Sharing route info what's the best map/way ?

weeksy59

Someone sent me a PM about local routes to me and where i know etc, i'm struggling to find something to draw the route onto etc.

I know the trails and where they go but on things like Google maps they're not shown etc.

What can i use that will show footpaths/trails/bridleways ?

TheNorthernTrain

if you know where the trails are, go on bikely.co.uk, you can plot the route on there.

Or get an OS map and draw it on there and then scan it in or something.

bails87

bikehike.co.uk

cat_with_no_tail

bails87 wrote:

bikehike.co.uk

I use this all the time, it's so good I even made a donation to the site, and I NEVER do that

weeksy59

OK, lets try this....

www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=29742

cat_with_no_tail

20mile loop with 1100ft of climb/descent.

MacAndCheese

That's really cool, just used it to see how long my commute is, turns out it's only 8.7 miles. That's less than I thought, so I may add a bit on to it in the evenings.

weeksy59

That's brilliant lads... well impressed with that.

Pretty much the distance i expected. Really good to see the elevation changes etc.

TheNorthernTrain

Ohhhh this bike hike thing is awsome. Waaaaaaayyyy better than bikely. Im gonna make damn good use of this.

cat_with_no_tail

The elevation thing can be slightly off. If you do a loop, you'll quite often see it giving you more ascent than descent (or vice-versa) which obviously, is impossible. It's usually only 100ft or so over around 5000ft of climb/descent.

The OS maps they use used to be limited use too, so they'd sometimes stop working towards late afternoon. Not had this problem in a long time though so I suspect they've done something to rectify it.

If you switch it to hybrid mode, you get the google earth images with roads laid on top, I've found this really handy for finding some trails I never knew existed.

weeksy59

i did have an issue where the OS map changed format into a sort of Green bits and blank bits. How do i get out of that ? Or indeed, how did i get INTO that mode lol.

TheNorthernTrain

sounds like you have clicked on terrain. just click map or sattelite or hybrid in the top right hand corner of the map

weeksy59

north-sure wrote:

sounds like you have clicked on terrain. just click map or sattelite or hybrid in the top right hand corner of the map

Nah, that's on the google map, this was on the OS map ?

bails87

I think it's when you zoom out past a certain point, it's an odd thing to happen really, I'd rather it stayed on a zoomed out OS map, but I guess it would become unreadable. And cheers for the PM, no problem for sharing the link, someone else on here recommended it to me.

chris_sw

weeksy59 wrote:

i did have an issue where the OS map changed format into a sort of Green bits and blank bits. How do i get out of that ? Or indeed, how did i get INTO that mode lol.

If you zoom in too far is goes to the really basic map you are looking at, online they only provide down to 1:50,000 scale I think, zoom in any further and you lose a lot of the detail. Zoom out using the buttons in the corner of the map or the scroll wheel on your mouse.

Also, BikeHike is a brilliant website, I was looking into building a website like bikely that included the OS maps along side it myself, then I found it had already been done! Use it to plan all my routes now, since I usually ride alone it's a good way to give route plans to people before I head off for the day so they know where I've gone if I don't come back