A Cheap, Easy, and Simple BRB Server for IRL Livestreamers

A Cheap, Easy, and Simple BRB Server for IRL Livestreamers

When I first started livestreaming as BikeCurious I thought it would be easy. I’d download and app on my phone, hop on my bike, and I’d be interacting with viewers anywhere I rode in San Francisco. 2 years and sizable chunk of money later and I’m still struggling to solve some basic livestreaming problems. One of those problems is a “brb” scene.

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Lonely Mountains: Downhill is the Perfect Nature Escape…in your living room

Lonely Mountains: Downhill is the Perfect Nature Escape…in your living room

You know what’s better than a global pandemic? Closing your blinds, turning off all the lights, and replacing the cold painful place we call reality with video games. Lonely Mountains: Downhill is the perfect escape. Its immersive environments had me immediately hooked and the punishingly difficult gameplay was frustrating in the best way possible.

I usually take the most efficient path to beating a game and then, minutes later, couldn’t be bothered to spend another second playing. Not Lonely Mountains Downhill. As of today I have played for 40 hours and am at 82% complete. I almost never 100% complete a game, but I can’t see myself stopping until I’ve completed every challenge Lonely Mountains Downhill can throw at me. Keep reading to find out why.z

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2nd Annual Get High at the Beach Ride - April 29th

2nd Annual Get High at the Beach Ride - April 29th

There is nothing better than getting together with friends, cranking some tunes, and riding around the city. That's why we're bringing back the Get High at the Beach Ride. It's a casual bike ride through some of the most scenic and bike-friendly parts of San Francisco. It's a great opportunity to meet new people and experience the many wonders of SF...

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Origin8 CargoLight Bars Review

Origin8 CargoLight Bars Review

Your backpack is probably your most important piece of kit. Unfortunately, wearing a backpack while riding feels like wearing a ski jacket made of lead. With the Origin8 CargoLight bars you'll never have to wear a backpack again.

Over the last 6 months Billy Arlew, Justin Aguinaldo, and myself have put these bars through their paces. What follows is our assessment of the strengths, weaknesses and WTFs of the CargoLight bars...

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Ryde Knows How You Travel

Ryde Knows How You Travel

The first question we get every time we tell anybody about Ryde is "how do you know that a trip was on a bike and not driving?" The answer: "The user tells us." Which is a major bummer and a mild exaggeration since we're able to filter out about 20% of all trips because they're just too damn fast. But 20% isn't good enough.

Ryde now uses a machine learning system to learn the way you travel and make educated guesses about whether or not you travelled by bike. In other words, we are one step closer to a dystopian future where the machines get to ride bikes and we are their tender pink energy sources.

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Ryde Bonus Points

Ryde Bonus Points

At its core, Ryde is about having fun on a bike. Instead of awarding points for suffering, Ryde rewards you for doing things on your bike that are genuinely enjoyable.

That's why you will now receive 35 bonus points every time you chill at a new spot! Just go somewhere you've never ryde-ed before and chill until you get your Ryde notification (usually 15-30 minutes). When you save your ryde you'll see your bonus points!

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Modeo Group Ryde April 30th!

Modeo Group Ryde April 30th!

It's high time that the Modeo community get together and meet face to face! What better way to get together than a group ride through San Francisco?

The Get High at the Beach Ride is a casual group ride along some of San Francisco's most beautiful and bike-friendly streets. The ride is 17 miles long with 2 steep but short hill climbs, each rewarded with an incredible vista, including the view from San Francisco's legendary Sutro Heights Park. Ryde users can expect to earn about 570 points!

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Goodbye Parse, Hello Heroku + mLab

Goodbye Parse, Hello Heroku + mLab

Parse is a BaaS (Backend as a Service). Every mobile app (and many other kinds of software) are split into the frontend and the backend. In the case of a mobile app, the frontend is the mobile phone which the user interacts with. The backend is the server, which stores the data and does all of the computational heavy lifting.

3 years ago, when I started working on Ryde, Parse allowed me to focus almost 100% of my time on developing technology specific to Ryde. Instead of spending time developing systems like account management, database indexing, customer service tools, and a bunch of other things, I was able to focus on the core technologies that make Ryde unique.

So I was dumbfounded when Parse announced that their service would be shutting down...

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American Transportation Design Sucks - Sim City 5 Showed Me Why

American Transportation Design Sucks - Sim City 5 Showed Me Why

In my past life I was a game designer. I was the person that analyzed what was fun about a game and tweaked the rules to enhance that fun.

The reason I became interested in making games was because of their amazing power to teach. Games are often abstractions of real world systems. For this reason, they can teach us about real world processes like the rise and fall of civilizations, the inner workings of the human body, or how to survive the zombie apocalypse.

But I left the games industry...

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Wet Weather Cycling Gear - Fenders

Wet Weather Cycling Gear - Fenders

It's December and the Pacific North West is as damp as that wet patch between your back and your backpack. In the northeast fresh snowfall will soon give way to fresh snowmelt, filling the road with unavoidable creeks.

We need to prepare our bikes for the onset of these rugged conditions. But which of the many fender technologies should we turn to?

Let's break it down...

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How to Bike Commute with No Sweat

How to Bike Commute with No Sweat

Most North American Transportation Bikers who commute by bike show up sweaty. Common solutions are bringing a change of clothes, taking a shower after you arrive at work, or giving up after a few tries.

But it turns out it's not that difficult to prevent sweating while you're on your bike. I spent the last few days combing through Bicycling Science and derived these helpful tips.

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Bike Review: My Day in San Francisco with the Bullitt

Bike Review: My Day in San Francisco with the Bullitt

Melissa and I are having a baby, and with every baby comes challenges. Fortunately, some of these challenges are overcome by buying new bikes. That's why Melissa and I test rode a Larry vs. Harry Bullitt provided by Vie Bikes.

During my 24 hour test period I rode 30 miles up and down many of San Francisco's challenging bike routes. I rode both during the day and at night. I tried to cover as many use cases as possible. In the end, I had the most amazing experience I've ever had riding a bike.

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