Outdoor enthusiasts will soon be able to share their adventures with others – via a click on the Internet.
Ridewithgps.com, a Web site created by a University of Oregon student and an Oregon State University student, will launch this week. Users will be able to share routes, photos and link to others. Mapping features on the site include three-dimensional maps that display elevation and distance. And perhaps most appealing to users, the Web site is free.
Creators hope the Web site will be used by anyone who enjoys the outdoors.
“It’s for any recreational activity that could benefit from location-based data,” said University student Zack Ham, who helped create the site. He added the site could apply to driving, motorcycling, bicycling, running and hiking.
“The whole idea is that anyone can add whatever routes they want and share them,” Ham said. “It’s set up to be kind of like a social network.”
Ham, a computer science major, started the Web site as a class project last year. Although the original site was eventually scrapped, it provided a launch pad for today’s site. Ham worked on the project with Oregon State student Cullen King, a high school friend from Tualatin. The two often rode motorcycles together around the state.

“We’d meet up, have a cup of coffee and think, ‘Where should we go to?’” King said.
An ideal motorcycle route includes little traffic, roads without potholes and high visibility, King said.
“You definitely don’t want to ride them slow,” King said.
Now King and Ham can share their favorite rides with others.
They worked on the Web site at least every other weekend for about a year, Ham said, and they each worked a couple hundred hours creating the site.
The Web site first garnered attention at the University’s map mash-up contest in November, and the site won first place at the contest. A map mash-up displays data on a map. Ridewithgps.com, for example, displays elevation data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Ham said Ridewithgps.com, however, is much more than a map mash-up because Ham and King created original content and users can create their own content.
“I think that a lot of the content on the site is going to be routes people go on and maybe pictures they take along the way, and the conversations that take place back and forth about various rides,” King said.
Users can create a profile and become friends with one another, much like other social networking sites. The Web site will also feature an instant messaging system.
“If you’re on someone’s page or if your friend’s online, and you think, ‘I want to go on a ride right now,’ you can send an instant message within the site,” Ham said.
University graduate student Peter Baker, a member of the University cycling team, said he would likely use the Web site.
“I’m new to the Eugene area, so learning the roads and learning the different loops and avoiding getting lost is always good,” Baker said. “I think this will be a helpful tool.”
The creators of Ridewithgps.com created the Web site for fun, and they aren’t expecting to make any money for now.
“I don’t expect this to succeed,” King said. “That way if it does succeed, I’ll be pleasantly surprised. If I expected this to earn money, I might be bitter about putting all this time into it. I’m doing this to learn.”
About 40 people have registered with Ridewithgps.com since the Web site went through a soft launch last month. Since then, King and Ham have been fixing bugs on the site and will officially launch the site this week.
They expect more users to sign on then.
“We’ll be ready for new users this week – no problem,” King said.
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