Whats the best cycling route app

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Location
London
this was on main roads through village and even on a main A road where it took me around the houses to get maybe half a mile up the road.I was trying to plan a sunday ride of around 50 miles manually plotting the course
ah, it's core data is of course designed to keep you from high traffic levels.
And maybe pubs :smile: I have done some very long rides which managed to skirt me past many a villages - some of which I wouldn't have minded checking out.
 
Yep, cycle.travel isn't designed for busy roads. If you want to plan a route along main roads then Strava is probably the best bet - their target market is people who like to go fast!
 

jay clock

Massive member
Location
Hampshire UK
i use RWGPS. Now can upload wirelessly using the RWGPS app on iPhone and Garmin IQ on the 1030 Edge. Can plot on the pc or the phone. I pay for basic (premium) and this gives Heatmap which is excellent for knowing real world routes that cyclists actually use. And if touring can plot the route directly on the phone and transfer to the Edge
 

jkbrooks

New Member
Please redirect me to an appropriate place if I'm missing that here. I'd be grateful for the coaching.
I use RWGPS for route planning then go thru a convoluted process to dump it on my garmin 830. I'm sure there's a better way, and my stupid process works so I'm not looking to improve it (I know, I sound like someone you were once married to.)

My question has to do with multi-day tours. I just did a 9 day tour down the coast of California. My buddy was forced to bring a small laptop and it saved us. I typically plan out all my daily routes in rwgps, dump them on my head unit, and "bob's your mother's sister's husband" as they say. But, I'd routed us onto a highway that didn't allow bikes (the nerve!) so we needed to recalibrate the plan.

I'm loathe to drag a laptop along although I'm slightly less resistant to an ipad mini (least then I can read my kindle books on something other than my phone.) My question is, anybody else doing something similar? You cant edit/create routes in rwgps on an iphone (and I frankly wouldn't want to . . . size alone would make it miserable.) I'm worried that an iPad mini is also an IOS device and the rwgps IOS app is fine for "consuming" but not so good for "creating" stuff. Figured I could do it with the rwgps web app on the iPad. Is it worth buying a mouse/keyboard cover set up for my ipad mini and giving it a try or is that a waste of time?

Also, not to sound unappreciative, but I'm not looking to change platforms away from rwgps. Cascade bike club (with 20,000 members) in Seattle where I live has settled on rwgps as the tool they use for all their rides etc so I'm kinda stuck on that particular bus. I'm sure there's better stuff out there but that's not the problem I'm trying to solve at the moment.

I'll be grateful for any thoughts or opinions!
best,
John
 
Location
España
@jkbrooks
Woah!
There's a lot in there!

Yes, I have done multi-day tours, but I use neither a Garmin (I use Wahoo) and RWGPS only rarely.

In essence, you want to be able to plot a route on the go and get it to your unit, right?

Then, I'd suggest you change your mentality a bit and not insist on using RWGPS all the time.

As you have discovered RWGPS has different functionality for Web and App (that also can change!).
From experience, using RWGPS on a tablet in Web mode is a PITA.
Strava is similar.
(But you can try all that at home).

It's a question of the right tool for the job and since apps don't weigh anything there's not much issue in bringing a few along.

There's also the question of internet connectivity. For most, no Internet no plotting.

To my mind the best solution for getting you out of a hole is Osmand. It will plot a route, work offline and allow you to save the gpx file for transfer to your unit. It will work every time.
However, the quality of its routes are not great, it's slow (offline) and it's a bit clunky to learn.
I don't plan routes on Osmand, but it has been my back up for years.

There's already lots of discussion about alternative planners. For me, cycle.travel was a godsend in the US.

I'm surprised RWGPS put you on a forbidden road (unless it was a temporary situation).

Have you tried looking on Youtube for a method to improve data transfer to the unit? It should not be as difficult as you have described.

Good luck!
 
Location
London
+1 for osmand if offline. At one time i did have a problem linking my android tab which it runs on to my garmin etrex in usb mode to transfer routes but that seems to have mysteriously sorted itself.
Even if you can"t transfer the route you can always get osmand to provide a route, check it out on screen and then get the garmin to auto route between certain well chosen points along the longer route.
 
Location
España
+1 for osmand if offline. At one time i did have a problem linking my android tab which it runs on to my garmin etrex in usb mode to transfer routes but that seems to have mysteriously sorted itself.

My understanding is that Android devices generally "play" better with externals. Things like On The Go (OTG) cables give more functionality than is typically available from Apple, although Apple may be more secure.

For that reason @jkbrooks may want to consider a small Chromebook as you often suggest. Able to use RWGPS and connect to the Garmin.
And my usual response is to consider charging^_^
 
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