| Weather |
www.weather.com/
Nice hourly forecasts (with temp, wind and precip)from the WeatherChannel. Enter ZIP or city, click Hour by Hour, click Details. |
www.intellicast.com/Local/USLocalStd.asp?loc=kchi&seg=LocalWeather&prodgrp=Forecasts&product=WINDcast&prodnav=d1_00
2 day wind forecast maps for the Chicago region.
You can view other regions and forecasted time periods. |
www.crh.noaa.gov/data/obhistory/KARR.html
Provides hourly wind speeds for the last 48 hours - useful
information for settling those debates on just how strong that headwind
was on your last ride.
It is set to give readings from the Aurora airport, out on the
prairie. By filling in a different town and state, submitting, and then
selecting "2 days history", you can get readings from the weather
station nearest to any U.S. town. |
http://weather.chicagotribune.com/US/Region/Midwest/2xpxWindSpeed.html
Recent wind maps from the Chicago Tribune. |
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| Salt Creek Greenway Underpass Water Level Status |
//waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?site_no=05531300
To find out if the Salt Creek Greenway Trail underpasses are flooded. At the Roosevelt Road underpass, you will find water on the path when the gage reads greater than 6.9 feet. At the St. Charles Road underpass there will be water on the path when the gage reads greater than 8.5 feet.
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| Creating or Finding Bike Routes |
Most of these sites are enhanced frequently. They currently offer map and satellite views. Some even have topographic views.
Try some of the sites to see which one you like best. When you create a route check the appropriate "public"
box so that others can see the route. |
http://www.bikely.com/
Map a route or find a route using this site with free membership.
Enter the desired city in the "Find a route near" box and click "Search".
You will get hundreds of routes. |
http://favoriterun.com/
Map a route or find a route using this site with free membership.
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http://maps.google.com/
Map a route or find a route using this site with free membership.
Tip from EBC member Peter T.: For scoping out an all-road route, I have fond the "directions" feature on maps.google.com very handy.
Enter the ends of your route in the "from" and "to" fields, get the driving route, and then "drag and drop" points on the route to get the route you actually intend to take.
You can use Google's directions by walking to be routed along trails that have been added to the Google system.
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www.gmap-pedometer.com/
Map a route using this site for free.
Petra comments: This tool is easy to use and makes a nice printout of the route.
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www.mapmyride.com/
Map a route or find a route using this site with free membership.
This tool has the ability to follow roads - that is, you click on key intersections and it traces the road route between the selected intersections automatically.
It will also generate a cue sheet, with turns, street names and distances; and an elevation profile.
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www.bikeroutetoaster.com/
BikeRouteToaster.com is a course creation application primarily aimed at Garmin Edge/Forerunner owners although other users without a GPS may also find it useful for planning rides.
Courses are created using Google maps and then downloaded from the server.
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http://terraserver-usa.com/
Microsoft's TerraServer-USA: Satelite photos.
- Uses the same source photos as Google. Terraserver lets you zoom in close. It also has a simple download mode that lets you get the whole photo into your computer; e.g., to assemble larger layouts. |
http://ByCycle.org/
Has a bicycle trip planner for Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- uses data from local bike route networks to generate maps and directions. |
www.ridethecity.com/
City of Chicago routing tool. Enter starting location, ending location and the level of safety.
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http://bicycling.trimbleoutdoors.com
Bicycling Magazine's route mapping site with downloadable GPS-ride-maps.
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www.bikemap.net
has a good method for showing where routes are located. Most of their routes are in Europe, but there are a few in the US.
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