Best way to plot maps?

[Ajax Bay]

Bournemouth to Plymouth on RidewithGPS (took less than 10 minutes):
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/11961427
I have done three quarters of this route (not in the same ride).
235.2 km +3260m
If you tried to follow NCN2 you'd need an ATB or XC bike for several sections (and a really good standard of navigation).

 

[tallliman]

Cycle streets.Net (I think its .net) will also do route planning but all of these frustrate me in that they can't differentiate between "good" cycle paths on skinny road tyres and "mtb only" cycle paths.

 

[Ajax Bay]

they can't differentiate between "good" cycle paths on skinny road tyres and "mtb only" cycle paths

There's a limit to the applications' ability to discriminate. On RidewithGPS you can choose the 'OSM Cycle' map option which will display NCN and other cycle paths. The work around once you've invited it to select a route, is to go along the route with the map scale cranked up and the paths as opposed to roads show up in the symbology. Then just pull the route across to an adjacent metaled alternative.

 

[jonny jeez]

Doesn't garmin connect do that...or is that what this base amp thing is now called?

 

[Dogtrousers]

There's a limit to the applications' ability to discriminate. On RidewithGPS you can choose the 'OSM Cycle' map option which will display NCN and other cycle paths. The work around once you've invited it to select a route, is to go along the route with the map scale cranked up and the paths as opposed to roads show up in the symbology. Then just pull the route across to an adjacent metaled alternative.

I followed an unknown cyclepath for a short distance on a ride home from Whitstable once. It was a good hill-avoiding shortcut. From Streetview each end of it was cinder track and I foolishly assumed it was the same in between.

I got home caked in mud mingled with blood from a barbed wire gash in my arm, and with my bike invisible under a thick coating of mud. I learned the following things:
Don't trust cyclepaths to be the same in the middle as they are at the ends.
My bike is not a mountain bike.
I do not have the skills of a mountain biker.
Riding down a slippery unmade path is at first exhilarating, then painful.

Now my rule is: If it isn't at least yellow on the OS map, and you haven't been there before, avoid it.

 

[ceepeebee]

I would always have said bikehike, but something seems to have changed with the OSM route mapping, it doesn't seem to be tracking properly anymore, especially when trying to plot trips on the cycling network in Holland.

Will have to try some of the other suggestions (or just stick with the Dutch apps for over there)

 

[Spoked Wheels]

Bournemouth to Plymouth on RidewithGPS (took less than 10 minutes):
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/11961427
I have done three quarters of this route (not in the same ride).
235.2 km +3260m
If you tried to follow NCN2 you'd need an ATB or XC bike for several sections (and a really good standard of navigation).

Thank you so much

The bike I'm taking can handle the terrain....

 

[tallliman]

@Dogtrousers, exactly what I'm wary of planning a route somewhere I've not been before.

It can't be too difficult, with the help of the wider cycling community, to start categorising the surfaces of some routes round the country. It'd be great to understand what is passable on a given bike. Indeed, perhaps it'd even help understand which routes require better surfaces.

 

[doog]

I have Poole to Exeter as a GPX...did a day run on my road bike...all on quiet roads but hilly naturally...let me know if you want details.

 

[Ajax Bay]

It can't be too difficult, with the help of the wider cycling community, to start categorising the surfaces of some routes round the country.

Agree, but the challenge is how to present those data in an accessible, useful way. The Sustrans publications give you that kind of detail. But I think what is needed is a different colour to show up (in for example, RidewithGPS) for sections which are 'not tarmaced'. Some of these will be fine - eg a proportion of the towpaths: the one NNE from Fort William is superb - whereas others are not passable with any assurance on road tyres (ie <32).

 

[tallliman]

I guess some sort of colour coding would suffice. The Great Central Way is a lovely track along a viaduct whilst the railway path into Lincoln from the west is very rocky. Neither of which I knew for definite until I got to them.

The latter is quite spooky as it still very much feels like a little rural railway line with stations arising from nowhere.

 

[andym]

Some OSM maps do provide colour-coding for different types of surface: the openfietsmap.nl maps for example. You can download these and use with Basecamp.

Alternatively you might want to check out cycle.travel which has very good mapping.

I know it's great to think you can just put in a start and an end point and the software will work out a perfect route. One day. But in the meantime it's always a good idea to check what it's telling you.

 

[Ajax Bay]

Thank you @andym . @tallliman - have a look at this - as a possible way to treat the data.
http://www.openfietsmap.nl/home/legenda
@Spoked Wheels - cycle.travel (andym suggestion) gives you a pretty good route straight off (Bournemouth to Plymouth) - try it. You wouldn't have the opportunity to enjoy Dartmoor though - it parallels the A38 Exeter to Plymouth and I suspect is hillier that my RidewithGPS offering from Dorchester to Exeter.