Route Planning

[Deeps]

I'm getting very bored with my usual loops but I'm really struggling to come up viable alternatives that don't head towards built up areas or busy roads. I may need to open a specific thread thread for my Huddersfield, West Yorkshire area in the rides section and hope some members can share some routes from this area?

Generally though, how do you experienced riders plan a new route? What do you take into consideration? How do you judge the suitability of new roads and areas if you've never ridden them or even been there before? Do you have any more tips and tricks for a newbie to route planning? There's nothing worse than getting stuck on an inner-city loop or having a ride ruined by heavy traffic or accidentally joining fast roads!

 

[Racing roadkill]

Ooh Huddersfield you say? It just so happens that I did a three day Challenge ride, this year, from the John Smiths stadium, in Huddersfield. Day one included some stunning scenery as we headed through the reservoirs in the Peak District, on our way to Leicester.

https://www.strava.com/routes/18875733

here’s the route, it’s easily doable in a day, then get the train back from Leicester, I intend to do just that, sometime next year, the scenery around LadyBower ( in particular) is breathtaking.
Generally speaking, ride planning is 90 percent perspiration, 9 percent inspiration, and 1 percent winging it. Using something like Strava, is a good idea, to plan a route, then checking it, is fun, tweaking it, and riding it again, is fun, eventually you’ll get a nailed down route, which avoids any horror shows.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

Many route planners have cycle friendly algorithms built into their software.

Cycle.travel and Ride with GPS are my favourite. Cycle.travel will take you down NCN routes, canal paths and off road cycle routes which, if you don’t like road chutney, are better in the summer. But it will plan 3 or more circular routes from your front door and all you do is choose the distance. RWGPS is more utilitarian and great for DIY audax or fast touring routes.

I have tried Strava which is OK and you can ask for less elevation as an option.

 

[Tribansman]

Register with veloviewer and plot routes through the places you've not cycled (highlighted as uncoloured tiles on a map). May involve off road tracks, as depending on the amount of local miles you've done, the only roads you've not been through may be those that don't have proper roads going through them. But worth a look and I've used a lot to plot out rides on new roads. Can set OS map as the default map and the tiles can be added via a Chrome plugin to the background of Strava route planner - so easy to see exactly where you have and haven't cycled and the class of the road so you can avoid A and B roads.

 

[DRM]

Download Komoot and have a play with the free version.

 

[RoadRider400]

I do enjoy zooming about on Google maps and working out distances on https://gb.mapometer.com/.
Strava really doesnt appeal to me.

 

[mjr]

Https://Cycle.travel/map is the best automated one. I sometimes plot routes by looking at www.cyclosm.org (I like cycleways, hate motor-crowded roads unless they're lots and lots quicker). The last two weekends, my route has been chosen by chatting with friends at our meeting point and they've been wonderful (and/despite no beer consumed on either!)

 

[HLaB]

The aforementioned RideWithGPS is my favourite as it has built in streetview. You can set it to follow roads or cycle routes (I generally jump between both or use road when building a route). Quickly use the map and streetview to check them to avoid busy roads or tracks not fitting to cycle on anything other than a mtb, and tweak the route

You generally know the map hierarchy of roads (Motorways, A Class, B Class and C Class Lanes) and a simple hovering of the streetview man will give a quick overview if its routing you down tracks/paths (they are not highlighted blue). The map switched to satellite view might give you an idea to the path quality (a dotted line through a field = likely un-cycle-able unless you have a mtb). You can check the end/start and occasionally the actual path in streetview.

Word of mouth also helps, just asking someone if they've been down the route or a section of it

 

[Blue Hills]

+ for cycle travel

 

[Ticktockmy]

I run the North Sussex Section of the RSF, and am always having to plan new routes. I use memory map OS 1:25,000 on a PC or Table but a suitable aper map is ok. Either way if I am planning a Linear route I draw a straight line between the start and finish, then use that as a datum I look for roads and in my case bridleways and trackes that I can use either side of the datum line and just juggle around until i get the distance I want.
If I am looking for a loop which is what I plan for mostly, I draw a circle roughly the distance i want from the start/finish point, then juggle the line around to pick up the roads and bridleways I want to use to get the distance..

 

[ColinJ]

Welcome to the forum!

Which area of Huddersfield are you in, and what are your usual loops?

I don't tend to ride into the town itself, but I have done lots of rides in the surrounding area - Marsden, Meltham, Holmfirth, Emley Moor, Saddleworth and so on.

I have OS maps for the whole UK on all of my digital devices. I plan my routes to avoid traffic where possible though if you are stuck in the middle of Huddersfield it may be 30 minutes or so of riding for you to escape! These days I use cycle.travel for ideas then go over to the OS maps to check in more detail.

Generally - major A-roads can be a nightmare, B-roads can be better (but not always!), and minor roads are often okay (but not always!). I always doublecheck on Streetview these days. You can usually get a good idea of what the traffic levels are like by taking a virtual ride down the road...

For instance, let's say that you wanted to cycle over to Greetland from the centre of Huddersfield. Just by looking at the OS map I can tell that the Halifax Road (A629) NW out of Huddersfield will be very busy. It is a main road between a motorway junction and the town centre. Streetview confirms it...

Looking for an alternative - Crossland Rd looks promising. Checks Streetview ...

There you go!

I haven't checked the rest of this route but it is usually possible to find a quiet alternative. Note, in these hilly parts - many of the easier roads are big A-roads. The lanes often go over the steep stuff. I have put low gears on all of my bikes so I can get up pretty much any hill that I encounter.

We organise quite a lot of forum rides in this area. Once you are happy doing 50 - 100 miles over the hills you'd be welcome to join us. I'll be doing a 100 mile ride from Garforth station round the flatlands of the Vale of York in March. That doesn't really feel any harder than 50 miles on a hilly route so maybe you might fancy that?

 

[Deeps]

Wow, I'm blown away by the number of suggestions thank you very much! I've now got a great list of apps and sites to play around with so thank you to all those that suggested them - ridewithgps and cycle.travel seem to mentioned a lot and checking off the roads with the veloviewer sounds like a lot of fun. Combining all these with streetviewer is a fantastic idea too!

Yep Huddersfield is the closest big town, I'm actually slightly over the Mirfield side. I usually come from the stadium side and use St. Andrew's Road to bypass the town centre to then head towards Denby Dale and Honley. I've also had a couple of runs out through Marsden to Denshaw or Delph then loop back over. Very similar to you, ColinJ. They're all nice and looking at a map there's plenty of places like Holmfirth/ Farnley Tyas/ Shelley that I haven't actually ridden through. It's just to get there I've to travel through Thornhill/ Grange Moor/ Penistone Road and I've just done that sort of boring loop far too many times! The start and finish of my rides will be quite built up there's nothing I can do about it. I'd love to head Queensbury/ Haworth way too but the loops just feel a bit dull. Heading north towards Leeds or even Wakefield way again is just too urban.

I'm hoping to avoid the mist tomorrow and get some fresh air, time to get planning!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Another vote for cycle.travel

My general preferences are the lanes, then B roads, short bits of A road if in a town or to connect lanes without going round the houses. I'll use cycle infrastructure if it's Tarmac. Cycle.travel knows if cycle tracks are Tarmac as based on open street map. Around where I am I have updated much if the cycle tracks to indicate which are Tarmac and which are just gravel / dirt.

I'd a road looks busy on street view it probably is on the ground. But some A roads can be quiet on weekends. If you ever ride in parts of Wales or Scotland you'll learn that many of the A roads are actually quite pleasant for cycling.

Also worth trying some shorter audaxes your way if you are capable of 60 miles or so. The audaxes will introduce you to many of the best local lanes in your area.

 

[Deeps]

On cycle.travel is there an option to select only roads?

 

[LeetleGreyCells]

On cycle.travel is there an option to select only roads?

You can select Paved Only.