How do you plan your ride in an unfamiliar area?
pete1336
Posts: 86
When you want to ride in an unfamiliar location, an area you haven't used before, how do you plan your ride? I've found the 'round trip routing' function of the Garmin untrustworthy. I haven't yet used Strava' s route builder but what I like the look of and have only just found is the 'create route' function of the Garmin connect phone app. It allows you to set your desired ride distance and you can chose to travel east, west, north or south or a random direction. Like the Strava option, it's supposed to select routes popular with cyclists.
How do you plan you ride in an unfamiliar area?
Regards,
Pete
How do you plan you ride in an unfamiliar area?
Regards,
Pete
0
Posts
All the other ones I've tried tend to route me down gravel paths that aren't really suited to a road bike e.g. Ride With GPS. Strava's algorythms are really good, so you can just plot point to point, and it routes you on the roads the locals use. Its got masses and masses of data to work with, far more than Garmin; and it years of working with that data so Garmin are really playing catch up here. Only thing to watch out is avoiding large town centres, which will obviously be popular, just not that good to ride on...
OP, do a search of the forum for route planning threads as the question comes up often. Although I could use my Garmin my own preference these days is just to look at a map, look at elevation changes and for points of interest in the area. I'll check weather and wind direction on the day so I know what to wear and, ideally, head out with a head wind but with offline maps on a phone you can't really get lost.
It’s also fairly common for me to ride the route clockwise, and anti clockwise, on the same day, to see if there’s any advantage to be had by one over the other. Anti clockwise nearly always a better idea, from a safety point of view.
For the older generation, strava route builder is a map with a route on it that tells you where most people cycle so you don't end up riding down an HGV route to an industrial park or something. If you want to use OS or road maps on your 'devices' why not put a gpx route on it to help you navigate?
On a more serious note Plotaroute is quite good.
It means if you're looking at unfamiliar roads you can drop the little orange man on the road and see what it's like and make sure you're not on a dual carriageway.
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Strava's heat map option helps show you where most local riders go, very handy for those 'secret' lanes. To finish I'll sometimes check Google Street view to see if there is tarmac on the road surface!
This worked well in Calpe, Spain, last month. One very high and tiny road I'd not ridden on before had sections of steep concrete, but only for short sections, the rest was reasonable tarmac, good to know beforehand! Another road, new to me, showed up on Street view with an old, but reasonable surface, and even had a few Strava segments listed, so I was confident road-bikers used it, not off-roaders!
I got caught out a few years ago though, riding over 2 weeks up the West coast of Scotland. The Mull of Kintyre section looked ok on Street view, but towards the tip on the east coast there were short sections of steep and loose gravel I had to walk up in my cleats, the skinny roads tyres just wouldn't grip at all.... Hadn't spotted these, it wasn't really practical to use Street View to checkout every inch of the road!
https://www.strava.com/athletes/303457
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I make a note of certain towns I need to head to and head off following road signs - if I get massively lost I'll stop for a coffee and ask someone.
De Sisti wrote:
This is one of the silliest threads I've come across.
Recognition at last Matthew, well done!, a justified honour
The same. Google streetview when the lanes start to look a little dicey
I prefer to know that I'm not going to waste my time riding past a steel works if there's a more scenic route nearby.
+1
This is what I do, after planning the route with RWGPS I just drop the little yellow streetview man onto any areas that look like they may not be tarmac and job done. My aging Garmin 800 works well with this method and has allowed me to plan some great routes. I also use sportive routes in the area I'm going, that usually gives some good ideas for decent routes.
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It was better when it was powered by Google Maps and allowed you to use Streetview within the Route Planner.
Find RWGPS antiquated and Garmin (not used since recent facelift admittedly) is just a bit Garmin and rubbish.
Strava's data through segments and heatmaps which you can overlay are priceless for me.
Similar to how NASA plan to get men on Mars. Send a satellite or 2 there first to have a look around. Fortunately in my case, the satellites are already there. Just load up a little something called "Google Earth" (which also happens to have Mars) and check out the area that way. And realistically you cant fully plan. You need to be flexible because some assole may have come a cropper and your planned route may no longer be open. Or more likely, you didnt get all the details you need from glancing over GE images.
That’s fun when the weather / seasons allow, not so much fun, if you run out of daylight, if you really don’t know where you are though.
Get the OS map of the area, even download the OS app, plan a route and go get lost!
Use the Audax uk routes 100k, 200k upto ....
You can over plan these things!
Rod
That's the beauty of unfamiliar areas. Knowing where you are is so boring.
Has served me pretty well in the past, although during the summer I had a few sketchy moments on my touring bike around Brussels where the routes were bringing me into private parks and housing estates. The Google maps/streetview to double check is a good shout.
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