Welcome

Welcome to the support website for Bib Grid.  

Paper grids of bib numbers have been used by bicycle race officials for years. This app provides an way to track the status of riders in a race on your iPad.  It is mainly intended for road stages in bicycle stage races, but you may find other uses.

To quickly get started, you can create a race with a blank roster. You can either choose a team race with a set number of riders per team or a continuous number series. 

For getting started information see the Basics and Rosters pages above.

Version 1.1

Version 1.1 of Bib Grid is now available in the App Store.

New features for Version 1.1:

• The indications for "off the front", "off the back", Abandon, Crash, and Service are now graphics on the bib numbers. This should be more understandable (and less English centric.)
• The control for changing bib colors takes up less space on the rider status view. Touch the top or bottom half of the bib graphic in the upper left of the rider status popup.
• More information has been added to rider status. You can now load license and age information on your start list. For each stage of a race, you can load GC, Points, and Mountain Points. 
• Importing startlists and standings is easier using the document provider feature of iOS 8+. This means your .csv (comma separated values) file can be selected from iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, or another service.
• Bib Grid supports the split screen and multitasking modes of iOS 9+.
• You can add and edit riders and teams in the settings for a race. Fix minor errors in your start list inside the app.

See the tabs at the top of this site for more details on using Bib Grid features.

As always, I will try to answer any questions you leave in the comments on this blog. This will help me to improve the app and the instructions on this site.

Support

I'll try to answer questions and resolve problems. Just comment on a post and I will respond when I can. If something becomes a FAQ, I will post about it here.

My first challenges have been creating startlist .csv files that import okay when the names have unicode characters. The main culprit has been how Excel exports the .csv. The original standard for .csv was ascii characters only, so that may be the problem. I have successfully created a unicode .csv by exporting to UTF-16 .txt then replacing the Tab characters with Commas. Some on the interwebs suggest using Google Spreadsheets or Open Office for better .csv support. I'll look into that for the next startlist I create.

Tips

Here are 10 tips that may not be obvious at first.

1. To record a group off the front in a Break, use Multi Select and touch the bib numbers as they are called out over radio to select them. Touch a second time to unselect a number. Once you have the set highlighted correctly. Long Press and select Break. (You can also drag up on one of them, this does the same thing as dragging each one, so if any are in an OTB status, they will only go to OK status.)
2. Scroll with two fingers! This is a standard gesture for Apple on Macs and iOS, but you will need to remember that because a one finger pan on the bib numbers is used to move riders into the break or OTB. If you have a lot of riders you have to scroll down and back up with two fingers.
3. When the Races, Stages, or Settings views are showing on the left, you can hide that part of the split view by swiping left with your finger on the dividing line between the grid and the sidebar.
4. You can edit the name of a rider on the rider status view. This works on a blank roster as well.
   
   
   
5. When the team car squares are showing, you can edit the team code and team name by touching and going to the team car status view. This also lets you set the car number shown on the grid.
   
6. You can use the bib colors for more than just indicating riders wearing a jersey. You might use Orange to highlight where you noted a penalty on a rider status. The color can be set for the top and bottom halves, so you might highlight the bottom half yellow on GC riders 2-5, etc.
7. You can hide Team Cars if you don't want to see them. Go to Settings for the Race (touch the i in the circle on the race list.) 
   
8. Below the Team Cars setting is "Show 0 Digit on Left". On number series races, this makes 10, 20, 30, etc easier to find. In a few races, it may make sense to show the 0 digit on the right to have the rider bib on the line above so that they are with their team.
9. Hide riders that Did Not Start. When a rider is hidden they will also be hidden on the next stage created for the race. To unhide, long press on a blank area of the grid.
10. The log of status changes is kept in the notes for the rider on a per stage basis.
11. If you need a checkoff list for riders (for sign in or when judging), create a stage just for that purpose. Flick the riders into OTB status to turn them gray. The remaining riders will stand out on the grid with white bibs.