Approaching the “killer feature” of GhostRide from a computer free or atypical new media approach is difficult. The main premise of GhostRide is to allow actionable realtime records of people’s rides to play out while they are out riding. That means there needs to be some way in which riders mark their rides and pace quickly and easily while they are riding, but it also visible to other people who might take the same route.

Perhaps on well travelled routes, like dedicated bike paths riders could get a series of colored and numbered (with ~30 second intervals) magnets spanning the gambit from bright green to red. The magnets could either stick to some metal mounted on the bicycle handle bars or be held in a back of the glove pocket. Where is up to the individual rider, as long as they are quickly accessible. Every 1/10 a mile there could be a fairly sized metal sign. As riders go by the toss the magnet that corresponds to the time they are at (they would need to use a really basic stopwatch or cycling computer for this). Overtime, you could see the rough color and pace of all riders, and if interested you could stop and examine to see what time’s the fastest riders have made. Every so often the boards would be wiped clean and the magnets placed back in groups at the beginning of the path so they process could begin again.

Most bike paths, even paved ones, have a number of small rocks/gravel on the sides. Perhaps instead of dedicated markers (the signs) they have temporarily painted pebbles. Every minute the riders throw the next colored pebble on the side of the path, regardless of the distance they went. Overtime the pebbles would build up and show the the pace of the various groups of riders as they moved through the path. And then since its temporary paint, the next time it rains the path is washed clean of records and the pebbles can be regathered and repainted for reuse. Of course, tossing pebbles on a bike path isn’t the best idea and it still distracts the riders. Perhaps the riders could simply drop colored bits of chalk that would be smashed into the pavement overtime, eventually coloring the path with the pace of its riders and washing clean in the rain.

There would be collection stations for the unused pebbles/magnets/chalk at the either end of the paths.