Google Navigate

[Cantorisalto1]

Hi Folks,
I understand Google Navigate (cycling mode) is linked up with Sustrans routes. Therefore would you recommend using Google Navigate for cycling tours and if not which app ???
Many thanks

 

[HobbesOnTour]

Hello.
By Google Navigate I presume you mean Google Maps?

Google Maps has many uses for a cycle tourist, notably the possibility to save areas off line including places (shops, hotels etc.) that have been saved but as a route planner and a navigator I avoid it.

Google Streetview has uses for checking out road types and surfaces if away from home.

I have no idea if it is linked to Sustrans but in NL, a country with no shortage of bike paths and routes, it made some pretty silly suggestions.

Also, to use it requires a phone and holder which raise their own issues with respect to battery life, weather and damage. Cycle route planning will only work with an internet connection. (You can follow without).

I like to think of bike navigation in two parts:
1. Is the Planning
2. Is the following.

For planning I prefer cycle.travel.
For following I use a gps device.

If you do a search you will find many threads discussing the merits of one planning app over another and the different units.

You could do worse than download Osmand if you are new to bike navigation. It's a bit clunky but it works (offline too), has some pretty impressive features and is a great introduction to gps for bikes.

P.S. Are sustrans routes not signposted?

 

[Pale Rider]

Google Maps is handy for outlining routes on a laptop because it's so easy to use.

Not sure it's that good with NCN routes, so I tend to use it in combination with Ordnance Survey maps, in my case via Bing Maps, but I understand there are other sources.

The OS maps are pretty good for NCN routes - look for little green blobs or circles.

On the fly electronic navigation is not really my thing, but lots of people on here like Cycle Travel or RidewithGPS.

The latter has a route search option which is handy because it tells you how other cyclists have tackled your journey.

A 21st century equivalent of the old mountain bikers' trick of following tyre tracks.

 

[Blue Hills]

P.S. Are sustrans routes not signposted?

Yes but signing can be odd and in the UK it is far from unknown for mischievous kids to interfere with the signs - especially in suburban and urban areas. Following the marking of sustrans routes on OSM on a garmin is more reliable I think.

I agree with you on google - handy for a rough and ready indication of cycling distance but wouldn't dream of using it for detailed routeing.

It can though be useful for a sanity check on some of cycletravels routes, which can have a positively gung-ho approach to gradients.

 

[Cantorisalto1]

Many thanks for your comments