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Ask HN: Review my MVP - Scenic Motorcycle Routes from Three Rides

36 points by bigsassy ↗ HN
http://www.threerides.com

Hey HN,

I just launched an MVP for my startup, and I'm "getting out of the building" next week to talk to customers. I'd love to get HN's feedback as well.

ahem

Three Rides will be website and mobile app for motorcycle riders. You'll be notified of cool upcoming events, great days to ride (75 degrees and sunny on Saturday!), and even when a buddy is riding near you. It then uses a GIS that's rated every inch of road in America to generate an awesome route based on the notification.

Income will be generated through marketing tools businesses can use to reach riders in their area, allowing them to push their own events to Three Rides users.

I'd be very grateful if I got feedback on:

1) The website

2) The concept for the website/mobile app (particularly if you ride)

3) The idea for charging businesses to send featured events to users

Thanks!

35 comments

[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 83.2 ms ] thread
diginux
It'd be cool to do the same thing, but for bicycle routes!
tchock23
You beat me to it! That's exactly what I was thinking... I would love to have a site just show me great rides for cyclists.
cullenking
Check our site out - http://ridewithgps.com
ashishg
awesome! Are users picking it up?
cullenking
Yes, about 100 new signups, 1000 uploaded activities and 600 or so mapped routes per day, and right now, two premium purchases a day with no promotion and an actual "we are sorry these are rough and not ready for prime time" warning on our sales page. It's starting to come together :)
tchock23
That's exactly what I was looking for... I already found a route I had no idea existed right near my house. Thanks!
mikerhoads
I had a similar but more generic idea. People could share routes and rate them for what they are good for (ie motorcycles, seeing autumn foliage, straightaways good for speeding, etc). Glad to see someone doing this and would love to see you expand it further.

My advice: Don't give people a search box and return an error if you are going limit them to certain areas. You should either:

Remove the search box and showcase the limited content that you do have with a message which areas are coming next

or

Leave the search box open to any input and then prompt users to add their own routes in regions you do not currently have content for.

I'd also recommend a subscribe feature, so I can be alerted when new routes are added for cities that I am interested in.

EDIT: I'd also think about adding a feature that showcases key interest points along routes (The view at this point is amazing or try the peach cobbler at so and so diner).

Good luck

bradhe
"and even when a buddy is riding near you"

Holy crap that sounds scary! Is it safe to receive push notifications while you're riding a motorcycle? I would assume it's more dangerous than driving a car so...

"Income will be generated through marketing tools businesses can use to reach riders in their area"

Sounds like a pretty solid idea! Do you have a particular in with these companies or something? The chicken/egg problem could be rough if you don't have a short runway.

bigsassy
1) Haha! Actually, the idea is your friend would schedule a ride, say a couple days from today. You would be notified he's riding in a few days, at which point you can decide to join him. Three Rides would send a new ride to both of you, with a convenient place to meet before hitting the good parts.

2) Yup. I have a couple advisors with 30 years of experience in the mid-atlantic region. Next week I'll be going with one of them while they travel around their territory, talking to dealerships as well go.

And yeah, I have no idea how to get them onboard with no customers yet (and to be frank, no substantial product).

Mamady
As an avid biker I can tell you this is an awesome idea!

There are already a lot of ride-outs happening, most of them are organized through forums - this makes things difficult and not 'realtime'. An site/app like this would really hit the spot.

If you ever need feedback from a biker, I would be happy to lend a hand.

One thought - you should allow users to give their email to get an update when their city is supported (Im in London, UK).

bigsassy
You're right. I should have a sign-up form for people outside of the given area. Good idea.
bretthopper
#enter_location form is causing a horizontal scrollbar since the width isn't set on it. Try width: 600px;
cullenking
I like the idea, and I hope you focus your efforts on a mobile application. Having a good ride database is definitely cool, but there are existing ride databases out there (EveryTrail, RideWithGPS). What there isn't though, is an adhoc notification system for going on rides. What would be really cool to have is a mobile app that notified me when someone was going to start a ride in my area. As a motorcycle rider myself, I don't often plan on going riding a couple days in advance, I just get the itch to get out and go and will usually take off within 30-60 minutes from getting that itch. If I could, using my phone or the site, declare I was leaving on a ride and have that published, and anyone in the area also subscribed to the area could consume it (be notified automatically), that would be really cool. I would focus more on connecting people than on mapping. From my experience with ridewithgps, motorcyclists are more social hungry than data/map hungry, so I think you'll find better traction with this approach. Obviously you want to keep up with the mapping portion so you can have your marketing ideas work out, but I wouldn't make it the foreground of the user experience.
bigsassy
I was hoping you'd post here, considering you're also kind of in the same space and bootstrapping like me. This is some really great advice you've given me, and I think I will focus on the mobile app before improving the route generating portion of the project.

Thanks!

cullenking
Some more specific feedback to the actual site, not the concept. The routes need more content - maps are important, but without ideas of what I am going to encounter, descriptions, titles, categories, it's not too helpful. Categories are important as well, because there are so many different styles of riding. Out on my dualsport, I don't care if I hit bad pavement (I might actually WANT bad or no pavement). On my R6, I want the smoothest pavement possible with the best banked turns.
bigsassy
I agree about the content. I even have the content available. Right now roads are rated on:

1) How much variation they have (i.e. twistyness)

2) Do they go past a body of water

3) Do they go through a state park

All of this data is available to show to the user, I just haven't added any UI elements to display them. It'll be particularly nice once I add more scoring criteria for roads (like elevation changes, view sheds (i.e. seeing a mountain range out in the distance), land coverage surrounding road, historical landmarks, drive past old awesome buildings, etc).

I don't know of any data source for pavement quality, outside of roads being marked as paved or unpaved :(

cullenking
We ask users for pavement quality when they create a route on ridewithgps, and allow people to search using it. ArcGIS allows searching for gravel/pavement, but nothing as fine grained as being properly banked, chipseal vs blacktop vs potholed etc etc
marcamillion
Hey bigsassy congrats on finally launching! I know you been working on this for a while now.

I am not the target audience, but I hope you get good feedback :)

[deleted]
(comment deleted)
reustle
Hurry up and complete PA, I worked at a dealer for 2 years and can try to get you worked into the system there.
bigsassy
I'd like to contact you, but there isn't anything in your profile. How can I get in touch?
rgarris
I agree with the comments about more content. Overall the idea is great and I'd use the site often. Currently the way the route is provided it feels like a "push" to take the route, there's nothing "pulling me down the road". It would be fantastic if the route results would offer categories of information such as: - Bike friendly stops - Sites to see - Grub (ie - unusual places to eat) - Things to find (a little geocaching anyone?) - Join (or start) a group ride for this route

and so on.

Looking forward to using this tool frequently!

Thanks!

bigsassy
I agree too. That's a really good point too about needing things to "pull you down the road". Really great ideas and feedback, thanks!
apitaru
I think you're off to a great start. Looking forward to seeing you grow the service.

I recommend heading over to the http://www.advrider.com/ forums - it's a great community of riders (mostly dual-sport) and I'm sure you'll get great feedback there. Also, try to observe how they set up meetups for rides - it might help you decide on which features to build next.

As for the site itself - I love the design, not as macho as other sites out there. I wonder how riders will react to it (I'm guessing the scenic riders might like it more then adventure riders - but who knows).

Good luck!

bigsassy
Thanks! Wow, that's a great forum. Thanks for the tip.
[dead] comster
FYI, you've prob seen this, they have a good domain, but I used to subscribe to this guys email list.

http://cyclerides.com/

He does lots of ride stories and photos.

The ultimate for me would be lots of photos or even better yet, maybe video (thinking about getting a gopro)

nbd
Hey bigsassy, congratulations on launching! I saw your presentation at the Hacker News DC meetup last month and was impressed then as well as now.

I really like how you've set up easy feedback for those features that haven't been implemented yet ("how disappointed would you be"). This seems like a nice way to get some good feedback on how prospective users would rate different features even if they don't want to send you an email. It might be nice to add a simple textbox to that popup to allow for additional comments as well, at least optionally.

One minor nitpick - you spelled "dissapointed" wrong :)

bigsassy
Doh! I'll have to fix that :)

As for the questions, I'm following a method Sean Ellis advocates. You know you've hit product/market fit when 40% of your users would be "very disappointed" (haha, spelled it wrong again. thanks browser spell checker) if your product was no longer available.

If you're interested, you should definitely watch the interview with him from venture hacks:

http://venturehacks.com/articles/sean-ellis-interview

http://venturehacks.com/articles/sean-ellis-interview-2