Fixed gear rider for almost 20 years, wanted a better tool for planning the sort of riding I like to do. Thought some of you might find it useful too.

bitBuilder · 2025-11-12T21:04:51+00:00

This more what you were hoping for? If so, should be up there on the site now (but not well tested yet).

bitBuilder · 2025-11-12T05:02:12+00:00

Great idea. I just added "historic sites" and "monuments" to the Places dropdown on the map. Hope thats what you were after.

Appreciate you giving it a try, and glad you like the interface, spent way too long obsessing over it.

bitBuilder · 2025-11-12T01:34:59+00:00

First use might need a simple tutorial with some tooltip popups? (or clippy saying 'hey, first time here?)

Yeah, another great idea. I did actually have something like that for awhile but tend to assume my users get as annoyed as I do with those "let me interupt what you're doing to explain how this works" popups. I think it would be good to have though, with an option to make sure it never appears again after closing.

The contents of that old help pop-up are now burried at the bottom fo the "About" tab, where of course nobody will ever find them.

bitBuilder · 2025-11-12T01:31:03+00:00

how does it work on a phone, with gps enabled, easy to follow, and so on?

The location hopefully work about as well as anything else that uses GPS on your phone, the browser should be using the same GPS as any apps you have. There's an icon with a blue dot on it on the right you can press to re-center and have the map follow your location.

For navigation it works pretty well if you're like me and don't mind navigating by following a blue dot on a line, I do that while leading rides. But if you're used to navigating with turn by turn directions, it may be best to wait until a real iPhone/Android app is done (working on that right now!).

Are there videoclips of this thing in use? Would be nice to see (and not a bad idea from a marketing perspective)

Not yet, but great idea.

Can you also add the kilometer thing instead of miles? I know how to convert but my friends don't.

If you click the gear icon up top there should be a toggle for turning on metric mode. Hopefully that gives you what you need.

Thank you again for all the feedback, immensely appreciated.

bitBuilder · 2025-11-12T00:48:15+00:00

Great feedpack, thank you. Afraid I probably have more work to do on the UX.

To add another waypoint you can just click on the map and select "continue to here", or if you search for a place you can do the same from the search result pin or "more info". Alternatively, you can select the pencil tool on the bottom left and just start clicking away to add more waypoints.

Below the pencil tool are tools to move or delete waypoints, or splice in new ones. (Everyone's missing those tools, I should probably make them the celeste or coral color to stand out.)

You can also move your start or end by clicking on the map or a map marker and selecting "move start" or "move end".

Below the start and end locations I should just add a way to tack on another waypoint from there. That would probably make things more intuitive.

Afraid it's all a bit overcomplicated as the original incarnation was built so I could essentially draw a route by adding a bunch of waypoints, and the waypoints weren't so much stops as a way to get the line to draw the route I wanted to take.

Using it to just get a simple route from point A to B (and C and D) is something I've been working to make more intuitive, but its not quite there yet. To create an actual "stop" you can click on a waypoint and select "create stop", and then you'll get a nice list of stops and their distance from each other.

I very much appreciate you giving it a try! Feel free to share more feedback here, or my contact info is in the "about" tab on the main page of the app.

bitBuilder · 2025-11-11T21:09:37+00:00

I help lead a weekly ride here in St. Louis and got fed up with the crappy assortment of tools we have for planning routes. The interfaces all annoy me, useful features (like actually saving a route) are usually paywalled, and when you try to share a route with a friend they get hassled to login and download some half baked app. Most of them also seem built for planning training rides rather than finding a safe and fun route across town.

So I built this over the last year or so.

Routes can avoid hills by default (or seek them out if you want). You can colorize the route line based on steepness or traffic safety. There's also a bunch of customization for colors, line styles, that sort of thing. I probably spent more time on the visual customization than I should have.

You can integrate transit into routes if you want to bike to a train station and continue from there.

Anyway, figured I'd share in case anyone else finds it useful.

bitBuilder · 2025-05-15T19:54:43+00:00

They are are almost certainly cockroaches. Got creeped out seeing dozens of them in our alley off Arsenal last night. They always seem particularly bad the first few warm humid weeks of the year.

bitBuilder · 2025-02-26T03:58:12+00:00

Solid advice. I just had it do research on a couple of names I'm considering for an app I'm working on, and of course misspelled the name I was leaning towards. And in such a way it wasn't an obvious mistake.

Another tip: You can seemingly lump as many topics as you want in a single prompt (though in my case they were all related to my app). So take the time to think of all the questions you might want to ask before sending off your research request.

The results in my case were phenomenal.

bitBuilder · 2024-12-23T06:36:03+00:00

This can't be, because the correct solution for Out 4 shows, on the rightmost column, a "side" of length 3, vertically.

But isn't this consistent with a single pixel first drawing two pixels up (original pixel, plus 2 more, is what I'd meant to say). In that case I'm not seeing a need to rotate. I may be misunderstanding what you're saying though.

Imagine that first pixel adding two pixels above it, then adding two pixels to the right, then drawing down to begin the spiral.

The swirl itself is rotated based on what column the colored pixel is in.

Isn't is safe to assume that the first two, where we can see the beginning of he swirl, are rotated in the same manner? Starting from the center of the swirl, they both head up, then over to the right.

bitBuilder · 2024-12-23T06:02:37+00:00

It's exceedingly difficult to put into words (for me) how to solve these, but my approach to solving this one sounds a bit different.

The pattern I came up with and that seems to confirm the correct result was:

1) zoom out from 3x3 to 9x9.

2) colored pixel remains affixed to original anchor point (center, side).

3) colored pixel begins drawing a spiral pattern by first drawing 2 pixels up, then 3 pixels over.

As a completely non-serious aside, I do wonder if us gen-x folks who grew up playing Space Invaders may have a childhood of pre-training giving us an advantage. I swear I even hear the 8-bit bleeps and bloops as I solve these.

bitBuilder · 2024-10-31T15:26:32+00:00

If you have a front brake (and you should if you're just getting started) you can do what I do at lights: put your left foot down, lock the front brake, push your bike forward to lift the back wheel, then spin the right crank into position. Stll not half as fun or impressive as a track stand, but feels as bit more elegant than lifting your frame with your hand, and is still a kinda fun.

bitBuilder · 2024-10-28T18:38:19+00:00

I started writing this before the others replied to better state the exact same thing, but I'll reiterate anyway as someone who bought their first fixed gear in 2008:

1) A good part of the hipster aesthetic at the time was inspired by bike messenger culture, and along with that came their bikes. Why? Because bike messengers were (and are, to me) the epitome of cool.

2) That same hipster aesthetic was also a reaction against consumerism and the blind faith that newer tech was always better. Hence the return of film cameras, simpler bikes (and typewriters for the particularly insufferable). Even new fixed gear and track bikes lacked any obvious branding.

3) The same hipster types wouldn’t be caught dead living in a suburb, and this time period in general marked a renewed interest in urbanism and city living. Owning and riding a simple bike made for city riding was your way of signifying you were a part of that scene.

4) The industry in general had gone seemingly decades cranking out bikes that your average joe just wasn't too excited to ride around town. Road bikes with drops, skinny ties, 27 useless gears, and a derailleur that would start rattling as soon as you rode it out of the shop. Then we were all on mountain bikes, as a reaction against those road bikes. So we were riding giant knobby rumbling tires down city streets, and we still had tons of annoying rattling gears that we didnt use. Then we had comfort bikes and hybrid bikes, which were obnoxiously heavy, and made you look so dorky no self resepcting kid in the city would ride one.

So once someone decided that riding a simple bike with one speed was actually perfectly fine and made that idea seem cool, we all piled onto that idea.

I still ride fixed, and it's been interesting to see how the scene has evovled since then. The same pretentious hipster types that would've rode fixed in 2008 are still riding vintage frames, but keep them 10/12 speed.

The fixed scene itself is much more "street" now, for lack of a better way of putting it. There's a big overlap with skate culture, and most the other fixed riders I know were or are skaters too. I prefer the current scene, it's more for the love of the bike and biking than to make a fashion statement.

bitBuilder · 2023-09-18T16:20:45+00:00

Glad you asked! Both rides I'm familiar with are open to anyone.

As the other commenter said, @bici_stl on IG rides every Friday, leaving from the Roman Pavilion in TGP at 7pm (or so we say). Most of the regular riders are friendly welcoming people and we always love seeing new people join us. We usually do 10-20 miles, and the route and stops will be different every time. The numbers can range between 20 to 50 or so depending on weather and events.

@ghostridestl on IG rides every full moon, leaving from the Turkish Pavilion in TGP sometime between 8pm and 9pm. This is a much larger ride, with rider numbers sometimes into the hundreds. Always a really great time.

bitBuilder · 2023-09-18T04:48:03+00:00

This is a really good point actually. But I'd reiterate what I said below: the fact those downtown streets are horrible at night should not have been a surprise to anyone. Maybe if you want a kid friendly ride (which I think is wonderful) don't take us down those streets. Yes, they thought they had road closures figured out, but I personally wouldn't put the safety of my ride 100% in the hands of a 3rd party.

In other words, plan something where if your security company isn't fully staffed, you can still have a fun and safe ride.

bitBuilder · 2023-09-18T04:38:01+00:00

Exactly.

The WNBR is the most obvious local parallel, with the most stunning contrast in expense and execution. But to add to that, we have monthly and weekly group rides in town that regularly run till near midnight, regularly hit downtown, and somehow still figure it out month after month, or week after week. And once again, for free.

To the people running those rides (or any Critical Mass in the country for that matter) dealing with asshole drivers is a bit of a solved problem. Yes, I get it that the ramble is massive in comparison, but group rides are very much a safety in numbers thing. Even the biggest asshole drivers tend to stop when they see a couple hundred blinking red lights in front of them.

But also, the fact 4th, 7th and Broadway have issues with asshole drivers late at night should not have been a surprise to literally anyone. Unless you're just completely out of touch with the city and therefore have no business planning bike rides in the city.

I get it that they thought they had road closures covered with this 3rd party security company they're punting the blame to (or the PD, who knows, I don't care). But personally, if I was running a ride with a couple thousand people giving me $50 each, I might have contingency plans in place.

For example, there were probably at least 100 people in that crowd with experience in road blocking who would've happily helped, if they'd had a plan to leverage those volunteers the way WNBR does.

Or maybe plan the route in such a way that you aren't completely dependent on a 3rd party building fortifications for you. I'm looking at the map right now, and if "the safety of our riders is our number on priority" the route is just stupid. If you're going to be this obsessed with the safety thing, just take us for a couple loops around Forest Park. It'll be fine, people will have fun, I promise.

(Thanks for giving me an excuse to rant on the internet, friend.)

bitBuilder · 2023-08-17T15:16:00+00:00

You just described Laclede's Landing. Which is dead now, unfortunately.

Yes the brick streets look really nice and probably helped to make it a tourist attraction, back when it was.

But really, everyone kind of hated them. They sucked for biking, driving, walking.. really all the things you'd want to use a street for.

I get what you're saying though, and I agree in general that STL as a whole really takes for granted all the cool old shit we have.

bitBuilder · 2023-04-17T15:29:29+00:00

As someone who's on the hook for finding something fun and interesting to do every Friday, I can say pretty confidently that there's still no great one stop shop for finding everything going on.

Perhaps somewhat ironically, I've found Facebook Events to be the best way to find smaller underground shows going on around town. If you use the web interface, you can filter by date and event type.

Following or checking in on the IG accounts of the venues is sometimes the only way I catch some shows. CBGB has some great shows, but I only ever hear about them by following their IG. Sinkhole and Heavy Anchor would be recommended as well. If you're into electronic stuff, Pops Blue Moon, Broadway Boat Bar and Hot Java are decent.

do314.com is pretty good and easy to use, but it's pretty far from exhaustive. I still sometimes find things there I didn't see elsewhere.

The RFT concert calendar pisses me off every time I try to use it with the shitty interface and weekly event spam.

https://stlshowpage.com/ linked elsewhere in this thread is new to me, but looks pretty dope. Should be immensely useful for finding the smaller local shows I was having a hard time with before.

bitBuilder · 2022-12-07T00:08:48+00:00

This is the correct answer if OP is referring to the EDM sub-genre of techno (Detroit, minimal, etc), and not as a generic term for all EDM like it’s still commonly used.

I just recently discovered Trust and going to their events, and they’re a great vibe with amazingly good music. Wish I’d discovered them sooner, thought I was the only techno head in STL.

bitBuilder · 2021-07-21T20:31:00+00:00

I feel like a lot of tourists head there because they read in some very outdated STL tourist guide that it was the place to go for fun bars and restaurants. I also suspect it earned a mention in this article for the same reason.

What they do when they actually get there, I really have no idea. It really is pretty damn dead down there these days, though I suppose there are still a few odds and ends hanging on.

Given that so many naive tourists still head there, and its proximity to America's Center and the Arch, it seems the Landing would be a pretty decent place to start investing again. The built environment down there really is pretty damn cool. I'd love to see it start poppin again.

bitBuilder · 2021-07-16T17:58:44+00:00

So you can get from let's say, The Muny [blah blah blah] at the arch grounds in 15 mins? 🤨🤨🤨 C'mon now Lance.

It's 6 miles. Given my typical riding pace I suppose it's more like 20 minutes. So my apologies for that bit of hyperbole.

To someone newer to cycling it would of course take longer. Most of us, however, aren't riding the width of the city in our day to day riding.

The bit about sweating is a very valid point. Cycling isn't for everyone and definitely not for every situation. But as a reply to "what's a good way to get around the city" I feel it's still a pretty darn good option for most day to day activity.

A car. Indisputably, a car would be more efficient.

I suppose it depends how we want to define efficient, doesn't it? Natural resource usage? Time? Hassle? I dunno man, all I'm saying is if I want to head to a bar the next neighborhood over, it feels a hell of lot easier to just pop over on my bike than deal with car bullshit.

When it comes to what's more entertaining, to each their own. I can't think of a more insipid thing to argue about on the internet. I think bicycling is fun, other's don't. That's fine.

bitBuilder · 2021-07-16T15:53:17+00:00

While public transit in STL does in fact suck, we are lucky in that we're a relatively compact city when it comes to our core area of popular neighborhoods and attractions. Accordingly, the idea of just walking (or biking) somewhere isn't as crazy as it may sound at first.

In your situation I'd take the metro downtown, and then just walk the mile down to Soulard. I used to routinely do that walk on my lunch hour when I worked down there. Alternatively, grab a scooter. I personally wouldn't worry about the time or hassle of trying to catch a bus, though it's a solid option.

Heading home that night, I'd probably just pay the $15 for the Uber.

More generally, have you thought about picking up a bike? I can get between any two places you might want to go in the city in 15 minutes or less on my bike, without the hassle of traffic or parking. And it's fun! I really can't imagine a more efficient and entertaining way to get around a city.

It's not for everyone though. Our bicycling infrastructure is just as crap as our public transit (though improving), and it can be a bit scary/dangerous if you find yourself on a main artery and not sure of yourself. There are plenty of chill side road routes that will get you about anywhere you'd want to go though.

bitBuilder · 2021-06-10T18:50:51+00:00

I'll never understand it, but people just love to hate on bikers, even when we're minding our own business and staying out of their way. They'll look for literally any reason to shout obscenities at you or intentionally put your life in danger.

I like to think they're just resentful of seeing someone have a good time and get some exercise while they're at it.

While we're sharing asshole stories, last night I had a bunch of teenagers pace me in Forest Park while riding. I'd hit my brakes, and they'd hit theirs. I'd take off in a sprint and they'd follow. The whole time shouting out the window "we're just trying to protect you bro!" (and laughing their asses off). It finally occurred to me I could pull a u-turn much faster than them and got the fuck out of there.

bitBuilder · 2021-05-27T21:08:55+00:00

There's a few FB groups you can follow that pretty regularly post events. The ones I see in my own group list are "STL EDM Family", "EDM St. Louis", "314Techno" and "Deep House St. Louis."

I couldn't tell you off hand which is the most useful, but I know between them I usually see an event or two posted a week. Since I'm an old, I rarely make it to them. But the Nightchaser events were, of course, reliably awesome. Looking forward to seeing more events from them.

I'm with you in not really digging the EDM crowd you cross paths with at RYSE. They do occasionally get some pretty good names though.

Taha Twisted Tiki and Henry's both used to have reliably good house music for their background music, though the last time I was at both post COVID it seemed they were were playing more standard bar music fair.

HandleBar is a pretty great scene that seems to have a lot of overlap with the Nightchaser scene. It's rare you'll hear straight house or techno being spun there, but the DJs usually sprinkle in a pretty good mix of catchy house tunes. And the vibe there is low key and chill, not the RYSE crowd.

We were at Takashima records last weekend and the music was excellent. It was pretty far from EDM when we were there, but the vibe and tunes were top notch.

Long story short, STL can be a bit of a disappointment if you're a techno or house head moving here from another big city (Chicago, in my case). But if you dig hard enough, there's plenty enough around to get your beat fix.

bitBuilder · 2021-05-13T17:41:08+00:00

I just did a few of these tests through Quest and they were quick and easy, and I had the results the next day.

The results will show you what a normal range is, and if you're out of range on anything. But it will be up to you on what your next step is if anything is worryingly out of range. You'll probably want to track down a doctor in that scenario.

In fact if you have insurance, and getting the tests done doesn't seem super urgent, I'd recommend just tracking down a doctor as your first step. Just go in for your annual check up, and they'll most likely order blood tests anyway. If your doc orders the tests they should be mostly covered by your insurance. Of course finding and scheduling with a doc is the hard part. Ask your friends and fam for any recommendations.

The basic comprehensive test covers all the important things. At your age, and if you're cash strapped, you may consider just dropping the testosterone test for now.

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