route planner

[Torvi]

And if you are on a road bike and planning a route on RWGPS, make sure that you drag the little google streetview man onto the map and check that every part of your route is accessible by car (the road turns blue). I've lost track of the amount of times i've created a route, tried to ride it and ended up in a farmers field or having to lift my bike over some kind of gate. (once i ended up in a field with a travellers horse tied up that really did not want to let me past).

i use it every time i go out for a spin and never happend to me

 

[Mark1978]

i use it every time i go out for a spin and never happend to me

But do you live somewhere where every other road that appears on there is a dirt track . One disadvantage of living in the back end of no-where in norfolk.

 

[w00hoo_kent]

I've had similar with MapMyRide, but I actually think it's how the Garmin interprets the GPX file as I'm positive it's happened when I've double checked the route.

 

[nickyboy]

And if you are on a road bike and planning a route on RWGPS, make sure that you drag the little google streetview man onto the map and check that every part of your route is accessible by car (the road turns blue). I've lost track of the amount of times i've created a route, tried to ride it and ended up in a farmers field or having to lift my bike over some kind of gate. (once i ended up in a field with a travellers horse tied up that really did not want to let me past).

Wot he sez.....

That's great advice and I forgot to mention that I do exactly this too. RWGPS keeps sending me off-road which ain't too clever on 23mm slick tyres so checking that a google street view car has mapped my route in full makes sure I don't get chased by a herd of cows mid ride

 

[RhythMick]

Bike hike is excellent. Don't expect to abdicate responsibility for the route planning though. You need to make the decisions. Sites like this may take the pain out of it.

 

[MontySportiveCyclist]

There's always the Sustrans website, allowing you to find the numbered national cycle routes near you. Still worth bearing in mind the on/offroad advice above though. The site doesn't really distinguish between paved routes and bridleways - fine for MTN bikes and hybrids; less fun on road bikes...

 

[wintergreen]

http://cycle.travel/ gets my vote every time. Very easy to use.

 

[Richard Fairhurst]

Just for comparison, here's how cycle.travel deals with the "check the surface" problem mentioned with RWGPS: you click the relevant part of the route and you get photos, courtesy of the lovely Geograph.

 

[BAtoo]

Oh dear - just for fun, I tried it. Second 20 mile option it gave me - involves riding along the worst bit of the A64 for 7 miles, and 3 miles along the A1. I think ......... it may need a little exercise of judgement?

Having said that - it did eventually come up with a couple of routes I would use for 20 mile rides. Eventually.

Same here trying it - wanted me on the A140 quite a bit, not a road I like driving let alone cycling...