Best Eastern Riding website complete after 7 years

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Easy Ed

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 18, 2012
Messages
286
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29
Location
Eastern Massachusetts
7 years ago I started a website about the best rides and riding in the East. I started with New England in response to all the questions about where the best riding was. The philosophy has always been to share all the information for free as a way to give back to the motorcycling community. The website has turned into the best resource for Eastern Riding that I know of. I feel that it is much better than all the better known sites. I have now completed Atlantic Canada, New England, and the mid Atlantic States. I have almost completed the Appalachians and could sure use a little help.



The website consists of the best Roads, Restaurants, Scenic Views, Things to See, and Lodging and includes Google Maps and GPS files. I try to include only the absolute best in each category. I want to ensure that any road, etc. that you try is great. I am looking for things that are worth riding long distances for.



I kindly ask if you could look at my roads, restaurants, scenic views, things to see, and hotels for the Appalachians (and the Northeast) and suggest things that I should add to the list: https://www.newenglandriders.org/BestEasternMC.htm. Everything is broken down by State.



Thank you very much. I would like this multi year hobby to turn into a fantastic resource for Eastern Riders.



 
Ed

While I don't think such a reference can ever be "complete", I have to say that the framework and base information are superb starting points for anybody planning a trip. It is a particularly valuable resource for a rider from outside one of the target regions.

I say that it cannot be "complete" because while the natural beauty of the areas is reasonably unchanging, road condition, accommodations, restaurants and other amenities are always going to be in a state of flux. While you have certainly done an admirable job of choosing the high spots in the various regions, sometimes the best rides are the ones you hear about from locals or come upon more by accident than design. I know that in order to be fair you have tried to provide similar numbers of "Best of" references for each region. The simple fact is that all areas are not created equally! Some areas are deserving of "denser" coverage and you may be short-changing your readers in places.

I think there are also some of the regions that have been dealt with in a more thorough fashion than others. This is a natural consequence of your direct familiarity with some of the regions - it's difficult to do it all in person although I hope you have the opportunity of doing so in the coming years. I expect that other areas may be "fleshed out" to some extent as you explore further.

Please to not take the above comments as any sort of criticism, I use your resource VERY regularly and have recommended it to many people over the past few years. It is unequaled as a guide for riding (or driving) in the East. I see the future of the resource to be subject to continuing evolution, if you have the patience for it!

What's next? I think you should do more than have this as an "on-line" resource!! Lots of times when I am on the road where I may not have access to the site. E-publishing would be a great place to start. It would hardly take anything to do since the stuff is already in the appropriate format and I don't think there would be much cost associated with it. I suppose you could create a cellphone "app" as well. Any idea what the digital "size" of the information might be? i.e. would it have to be "on-line" or could it be downloaded to a phone or laptop without consuming too much electronic real estate?

I think there are a large number of people who might respond favorably to a paper-published version of the information. I think I would happily fork over some bucks for a "coffee table" edition with the maps, routes, pictures and references. I also think it would be a tremendous headache to produce and I'm not sure whether you would sell enough to make back the considerable costs associated with publication. Maybe something to think about...

I, for one, appreciate this resource and would like to personally thank you for your efforts. Keep up the great work!

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ed
While I don't think such a reference can ever be "complete", I have to say that the framework and base information are superb starting points for anybody planning a trip. It is a particularly valuable resource for a rider from outside one of the target regions.

I say that it cannot be "complete" because while the natural beauty of the areas is reasonably unchanging, road condition, accommodations, restaurants and other amenities are always going to be in a state of flux. While you have certainly done an admirable job of choosing the high spots in the various regions, sometimes the best rides are the ones you hear about from locals or come upon more by accident than design. I know that in order to be fair you have tried to provide similar numbers of "Best of" references for each region. The simple fact is that all areas are not created equally! Some areas are deserving of "denser" coverage and you may be short-changing your readers in places.

I think there are also some of the regions that have been dealt with in a more thorough fashion than others. This is a natural consequence of your direct familiarity with some of the regions - it's difficult to do it all in person although I hope you have the opportunity of doing so in the coming years. I expect that other areas may be "fleshed out" to some extent as you explore further.

Please to not take the above comments as any sort of criticism, I use your resource VERY regularly and have recommended it to many people over the past few years. It is unequaled as a guide for riding (or driving) in the East. I see the future of the resource to be subject to continuing evolution, if you have the patience for it!

What's next? I think you should do more than have this as an "on-line" resource!! Lots of times when I am on the road where I may not have access to the site. E-publishing would be a great place to start. It would hardly take anything to do since the stuff is already in the appropriate format and I don't think there would be much cost associated with it. I suppose you could create a cellphone "app" as well. Any idea what the digital "size" of the information might be? i.e. would it have to be "on-line" or could it be downloaded to a phone or laptop without consuming too much electronic real estate?

I think there are a large number of people who might respond favorably to a paper-published version of the information. I think I would happily fork over some bucks for a "coffee table" edition with the maps, routes, pictures and references. I also think it would be a tremendous headache to produce and I'm not sure whether you would sell enough to make back the considerable costs associated with publication. Maybe something to think about...

I, for one, appreciate this resource and would like to personally thank you for your efforts. Keep up the great work!
When I say complete, I mean that setup is complete. I had to build all the web pages, Google Maps, and GPS files. The site has always been, and always will be, constantly updated. I hope that if someone finds an error or a broken link that they will let me know. I doubt that this will ever be published. After 7 years, I am spent. Labor of love, but I am done.

 
Thanks for the time and effort you put into compiling all that information!

I will be using it as a resource in the future when I head up that way!

 
Ed-

I just wanted to say thank you for all of the effort you put into your site! I have had it bookmarked for a couple of years and finally (yesterday) used the tutorial for basecamp. I had always heard that basecamp was a bit of a learning curve so I had been getting by for years with tyre. I don't know why I waited so log. Basecamp rocks and your tutorial was a great tool to follow along with.

Once I had the basics of basecamp down, I decided I should populate my folders and lists. I have quite a few routes saved but in looking around your site I noticed you had TONS of routes, roads, attractions in gpx format available for download....for free! At first I was skeptical. I thought of myself... "Sure he has stuff for this state but I bet he didn't capture X road". Sure enough....you had! There were quite a few roads in multiple states thst i wasnt aware of. I had the site bookmarked as a basecamp tutorial and frankly didn't realize the wealth of information you had hosted there.

I made a couple routes last night from Michigan to southeast Ohio and headed out this morning with my first routes from basecamp. I had a wonderfull 600 mile day with no gps glitches and really appreciate how basecamp allows for silent shape points rather than announcing the points.

Thanks again for all of the hours that you put into this and the fact that you are freely sharing it. I would urge everyone to take a look as there is so much information there. Basecamp is rather easy to use after following the tutorial and it is far better than Tyre!

 
Ed- I just wanted to say thank you for all of the effort you put into your site! I have had it bookmarked for a couple of years and finally (yesterday) used the tutorial for basecamp. I had always heard that basecamp was a bit of a learning curve so I had been getting by for years with tyre. I don't know why I waited so log. Basecamp rocks and your tutorial was a great tool to follow along with. Once I had the basics of basecamp down, I decided I should populate my folders and lists. I have quite a few routes saved but in looking around your site I noticed you had TONS of routes, roads, attractions in gpx format available for download....for free! At first I was skeptical. I thought of myself... "Sure he has stuff for this state but I bet he didn't capture X road". Sure enough....you had! There were quite a few roads in multiple states thst i wasnt aware of. I had the site bookmarked as a basecamp tutorial and frankly didn't realize the wealth of information you had hosted there. I made a couple routes last night from Michigan to southeast Ohio and headed out this morning with my first routes from basecamp. I had a wonderfull 600 mile day with no gps glitches and really appreciate how basecamp allows for silent shape points rather than announcing the points. Thanks again for all of the hours that you put into this and the fact that you are freely sharing it. I would urge everyone to take a look as there is so much information there. Basecamp is rather easy to use after following the tutorial and it is far better than Tyre!
Thank you. This made my day. Sometimes I wonder if I put all this time into a site that nobody sees. It has been a labor of love that I am happy to give away to fellow riders. The BaseCamp Agenda is the basis of a class that I have taught for the last few years. Garmin's help line refers users to it. :)

Thanks again for the kind words.

 
It was kind of ironic that I stumbled across this thread today. I saw a title of Best Eastern Riding and thought it was a question. I was going to post the link to your site.

While I was riding today I was thinking that I had to find your contact info and send you a thqnk you email. I didn't know that you were a member here. I'll say it again...thanks your site is great!

 
Last edited by a moderator:
It was kind of ironic that I stumbled across this thread today. I saw a title of Best Eastern Riding and thought it was a question. I was going to post the link to your site.
While I was riding today I was thinking that I had to find your contact info and send you a thqnk you email. I didn't know that you were a member here. I'll say it again...thanks your site is great!
:)

 
Fantastic job! All the SE Ohio roads are very close to me! There are lots more down this way...although...maybe I shouldn't announce that so loudly...
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