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Frequently Asked Questions

If you don't find what you need here, please get in touch with us on the Support Page. We're pretty quick.

Top Questions:

  1. Why can't I see any stretches of road near me? What do I do first?
  2. Do I get to see new road stretches as soon as they're added? Do I have to pay more for new roads?
  3. Why can't I see any stretches of road near me?
  4. Do you include dirt roads as well as paved streets?
  5. Why does it claim "objectionable content" when I download the app?
  6. In which countries can I buy Greatest Road?
  7. Can I edit or erase stretches? Can I change my nickname or move it to a new iPhone/iPod touch?
  8. Can I use my iPod touch for this app?
  9. How do I remove or change a waypoint when I'm making a stretch?
  10. How do I use this to get riding directions for the road?
  11. How do I get a list of turn by turn directions?
  12. How does this compare with the free websites?

 


Q1: Why can't I see any stretches of road near me? What do I do first?

A1.1: In the Map View, press to see all road stretches in the area

A1.2: All road stretches are entered by other riders. Since we're new on the block, you may not see any stretches in your area yet. We are adding new, great roads as quickly as we can find them, plus you're welcome to add some of your own to get things going.

If you want to see a few live stretches, try this:

  1. Start the app
  2. Tap Road Stretches
  3. Tap Go To. Enter the word Ukiah or Los Angeles (there's some killer riding in California) and tap OK
  4. Once you're in the area, zoom out so you can see the coast and tap Start. You should see several great roads

Q2: Do I get to see new road stretches as soon as they're added? Do I have to pay more for new roads?

A2: Yes. No. Every time you look for road stretches it looks at the most up to date list, including ones that have just been added. We don't charge extra for new stretches.

Furthermore, with this one purchase you get to see all stretches in all countries - no need to buy multiple iPhone apps to get everything.

Q3: Does Greatest Road help me navigate while riding?

A3: No, we focus on helping you choose the best road. There are already several great companies solving "in-flight navigation". When you are looking at a specific stretch and tap "Start Ride" we hand you over to Google Maps to help you along the way. We'd like to be able to hand you off to Navigon, TomTom, Motion-X or one of the other navigation apps and will support them as soon as we can.

Q4: Do you include dirt roads as well as paved streets?

A5: Yes. We have several dual-sport and off-road stretches that we think are just killer. We support anything resembling a road as long as it's provided to us by Google Maps on the iPhone.

If you're interested, there's a great dual-sport trip called Usal Road just north of San Francisco. Click here to send an email with the link to your iPhone.

Q5: Why does iTunes warn me about "objectionable content" when I download the app?

A: Frankly, we're being conservative. Once you're in the app, you can enter comments for each stretch of road. We do not moderate those comments, so they could contain "mature" content. Since most riders are 16+ anyway, we decided discretion was the better part of valor and opted for a 9+ rating. We may change that up in the future

Q6: In which countries can I buy Greatest Road?

A: Greatest Road is available for sale in the following countries. This is also the list of countries where you can take your Greatest Road app and look for good stretches no matter where you bought it (updated Jan 16, 2010):

  • Australia
  • Austria
  • Brazil
  • Canada
  • Chile
  • Croatia
  • Czech Republic
  • Denmark
  • Estonia
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Hungary
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Kazakstan
  • Latvia
  • Lithuania
  • Luxembourg
  • Macau
  • Netherlands
  • New Zealand
  • Norway
  • Pakistan
  • Singapore
  • South Africa
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • Taiwan
  • Thailand
  • Turkey
  • United Kingdom
  • United States

We're limited by two factors: countries that officially have the iPhone, and countries where Google Maps allows us to both see the streets and get a route from a start point to an end point. At the moment the app is translated into English, German, Italian and French.

Q7: Can I edit or erase stretches? Can I change my nickname or move it to a new iPhone/iPod touch?

A: You can edit the title or description of any stretch you've added. Go to the details page for any stretch you've added and you'll see an Edit Text button. To mark any stretch for deletion, use the Flag button on the stretch detail page and give one of the listed reasons.

If you want to change or move your nickname, drop us a line here.

Q8: Can I use my iPod touch for this?

A: Yes. The basic idea of this app, whether on the iPhone or iPod touch, is that it helps you find, decide on, share, favorite or add good roads. You can do all of that on wi-fi or 3G.

We draw the line for Greatest Road at providing any kind of services for when you're traveling/navigating. There's a battle royale going on in that space between Everytrail, Motion-X, TomTom, Navigon, Google (including, presumably, an upcoming Google Navigation for iPhone like what they have on Android), and several others. We know several of the players and respect what they're doing, and we think Greatest Road Software needs to innovate in complementary areas.

Frankly, we would rather -partner- with all of them, providing details ABOUT the roads and trips and helping you find and share the one you want. The vision is that we hand off to them when you want to navigate a trip or take back a handoff when you want to import a trek into Greatest Road. We do that now with Google Maps - on the details page for every stretch, the START RIDE button exports the stretch into the Maps app for turn-by-turn directions.

One more thing - we have a crosshairs button on the main map page of the app. It locates you and centers the map on your location. In some countries, the iPod touch can use wi-fi to figure out your location instead of full-on GPS. You may or may not be able to use this feature depending on where you are.

Q9: Is there a way to go back one waypoint to correct mapping errors when adding a route?

A: Yes. While you are adding a stretch, you can tap each waypoint and delete it. New waypoints are added in order, so you might have to erase the the most recent one to get the order correct.

Q12: How does this compare with the free, web sites?

A: There are several similar services on the web. We've actually spoken with several of them, and really respect what they have done. In some ways they're ahead of us, but there are some differences that are the result of our wanting to do something different in the first place. Consider this:

  • You can sit in a bar/coffee shop/restaurant and check out places nearby or trade rides with buddies. I used to do this all the time and was frustrated that I couldn't describe a spot to a buddy or get memorable directions to a good ride. Being mobile is key, especially for a sport that's inherently about getting off our behinds and, er, on our behinds but going somewhere.
  • Much as I think both advrider.com and others have killer collections of roads, it's hard for me to visualize my riding choices from a list on a page or from a bunch of gpx files attached to forum posts. With this app you can see a bunch of rides on the map at the same time and immediately get a feel for where they are. You can sort by overall rating, distance, or other factors.
  • Despite our only having started at the beginning of the year, we now have over 2,000 rides in the system. That doesn't include rides that have been flagged for removal by other riders for being duplicate, junk, too short, etc. This is a bigger collection than many other web sites, even ones that have been around for years.
  • We believe that the ride information itself should be shared freely, not limited to people with the same brand of bike, gps, or other gear. That means you can share a route with someone as a Google Map or GPX file via email or Facebook. If someone else has the iPhone app, a link in the email will open the app and take them right there.
  • There is nothing in the app that limits you to your own area. The same app works across the US and about 50 other countries. Likewise, an app you buy in any country will work in all the other supported countries.

I hope that helps you make an informed choice about what's right for you. As for pricing, we're less expensive than a Mohawk helmet sticker and a whole lot more useful ;-).