Every club has a route library already. It's just scattered: half of it lives in the ride captain's head, some of it is a GPX file pinned in a WhatsApp chat from 2023, and the rest is "follow Dave, he knows the turn".
Moving that library into Aster takes an evening, and it changes how every ride after it runs. Here's the practical version.
Step 1 — Gather the GPX files.
Round up the routes your club actually rides: the standard Sunday loops, the hilly alternative, the winter flat one, the café run. Most clubs have eight to fifteen that cover a whole season. Export them from wherever they live today — any GPX file works.
Don't aim for completeness on day one. Load the three routes you ride most and add the rest as they come up.
Step 2 — Upload once, name them properly.
Upload each GPX to your club's route library and give it the name members use out loud — "The Reservoir Loop", not sunday_route_v3_FINAL(2).gpx. Add the distance and a line about character: "68 km, two proper climbs, café at halfway." That one sentence saves the same question being asked in the group chat every single week.
This is the part that pays off forever: a route uploaded once is distributed to everyone, automatically. When a member joins a ride, the route — the full line, turn by turn — is downloaded to their phone. No forwarding files, no "can someone send me the GPX", no one loading the wrong version.
Step 3 — Put rides in the calendar with a route attached.
Create your recurring rides — Sunday club run, Tuesday chain gang — and attach a route from the library to each one. Members RSVP in the app, so by Saturday evening the ride leader knows who's coming, and everyone who tapped "going" already has the route on their phone before they've pumped their tyres.
No more start-line huddle around one person's screen. Everyone rolls out already knowing where the ride goes.
Step 4 — Ride with the members-only live map.
This is where the library stops being admin and starts being the club. When the ride rolls out, everyone tracking appears on a live map that only your members can see — not public, not shared beyond the club.
What that gives you, practically:
- Nobody gets dropped and lost. The rider off the back after a puncture is a position on the map, not a mystery. The ride leader can see exactly where to soft-pedal or send someone back.
- Groups can split on purpose. Fast group takes the long way round, social group takes the direct road, both visible on one map, both regrouping at the café without a single phone call.
- The ones who couldn't come still get the ride. Members watching from home — injured, on childcare, on the turbo out of solidarity — see the club out on the road. It sounds small. It isn't. It's the thing that keeps people feeling like members between the rides they make.
What it costs.
A club subscription covers the whole club — the route library, the calendar and RSVPs, and the members-only map — for one flat monthly price. Members pay nothing, ever, because athletes never pay on Aster.
One evening of uploading. Every Sunday after that, the ride just works.
