Even if riding a bike is easy as “riding a bike”, sometimes you have to solve little challenges related to your bike ride before you can go. I mean you can fight the weather with proper clothes, today’s LED lamps makes night a day, and all the apps and systems will take care of anything but the riding itself; they tell you how long to rest and what and how to train an practise on next. But there is no turn-by-turn navigation for group rides. There is no easy way to setup a group ride with bunch of riders and somehow deliver the route plan or turn-by-turn instructions to everybody in the group.

And why there should be one? Cause nobody wants to lead the pack throughout the whole ride. And if nobody else knows the route, the one who knows the route must lead all the time. And that is unfair! There are tools to navigate from A to B, but usually satnav apps tend to speak too much or they highly rely on map visuals. And injecting a premade route into them is practically impossible. While riding a bicycle, rider’s attention just can’t distracted to any visuals.

Race Peps for running

Race Peps is an app for runners attending a running event, but fortunately it works perfectly as a turn-by-turn navigation for group rides. The original idea of the app is, that the runner creates his race event, then he shares the event with his friends, and friends will write / record their cheers along the route. When runner then runs the actual race, runner will hear these friends’ cheers and pep talks, and that is shire fun! This concept makes Race Peps a unique app or service, but most importantly, gives the runner a chance to enjoy the race in a completely new way.

Race Peps as a navigator for group rides

Good ideas an services are versatile – and so is Race Peps! Race Peps can be used as a turn-by-turn navigation for group rides (or runs) just like that and out-of-the-box. Simply put: one group member plots the route and writes down all turn-by-turn instructions for the route. “Turn left”, “go straight” etc. on every crossroad and intersection. Then all the members of the group ride open the plotted route in Race Peps app, and everybody will hear the turn-by-turn instructions on the right spots while riding. Now everyone knows where to go, and anyone from the group can lead the pack, or if some riders are left behind, they will manage all by themselves. And if something unplanned occurs, anyone can send a live message to the group and all members will hear it immediately. Using the app does not need registering or anything complicated, the event is opened in the app with event code and password.

How-to?

To use Race Peps app as a turn-by-turn navigation for group rides, you must of course do something in advance. Not much but some. Below is a quick walkthrough, how to set up a group ride route. Just follow it step-by-step for one time, and next time it’ll just go easy as a Sunday morning.

Route path as GPX file

Before anything else, you need the route path as a .GPX file. You can use an existing workout exported from somewhere or you can plot the route on some route plotting service and then export the route as GPX file. One of the best plotting sites is www.gpsies.com. No need to register, simple tools, good maps and exports easily to GPX file. When you have to route plotted and GPX file on your computer, let’s move on!

Register 

Sign up at https://runner.racepeps.com Only one needs to register, the one who plots the route. It is free and works best on desktop browser. To use Race Peps as a turn-by-turn navigation for group rides, only one account needs to be created, only one needs to register!

Log in and create

Log in and create a new event. Choose “import GPX” and follow the instructions. After importing the route, you have to set some parameters for the event: the name of the and description can be anything you want of course. The time window between start and end time is when the live messaging is enabled. If you plan not to use any of the live features, this can be anything. But of course it is best to time it with the actual group ride. Set an easy password for the event.

Add your instructions

You have now created your event. Normally you would share the link with your friends and they would place cheers on your route. Now you will be your friend and leave instructions on your route. To do so, just look for the “link to share” from the event confirmation email and click to open it. (NOTE: the correct link starts with friends.racepeps.com, as the one where you created the event was runner.racepeps.com.) Now click the link and you will see your route. Simply click somewhere on the route to leave a message on that point. Messages are spoken approx 100m (300ft) before the actual point, so please keep that in mind. You can write the message on any language, it is then spoken by the speech synthesizer with correct accent. You can also record your instructions, which is way more fun! Just place as many messages you think it is needed.

Add some fun (optional)

Group members can also leave messages on the route. All the members will hear these during the ride and no-one knows who left them really. 🙂 This is optional but usually super fun. Anyone who has the friend link can leave messages on the route. The purpose is of course the turn-by-turn navigation for group rides, but why not have some extra fun with finny cheers and jokes?

Share the event with group

Everyone who wants to hear the instructions, needs the free Race Peps app. To open the correct route in the app, everyone needs the event code and the password for the route. These were delivered to you in the confirmation email on the race event creation. The email also has a button with magic link, which opens the event automatically in the Race Pep app. So send the event code, the password and magic link to all the group ride members.

Time to ride!

Just before start, all members launch the Race Peps app and enter the event code and password into the fields. Then “CONTINUE” and the route will open on the map view. Next thing to do is tapping PLAY and slide the phone into the back pocket or wherever – just out of sight! You don’t need to see it anymore, you only need the headphones. Thats all! Now the preset turn-by-turn navigation instructions are spoken to everyone joining the group ride.

During the ride (optional)

Anyone can open the event’s friend page and send a live message. Everyone, who has the event on in their app, can hear the live message.

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