Round trip generator for road bikes

[OneArmedBandit]

The person behind cycle.travel posts on here from time to time I think. He certainly posts on YACF. Hang on, I'll try and summon him.

<fx>frantic tapping on keyboard</fx>
@Richard Fairhurst are you there ? Can cycle.travel be tweaked to prefer one road type over another?

I did manage to find a FAQ on the website which basically says they only one one "mode" because it allows them to generate routes quickly, and having a second preference avoiding unpaved roads would double the server power needed.

It is a real shame though. Without telling them what to do cycle route planners are ten a penny but the round trip function they have is really really really good in terms of the quality of routes suggested. as the site seems to be set up with hotels etc you'd think making an option for road cyclists would be a fantastic draw. If there was a way you could plan a, say 1000k loop, ask it to suggest accomodation suitable for cyclists every 150km, then you could plan a week away in less than an hour.

 

[OneArmedBandit]

I use Cycle.travel for all sorts. It does favour NCN routes but you can go in and edit your route. I have found it really handy for building stunning DIY Audax routes.

But I think ‘suitable for MTBs’ is incorrect in my opinion.

The routes it suggests to me are unsuitable for road bikes and would cause temporary infertility on a hybrid. However, I'm guessing the quality of cycle routes varies hugely by area. The ones here are rubbish.

 

[cyberknight]

Is it on https://www.openstreetmap.org ?

yes but not listed on that website , i get one darn sarf or some in the USA

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I've struggled to find one that keeps to paved roads suitable for a road bike.

That is what I have managed in Basecamp by building my own maps from osm using mkgmap etc. The OSRM looks like the route to achieve that for an online planner.

 

[Richard Fairhurst]

The person behind cycle.travel posts on here from time to time I think. He certainly posts on YACF. Hang on, I'll try and summon him.

<fx>frantic tapping on keyboard</fx>
@Richard Fairhurst are you there ? Can cycle.travel be tweaked to prefer one road type over another?

I’m here but on holiday so tapping this from a mobile! Let me try and get a few answers together...

The reason for no road-bike-only option at the moment is indeed as per the FAQ at the bottom of http://cycle.travel/about/maps - it’s basically a matter of server horsepower. I would like to do it one day but it’s probably not going to be any time particularly soon I’m afraid. But I’ll give it some more thought - I am doing a lot of reading on routing algorithms and experimenting with a few new things at the moment, so you never know...

Until then... basically the approach I try to take is: (a) never choose anything unrideable on a hybrid or, ideally, robust road bike (I ride a Croix de Fer and a Bike Friday, for what it’s worth!); (b) make sure any offroad sections are clearly highlighted so you can drag the route away to a road if you like. If it is choosing a bone-shredding track then either the data is wrong/incomplete in OpenStreetMap, or cycle.travel is interpreting it wrong - very happy to look at any cases you encounter and try and fix them.

Missing towns - it definitely shouldn’t do that - let me know which (by PM if you prefer) and I’ll look into it.