Motorcycle Trips Saved
The site with my beloved routes is off the air. Shame...
I can write a long story as to the features that I Want in a Trip-Tracker, but that has to wait. There are some posts on ADV Rider dot Com Where I asked around for a good tracker-app. And at some point in 2026, thx to Sjaak Lukassen I found MyAdventure dot Bike.
It was Perfect !
Until the team behind the app stopped it. The guys had out-grown the need for the tracking-system. And it had never been a financial success, more of a hobby for them. I did get several good lunches and dinners out of them whenever I passed through Bulgaria though. As an IT-(database-)person and a passionate moto-rider, I was the tester who opened the most tickets. :-).
Now, on closing the site, the team behind My-Adventure dot Bike was kind enough to send me all the raw-data which the app had uploaded from my phone.
The raw-data was readable, usable. With Python I could load it into a database, and with SQL I could extract and format it to KML-files, I was able to re-construct the routes on google-maps.
I took the generated KML-files for my dearest routes, and uploaded them onto mymaps dot google dot com. I also saved the raw data (GPS-logs) and an Oracle exp of my data stored in proper tables, in case I want to re-use it at some time.
The maps are a little more primitive than the original ones from my-adventure, and they lack the comments and photos. But they still allow me to check where I was on what dates. And the memories are right there.
Before these mapped trips, there were several memorable ones in 2014 and 2015 as well. Those are documenten in some of the blogs and in my "location history". You'd have to ask my friends...
Here are the links to my maps-per-year, from 2016 to 2024.
First routes logged were in 2016: Spring, Summer and several Autumn trips. Some smaller ones like Lille.
In 2017, there were two Spring trips, a visit to St Petersburg, a POUG in Krakow, and a lot of autumn-activity.
In 2018, I repeated approximately the 2017-rounds.
2019 was a Very Busy year.
But also the year where my old S3 died, which split the RDD-trip in to two part. Rushing form AOUG, to CH, to RDD, and down to Bulgaria and back via Slovenia. I met a Lot of ppl on that trip, notably one Employee who was on working remotely without informing his employer (no FB pictures please..). End of 2019 also had the first big PG conference, in Warsaw.
With Covid in 2020, a lot got cancelled, I did only two trips and less extensive trips. But it was still a memorable year. By July I Urgently had to get out of the apartment, hence Urgent Round Trip. And notably POUG Stubbornly and Succesfully did a Conference in September with "distance", e.g. only 1 in every 4 seats was used.
In 2021 I did some catchup and I finally took my first "Selfie at Black Sea". POUG was Good as always. and the HROUG had a Great Party with Fireworks. The detour to Avignon, Barcelona and Lisbon was a Good Ride, but was mapped wrongly as soon the coordinates got W of Greenwich.
For 2022, the spring tour was one of my longest. I went to Ukr border in Romania and returned via .. The Autumn-trip was POUG, PG-day Vienna, visits to friends and an exceptionally early DOAG that year. The final trip was for HR and visiting frieds in Balkan and CH. The ride through CH was exceptionally Good because of the weather that week.
Disaster struck in 2023, I had to abandon the Spring-trip and on return I was taken straight to hospital. But I tried to catch up in Autumn by visiting HROUG, POUG and DOAG.
Last trip on My-Adv was in 2024: two conferences, RoOUG and MakeIT, and some good rides in between.
And there we are. In 2024, my-adv dot bike was discontinued, and I need to look for another trip-loggin app. Polarsteps is ok, but not quite as good for "what I want". Keep looking.
History ?
I hope I can keep those trips on the internet. Mainly so I can view and research them myself. And to help my Memory when I want to recall "when was I there, what did it look like again"... The photos are in my own archive and are also good to relate to the dates and places.
And Maybe, some day, my Kids or my future Grandkids can have a look here as well...
