Do you like the Calimoto app for ride mapping?

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greenmonster

Well-known member
Last night I stumbled across an app called Calimoto that seems to be a pretty cool mapping service. It has a free side and a premium side ( not free of course). One of the coolest things is that you can tell it what direction you want to travel in, then set how many miles you want to go, then hit “random” and it will select a roundtrip or one way route. This means you don’t know where you’ll be going when you start out. Of course you can view the map or just let it lead you. And you can customize the settings to dial in “twisties”, “fast”, etc
I haven’t used it yet but it looks great.
Anyone use this?
Is the premium version worth it? ($50/year)
 
ScottRNelson

ScottRNelson

Mr. Dual Sport Rider
Post back after you've used it a couple of times.

I can't imagine that the random mode would work very well in the Bay Area. I can see it taking you from one traffic jam to the next. :laughing

Do you have to have a data signal to use it? All of the best rides I've been on both in California and in "other" states have been where I can't get a signal. So Apps like that are fairly useless to me.
 
G

greenmonster

Well-known member
The “random” setting appeals to me because I’ve probably explored most of the roads around here over the years so the hope is that this app would take me somewhere new that I would never have thought of on my own. And it’s free
 
ScottRNelson

ScottRNelson

Mr. Dual Sport Rider
greenmonster said:
The “random” setting appeals to me because I’ve probably explored most of the roads around here over the years so the hope is that this app would take me somewhere new that I would never have thought of on my own. And it’s free
Click to expand...
So you've done Welch Creek off of Calaveras and Marsh off of Felter?
Mendenhall off of Del Valle Rd parallel with Mines Rd?
Morgan Territory end to end?
Andrade and Sheridan Roads?
Vargas to Morrison Canyon?
Altamont Pass, Patterson Pass, Tesla?

Those are just the ones I can think of close to Pleasanton. If you haven't been on those, studying a map is going to work better than an app that finds roads randomly.
 
G

greenmonster

Well-known member
A couple of those I have not done so I’ll keep this as a reference. It’s rainy out here this weekend so I didn’t get out.
Thanks
 
Wrider

Wrider

Wrider
ScottRNelson said:
So you've done Welch Creek off of Calaveras and Marsh off of Felter?
Mendenhall off of Del Valle Rd parallel with Mines Rd?
Morgan Territory end to end?
Andrade and Sheridan Roads?
Vargas to Morrison Canyon?
Altamont Pass, Patterson Pass, Tesla?

Those are just the ones I can think of close to Pleasanton. If you haven't been on those, studying a map is going to work better than an app that finds roads randomly.
Click to expand...

Interesting list, I've done a few, but you also prompted me to look up a few. I've been up Welch on a bicycle (brutal), but it's a dead end, right? Quite of few of those are dead ends? (Not that they aren't worth doing.)
 
berth

berth

Well-known member
The idea is novel. Random rides, it's mostly a matter of having a reasonable selection to choose from and randomize.

Think of it as selecting 2 hours of random music from your media app.

But variety is the key. In So Cal, we do have roads, but not THAT many roads, especially "near by".
 
Tally Whacker

Tally Whacker

Not another Mike
berth said:
The idea is novel. Random rides, it's mostly a matter of having a reasonable selection to choose from and randomize.

Think of it as selecting 2 hours of random music from your media app.

But variety is the key. In Orange County, we do have roads, but not THAT many roads, especially "near by".
Click to expand...


Fixed that for you. You live in the only county in SoCal that doesn't have plenty of great riding roads.
 
G

greenmonster

Well-known member
dravnx said:
Get a Butler map, start riding all the yellow and red roads.
Click to expand...

I keep hearing about Butler maps, I oughta get one. As the earlier poster mentioned, the random option in Calimoto is appealing since there is a serendipity factor that comes into play where you don’t know where you’ll be going or what you’ll see. Like listening to random music.
 
N

N4teTheGreat

Noob!
Butler is great, I've had decent success (and often ended up on roads marked in Butler) by just picking an area I want to ride to / from and then spending some time zooming in on Google maps and looking for the smallest squiggly lines.
 
Gary856

Gary856

Are we having fun yet?
ScottRNelson said:
Thanks to Gary856 who seems to have found every interesting and obscure road in the Bay Area. :thumbup
Click to expand...

Not true, of course, but I do feel like our cat - if I could get my nose in I want to check it out.

I had not been on Andrade / Sheridan rd until I read your road list in this thread and checked it out yesterday, so thanks for that. It's a 5 mile loop (plus the very nice dead end of Sheridan rd on the south side), very pretty with the rolling green hills and cows, especially yesterday with scattered high clouds, blue skies and diffused sunlight. I rode it CCW first, then reversed direction and rode it again CW.
 
stratslingr77

stratslingr77

Well-known member
Yeah, I hit Welch Creek, Andrade, Sheridan, Vargas, and Morrison Canyon after work today because of this thread
Then home via Palomares.
 
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