“Route Slips” or “Cue Slips” are designed to ‘cue’ each turn on a route to follow as you ride. BCI’s “Route Slips” are laid out to be a narrow slip, usually 1/2 page (11 x 4.25”) that can be cut or folded and clipped easily on your handle bar with a route slip holder.
Hard to read? Some have a lot of turns, so the font size gets smaller; members can set printer output scale to over 100% to enlarge, but some systems will not print all of the pages, losing the right and bottom portion. One ‘work-a-round’ is to take a Screenshot from selection of the route you want, then print that screen shot at a larger scale to fit on several pieces of paper; trim & tape together as big as you need.
Most BCI Route Slips read “Turn ____ @Mile _____ onto _____ for _____”
The turn (which way or how to turn) is first
@Mile tells WHEN to turn (cumulative distance)
ONTO the STREET name or path or description
Dist tells the distance before the next cue…
If you reset a basic odometer to 0 when you start, you will know when to expect the next turn. If you watch the distance until next turn you will know if the next turn is coming up soon or after a few miles…
DECODE THE TURN CUES
L & R turns are obvious, but there are some obscure codes also found on them - see the detailed route slip cue glossary HERE for more information.
*L:Box Turn °L:3/4 Circle Left #L:Sharp Left FL:Forced Left JL:Jog Left BL:Keep Left
U:U-turn (180°) X:Cross FR:Forced Right #R:Sharp Right JR:Jog Right BR:Keep Right
We are also getting fancy adding some arrows to newer routes.
Black Diamond ? No - a “CORNER”
Sometimes we cut up onto a corner curb cut to access a sidepath or bike path or get onto a sidewalk, or just get out of the road to make a 2-step box turn. It may identify the corner by it’s cardinal orientation: NE = North East etc. and @ the cross STREET by name.
COLORS ?
Some route slips now have lines that are are color tinted:
Light Blue means it’s a sidewalk or sidepath along a street.
Pink means it is on a bike path or shared use path off-street.
CLIMB FACTORS (“CF”)
The top line is the miles, and In addition, most now show the quality of the ride:
CF # “Climb Factor” (##.# ’/m) average elevation per mile and +### ft Total climb
Rides with less than 20 feet per mile are Climb Factor 1
Rides with 50 to 60 ’/m are Climb Factor 5.
We have a few with CF 7 & 8 ratings!
”Hilly” or “Rolly” or “Flat” are pretty subjective to how strong the ride coordinator is;
we divide the feet climbed by the total distance (as reported in the RWGPS plot)… If the CF is 0 or 1 or 2 it will be pretty flat.
CF 3, 4, 5 will be more challenging;
CF 6, 7, 8 , 9 can include some brutal climbs… but some like that kind of thing!
PROFILES
Many route slips have a profile included so you can see where all the climbs are or if the coffe stop is at the top of a climb and you get to ride down all the way back… or not.
RIDE WITH GPS.COM
BCI plots our rides with RideWithGPS.com and provide links so you can see the route on various maps and also the elevation profile. Many members use the RWGPS app on their phone and get told when to make turns. These may have missing cues and phone batteries run down, so having our BCI formatted route slip is a good back up even if you have RWGPS telling you when to turn …
If you find an error on any route slip PLEASE let Rides@BikeIrvine.org know ASAP so we can correct it before the the next time we schedule it !
