The SIR Ride with GPS Club Account

by Bill Gobie

You may have noticed that SIR’s Ride with GPS routes are in the Seattle International Randonneurs club account. The club account gives SIR members some great benefits.

Even if you only have a free basic RwGPS account, SIR members can access RwGPS’ premium-level features for SIR brevets and permanents. These features are:

• If you use the RwGPS mobile app on your phone you get:
  • Voice navigation – your phone speaks each cue.
  • Offline maps – you can download the route and required maps to your phone, then navigate in areas without cell coverage. You can navigate with your phone in airplane mode to save power and data usage.
• If you use a gps that uses TCX files, you get advanced turn notifications, which has your gps alert you prior to arriving at a turn. The distance before turns is customizable.
• If you use a Garmin Edge GPS, you can use the Write to Garmin function to load a route onto your Garmin.
• You can use the PDF Maps and Cuesheets features to produce printed directions. Since randonneur events must provide a cuesheet, these features are not very important for SIR members.

How to join the club account

1. First you need to have a personal Ride with GPS account. Go to: https://ridewithgps.com/ and sign up. You only need to sign up for a free account.
2. Go to the SIR RwGPS club main page: https://ridewithgps.com/clubs/29-seattle-international-randonneurs. Click on “Apply to join” and fill out the form. The account administrator will check that you are an SIR member and approve your membership.
3. Once you are approved, your personal RwGPS home page will list SIR under Clubs in the left sidebar.

How to use your club membership

1. Log in to your personal RwGPS account.
2. Click on the SIR club link in the left sidebar on your personal RwGPS account home page. You will be taken to the SIR Club page.
3. Scroll down to the Route Library. You can sort the routes by clicking on the column headings. You can use the Filters to efficiently find a route. You can filter by:
   • Route name or permanent number
   • Tag. We try to tag all the routes as permanents or brevets, by distance, and year for brevets. There are other tags, too, which you will see on the popup menu.
   • Location. Location is the city or county where a route starts, as determined by RwGPS.
4. You can go to a route by clicking on a link, for example, in an SIR brevet description page. To get the premium features make sure you are signed into the club account first.
5. You should watch Ride with GPS’ video to see how to use the premium features, such as downloading a route to your phone. https://ridewithgps.com/help/club-benefits/