Cycle routes - how do you find yours?

[ColinJ]

That is of course one tactic. Take the train one way and ride with a tailwind all day.

Assuming that the wind direction doesn't change...

I have done long circular loops on windy days where it felt like I had a headwind all day!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Assuming that the wind direction doesn't change...

Well you look at the forecast for as long as you intend to be out.

 

[ColinJ]

Well you look at the forecast for as long as you intend to be out.

I have done long circular loops on windy days where it felt like I had a headwind all day, and...



... that had not been forecast!


I think what actually happened was that I had headwinds (or crosswinds that felt almost as bad) for most of the route and then the wind shifted round to an unfavourable direction fof the remaining part.

 

[geocycle]

Almost all my rides begin and end at home. I only deploy the train option when very strong winds would have put me off riding at all. Being on the west coast I can only head inland so this wheeze is limited to strong westerlies!

 

[mjr]

Well you look at the forecast for as long as you intend to be out.

Awww, cute! This one still believes in Santa the reliability of weather forecasts!

 

[Dogtrousers]

Assuming that the wind direction doesn't change...

I have done long circular loops on windy days where it felt like I had a headwind all day!

An againsterly wind.

 

[T4tomo]

An againsterly wind.

Indeed, unless the wind is pretty much directly behind you, and stronger than your cruising speed, then it always fees like its a cross or headwind (or no wind) so in any given direction of travel you have a say <12.5% chance of feeling any benefit of a tailwind.

 

[wakemalcolm]

I've tried using OS maps on my laptop and they drive me up the wall, either you zoom in to see the detail and lose the wider context, or you zoom out and lose the detail. Give me paper maps any day.

Why not achieve the same effect by moving your chair forwards and backwards from your screen?

 

[VinSumRox]

We know most of the local routes and we are lucky as we can cycle in pretty much any direction on quiet roads so the wind direction helps decide.
Only do premapped routes if going a bit further afield or touring. Nab routes off friends and Strava for new localish routes.
I use Cycle Travel for new one way routes and if we need to reroute when on a tour.

 

[wafter]

I used to make them up as I went along until one day I found myself on a very busy dual carriageway and that scared me. That’s when I decided to buy a Garmin cycling SatNav that allows me to meticulously plan new routes paying careful attention to the types of road.

[Edit] PS. In addition to avoiding busy dual carriageways I also need to avoid tracks which would be unsuitable for road bike wheels.

Personally I favour the middle ground of winging it with the safety net of the sat nav

 

[ColinJ]

Personally I favour the middle ground of winging it with the safety net of the sat nav

I was just explaining to my sister that the reason that I am busy on the computer today is that I am planning a longish ride in Devon and Somerset for later in my holiday.

I told her that there are some people who (*gasp*) do not spend longer planning routes than actually riding them... You are clearly one of them!

I will have Streetviewed my whole route before I set off.

I found that some of the roads I had considered looked too busy. OTOH, some very minor Devon lanes were unsuitable because they were horribly narrow and/or steep and/or potholed and/or gravelly... I prefer to sort this out at home rather than finding myself in a pickle and trying to extract myself from it!**

I will end up riding further and doing more climbing but I will keep both to less than the limits that I have set (165 km and 2,500 m of ascent).


** In my early days of cycling in Yorkshire I often winged it, but then I accidentally took a wrong turn down a hellishly steep (20-25%) rutted lane into a valley. The road up the other side was just as bad so it was a major grind to get back out. It put me right off winging it!

 

[presta]

The available OS mapping on the mobile app is a basic large map of GB & NI with smaller scaling of maps you have bought. if you then zoom beyond that to mapping you have not bought it will go blank. With for example purchased Landranger mapping active generally zooming that to full size is IME rarely needed.

I can zoom in to a scale of 40 inches to the mile using Bing maps in OS mode on my laptop for free, but that's not the point. The problem is that the laptop screen isn't big enough for planning a 20 mile walk, let alone a 60-70 mile ride on a phone screen, so if I zoom out enough to see a useful distance on the screen, all the detail becomes unreadable. A close up view is fine if you just want to see as far as the next junction, but not for trying to visualise a complete route between start and destination whilst you're planning it.

The width of a Landranger map is only 24 miles, you can cycle two, three or four times that in a day, it takes 28 sheets to cover my most recent tour: enough to almost fill one pannier. To plan a 60 mile ride with a road atlas I can lay a couple of pages on the table, then when I get on the bike, a folded page in the mapholder will give me enough coverage to keep me going for a couple of hours or more before stopping to turn it over. With an OS map on a mobile phone zoomed close enough to make it readable, you can cycle across the width of the screen in a few minutes.

On the left, a page from my 4.2m to the inch atlas folded to fit into my mapholder (made from a CD case) which covers an area of 17x22 miles. All the roads, right down to the minor ones, are clearly visible, unlike the same area covered by a Landranger map shown on the right:

My road atlas, covering the entire country, occupies about the same pannier space as two Landranger sheets when it's folded up in a poly bag.

 

[presta]

Why not achieve the same effect by moving your chair forwards and backwards from your screen?

That's what I do with paper maps. It doesn't work with the computer because moving the chair back doesn't make the screen any bigger.

 

[wafter]

I was just explaining to my sister that the reason that I am busy on the computer today is that I am planning a longish ride in Devon and Somerset for later in my holiday.

I told her that there are some people who (*gasp*) do not spend longer planning routes than actually riding them... You are clearly one of them!

I will have Streetviewed my whole route before I set off.

I found that some of the roads I had considered looked too busy. OTOH, some very minor Devon lanes were unsuitable because they were horribly narrow and/or steep and/or potholed and/or gravelly... I prefer to sort this out at home rather than finding myself in a pickle and trying to extract myself from it!**

I will end up riding further and doing more climbing but I will keep both to less than the limits that I have set (165 km and 2,500 m of ascent).


** In my early days of cycling in Yorkshire I often winged it, but then I accidentally took a wrong turn down a hellishly steep (20-25%) rutted lane into a valley. The road up the other side was just as bad so it was a major grind to get back out. It put me right off winging it!

To be fair I'd probably do the same if I was doing a big leisure ride somewhere totally unfamilar; I'm really only referring to just casually exploring relatively local areas.

As it stands I'm not even managing that as I currently seem trapped in a doom loop of utility trips within the city; although granted there are worse things to endure.

Enjoy your holiday

 

[ColinJ]

I can zoom in to a scale of 40 inches to the mile using Bing maps in OS mode on my laptop for free, but that's not the point. The problem is that the laptop screen isn't big enough for planning a 20 mile walk, let alone a 60-70 mile ride on a phone screen, so if I zoom out enough to see a useful distance on the screen, all the detail becomes unreadable. A close up view is fine if you just want to see as far as the next junction, but not for trying to visualise a complete route between start and destination whilst you're planning it.

The width of a Landranger map is only 24 miles, you can cycle two, three or four times that in a day, it takes 28 sheets to cover my most recent tour: enough to almost fill one pannier. To plan a 60 mile ride with a road atlas I can lay a couple of pages on the table, then when I get on the bike, a folded page in the mapholder will give me enough coverage to keep me going for a couple of hours or more before stopping to turn it over. With an OS map on a mobile phone zoomed close enough to make it readable, you can cycle across the width of the screen in a few minutes.

On the left, a page from my 4.2m to the inch atlas folded to fit into my mapholder (made from a CD case) which covers an area of 17x22 miles. All the roads, right down to the minor ones, are clearly visible, unlike the same area covered by a Landranger map shown on the right:

View attachment 775719

My road atlas, covering the entire country, occupies about the same pannier space as two Landranger sheets when it's folded up in a poly bag.

And here it is taken from my phone screen...

I can see the entire country at 1:250,000, 1:50,000, 1:25,000 and even street level at 2:10,000. That's fine for me!

I have planned bike rides up to 225 km long on my laptop screen and would have no problem planning any walk that I would ever do in one day.