collection of the knowledge from local bikers could fill in 95% of the dirt road grid within 6 months!
With an input and content policy similar to Wikipedia, the insights and wisdom of many could be accumulated and somehow peer-guided to a broad consensus.
I guess it would not be too difficult to design a mash-up for Google Maps, in which dirt roads are color-coded by their difficulty. With such a map anyone can easily select a day- or multi-day itinerary to his preference.
Comments please!
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