Cycling technology.

Freebie

Hello all, new to the forum so this is my first post. I've cycled on and off since old enough to ride a bike but never really seriously. However I'm doing more now and would like to use either an app or gadget to generate random routes rather than riding the same one every time I go out. Have looked at Garmin type gadgets but am getting confused with the amount of stuff out there. Not particularly interested in power output or hear rate monitoring but would quite like distance/speed/time. Any help to cut through the fog would be appreciated.

craker

Welcome! Not an easy first post to answer...

Do you *really* want a random route? Depends where you live and how far you're planning to go, but experience will tell you to take the country lanes rather than the 'A' road.

How about route generating tools like RideWithGPS? You click on Start and Finish (& Inbetween) points and it'll route you using some sensible algorithm, but you can drag the routes about a bit for rerouting. You can download GPX files onto GPS equipped bike computers (Garmin etc.) and follow them that way, I dare say there are phone apps that do the same thing.

Or you could join a cycling club. There'll be a morning ride or varied distances and routes each week. or you could get lost and try to find your way home. Half the fun of being out on a bike that is ;-)

cougie

Random routes will probably be rubbish.

As above - join a cycling club - they know the best routes.

Or use a map and Google Street view to check any dubious parts and plan it yourself. It's fun.

Freebie

Thanks for replies. Cycling club not really an option at present, but quite like idea of RideWithGps. Is that a website and do files download to most gps gizmos?

drlodge

Freebie wrote:

Thanks for replies. Cycling club not really an option at present, but quite like idea of RideWithGps. Is that a website and do files download to most gps gizmos?

Basically, yes.

I use ridewithgps, its a great and simple to use site.

Choose your destination (mid ride, café stop) and overall distance you want to cycle, then plan a route there and back along roads you want to investigate...download to your Garmin or whatever and then ride the route. Its a great way to try out new places without getting lost.

kingdav

Strava's heatmap will show you the roads cyclists near you are riding most.
https://labs.strava.com/heatmap

Alex99

Freebie wrote:

Thanks for replies. Cycling club not really an option at present, but quite like idea of RideWithGps. Is that a website and do files download to most gps gizmos?

If you've got a smartphone, then you should be OK with that. I think there are apps that can take a route input from various sources although other will know more specifics than me (Garmin user). Some kind of weather proof bar mount will be useful. Topeak do such a thing.

manglier

You can also use the RideWithGPS app on a smartphone, although I would recommend creating the route on a desktop or laptop for ease of control.

svetty

Freebie wrote:

Cycling club not really an option at present

Intrigued as to why? Do you live in Outer Mongolia?

cycleclinic

Try this go out and explore this the only way to get to know your area. I have been doing this in Suffolk north Essex and some if Norfolk for years and I am still finding new roads. The routes I can make up are endless and I know longer have to plan one. Just head down a road and then decide where I want to go.

I never plan routes. A fixed route is not freedom. Cycling in a group does not teach you your way around as you have to get a bit lost to find out how the different minor roads link together.

The reason why I have given planning routes is that all the route planners are hopeless. They try to take you down slow and inappropriate cyclepaths and other paths a road bike is not suited for. You have to check every detail of the route and time required for long ones is not worth it.

pilot_pete

I’m sort of between the two camps - there is a time and place for just going out and getting lost to re find yourself (I mean literally where you are, not some zen like state where you start yogic flying!) but equally there is a time when a planned route is more appropriate.

I do both. I must admit I do like planning my really long rides as I don’t really want to get lost 50 miles from home with at least another 50 to go! I enjoy the research using google street view, my OS land ranger 1:50k digital maps and ride with gps which in my opinion really is the best online route planner.

It is easy to click on your selected road, click further along your route and if it takes you the way you don’t want to go, simply click undo, go back a bit and click on a road this is on your desired route. If you don’t spot the mistake until later it is easy to select the part of the route you want to change and just pick it up and drag it towards the modified roads and it will show the new route. Once it is the one you want you just drop that bit of the route and hey presto.

You can spend hours or minutes. I’ve literally realised at the last minute I didn’t have the route I wanted saved so entered it - someth8ng like a 75 mile route, entered, saved, downloaded and copied to my Garmin in under 5 minutes. I did know the roads I wanted to follow in that instance though.

I have used little bits I do know in the middle of nowhere that I have ridden before with others and really liked and then tied them into a route from home. Did a really successful route last year for my mates Saturday morning ride including many new lanes, a National Trust park that they had never ridden through, and a disused railway line which is now a hard packed gravel cycle route through the beautiful Peak District and even a little mini alpine climb which they’d never done before! I don’t think I’d ever have found this fantastic 75 mile route just by losing myself, it took riding with others to know bits of it (including going through an almost hidden back gate into the NT park) which I managed to string together into probably our best ride of the year!

So each to their own, but I can see the benefits of both approaches.

PP