Screenshot of BikerEventsMap.com

There’s a new website to help you find great motorcycle destinations. It’s called the Biker Events Map and it takes a visual approach to checking out whats going on. All that you have to do is enter your dates and click search. It lists motorcycle events as points on a zoomable / panable map. You’ll find rallies, expos, poker runs, motorcycle shows, parties, and more. All conveniently displayed on the events map.

BikerEventsMap.com is also the one stop shop for promoting your upcoming motorcycle event. Add it to the events database with a few simple clicks. And the best part is its free.

The site is currently in beta, so there’s new constantly new features poping up. Check it out at: BikerEventsMap.com

Harley Davidson Ride Planner Interface

Harley Davidson recently launched a new ride planning website. The idea is that you can input locations and waypoints and it will chart a course for you. There are also extended features that allow you to find good roads, Harley dealerships, hotels, events, and fuel stops. There even 105th anniversary routes preset for out of town’rs headed to the big show.

Check it out at: http://www.harley-davidson.com/rideplanner

The concept is just what I’ve been looking for – but upon review I’ve discovered that there are a few pieces of the puzzle that are still missing.

The core component of the site works alot like Google maps. It’s easy to pan around the world and look for roads – both user generated and Harley approved “Great Roads”. You can input address data or right click on the map to create way points that join together to plan a personalized “My Ride”.

One of the best features that I found was it has the ability to join roads to “My Ride”… so for example you can simply plan a route from one city to another and then view the nearby “great roads” and if it looks like this road is worth a detour, you can add it to “My Ride”. The site will recalculate all the associated information.

Sharing your saved rides or routes is possible via the website by using an email input form. Unfortunately I didn’t see any ability to link directly to a route or embed your saved maps into a webpage or blog.

The biggest disappointment is the events functionality. I was hoping for a map that displayed events and rallies by location and date, but the events listed are limited to Dealer events, Harley-Davidson Motor Co. events, and H.O.G. events. So don’t expect to find the defrost yer nutz run or the dam saloon bikini contest listed on this site.

The hotel listings show only Best Westerns. Fine for some. Not acceptable for those of us who seek out the classic small town motels.

I didn’t see any indication that the website is available on mobile devices, which is key for us riders, but it does have import and export functionality for GPS systems in a .gpx format. (Haven’t tested that yet)

Summary:
The Harley Davidson Ride Planner could be used a good resource if you’re route takes you into unchartered territories and you want to rely on route suggestions from those who have gone before you. I like that this website has the potential to harness user input and opinions, but unfortunately its not the end all solution for rider information. Perhaps it will evolve to meet my expectations.

Side note:
In the future I expect some type of low jack system installed on all Harleys allowing the brethren to see, in real-time, a map of where everyone’s riding. Without crossing the “invasion of privacy” boundaries I’d like to be able to see where my friends are at, catch up with a rally that I don’t have a map to, or just watch the convergence on Sturgis. Who’s with me?

Sample (the first 12 songs):

Tip: I have the factory stereo that comes stock on a Harley Street Glide. This stereo can play MP3 cd’s, which allows me to fit approximately 150 songs on a single disc. A problem that I’ve discovered is that certain combinations of my piss poor hearing along with wind noise and crackling pipes can make the audio inaudible. So, before I burn my playlist, I run all the mp3’s through a freeware program called MP3 Gain. MP3Gain analyzes and adjusts mp3 files so that they have the same volume. MP3Gain does not just do peak normalization, as many normalizers do. Instead, it does some statistical analysis to determine how loud the file actually sounds to the human ear. Also, the changes MP3Gain makes are completely lossless. There is no quality lost in the change because the program adjusts the mp3 file directly, without decoding and re-encoding. I’ve found that the sweet spot for my bike with Reinhart pipes is 97db.

Here’s a list of some of the song, artist, albums that have made the cut for 2008.

It doesn’t appear to have a huge following (yet), because I did some searches around the driftless region and nothing came up.

Anyway, if you want to take the fun out of getting lost, you can chart a course to your hearts content: Visit Zumo Connect