Bike Route Toaster

Mettan

If anyone hasn't seen/used this site yet it's excellent:

http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx

You can use most of the features without registering - of particular note is the:

Auto-Routing
Elevation data

It'll follow your on-road route exactly - it'll also give you your total ascent and descent - excellent tool.

(not sure where to put this thread....... )

willbevan

I do love the site, auto routing and automatically adding the course points for left and right etc

Siechotic

Have a look at www.mapmyride.com

Much more polished than biketoaster and you can export your route for use on a gps unit.

You can view your routes in Google earth as well.

willbevan

i had a look at mapmyride recently and it seems to be missing one peice of functionality to make it functionally better than bikeroutetoaster.....

Correct me if im wrong but it doesn't automatically put course points in, i.e. LEFT, RIGHT...

As thats one thing i find very useful from bike route toaster, creating the course with the turns in it going from road to road, and using that to navigate around...

Might be garmin specific as not used anything else :S but do go onto my device easy enough as well

SteveR_100Milers

With a Garmin and Mapmyride you dont need turn instructions, since its obvious which way the track goes; plus you can zoom in and out of the map with the Garmin. I use mapmyride with an edge 205 and its extremely useful for navigating in sat nav mode. I havent got lost yet. The only downside is that the longer your route, the slower mapmyride works especially if yo are using the follow roads option.

Incidentally, I have used mapmyride to work out a route following the celtic and taf trails based on the goodle earth satellite photos and manually mapping it (cant use follow roads as its not classed as one) and its worked a treat. Also have mapped a walking route over the Brecon beacons which is only linmited by the resolution of the google earth satellite images.

willbevan

i have navigated without the turn points using the map or compass, but i prefer seeing that in say 5 miles i am turning left, check it every now and again with a glance.... i find if i dont have that, i miss my turns :S

Just my attention span maybe

popette

Resurrecting this old thread - I'm using bike route toaster with my garmin 705 - I have uploaded a gpx of a sportive that I'm doing at the weekend. The route looks fine but there are no course points. Is there anyway I can add coursepoints after I have the route in bike route toaster? Not important for this weekend so much as the route will all be signposted but in general, can one add course points to a route that you have uploaded from gpx?

Cheers

Gav888

Ive been using toaster for a while and its great. I plan all my routes on there then go out for a ride.... I also use a very advanced route planner whilst out on the road... my brain

Andrew_J

popette wrote:

Resurrecting this old thread - I'm using bike route toaster with my garmin 705 - I have uploaded a gpx of a sportive that I'm doing at the weekend. The route looks fine but there are no course points. Is there anyway I can add coursepoints after I have the route in bike route toaster? Not important for this weekend so much as the route will all be signposted but in general, can one add course points to a route that you have uploaded from gpx?

Cheers

Hi popette you need to tick the option "add course point warningss" when exporting (in the download section), also if you export as tcx I belive this is the better file type for the 705 (newer).

popette

Hi Andrew & Gav,
Thanks for replying. I tried what you said Andrew but it didn't add the course points. Let me go back a step - I downloaded a gpx to my pc from bikely.com. I uploaded the gpx to bikeroutetoaster. It has no coursepoints on it, it's just a line following the route we'll be using at the weekend. There is no cue sheet either. When I download a tcx back onto my garmin and check the add coursepoints, it doesn't add them onto the route - I guess I have to do add coursepoints manually in biketoaster and by checking the add coursepoints, they will be then be included in the upload. Do you think that's right? But how do I add the coursepoints? Or do I have to just start the route from scratch?

bobalob

Not sure if you can add coursepoints to an already existing route in bikeroutetoaster. Try bikehike.co.uk You can upload the route you downloaded from bikely, add coursepoints at turns then download as a tcx file for your garmin with the option of setting a warning distance before each coursepoint - 700 ft works well for me.

avoidingmyphd

hi popette

i'm afraid the answer is no. the "add course point warnings" checkbox only works if there are already course points in the course. And uploading a gpx from elsewhere doesn't generate course points in bikeroutetoaster.

the only way to do it is to replot manually from scratch. bobalob's alternative will work too. it just depends which you think will be quicker - replotting the course in brt, or adding course points on the junctions in bike hike.

sampras38

Andrew_J wrote:

popette wrote:

Resurrecting this old thread - I'm using bike route toaster with my garmin 705 - I have uploaded a gpx of a sportive that I'm doing at the weekend. The route looks fine but there are no course points. Is there anyway I can add coursepoints after I have the route in bike route toaster? Not important for this weekend so much as the route will all be signposted but in general, can one add course points to a route that you have uploaded from gpx?

Cheers

Hi popette you need to tick the option "add course point warningss" when exporting (in the download section), also if you export as tcx I belive this is the better file type for the 705 (newer).

+1 on using tcx instead of gpx with BikeRouteToaster. Their website actually recommends it. Then plop it into the courses folder.

avoidingmyphd

the difference between gpx and tcx on the edge 705 is barmy, but we're stuck with it.

1. use gpx if you want to use the unit as a sat nav, with intrusive navigation reminders at junctions. turn off recalculate (on the unit) if you want it to use the route you calculated on line. leave recalculate on if you are most interested in getting to a destination and you're happy for garmin to choose you a new one the second you go even 5 yards off course.

2. use tcx if you want to do a training route where you roughly know your way, but would appreciate a map and purple for reassurance , but you can also take advantage of the other info screens like the altitude profile, ETA etc. no intrusive navigation though.

3. use bikeroutetoaster tcx to hijack the barminess and combine the best of both. it sneaks "course points" at junctions telling you to "turn right/left" etc. These create the effect of intrusive navigation, but they are technically just messages attached to certain locations. and it does all the course functionality like giving you an anticipatory altitude profile, virtual partner etc. etc.

Now, back to popette's issue. she wants to do 3 - that's set up her sportive like a training course, but get the fall back benefits of the sneaked in navigation prompts. this requires downloading as a tcx but also actually plotting rather than simply uploading the route in bikeroutetoaster to give it a chance to add the course points at the junctions. if you just upload a gpx and download it again, it's the same as a tcx from anywhere else.

(a similar but easily solvable issue arises with elevation data. if you don't check the box on upload, your tcx won't allow the edge to give you the altitude profile screen).

freehub

Since bike route toaster went mental I've found bikehike.co.uk to be a better alternative.

popette

cheers for your replies to my hijacked thread guys.
Bike route toaster - does anyone else find that turning notifications (turn left, turn right etc) are often garbage? I think they must have been about 60% accurate when I used them on last two rides.
freehub (is that really will hub?) is that what you mean by bike toaster going mental?

m.r.davies

i've planned my route with the toaster website

I can save out the GPX files

but i want to put this file on my windows mobile device and get route guidance with it

what options do i have?

i have a htc touch hd which has gps built in

its running tom tom and google maps

but do i need to buy garmin?
if so which version works with win mob, and do they take gpx files