How Do I Create A Cycling Route?

Roads that seem like the moon’s surface, dead ends, and traffic that screams. Cycling route planning can make or break a great ride, which is not an exaggeration. Before setting out on a day of pedaling, it’s essential to have a bicycle route in mind. Your vacation time should not be spent searching for directions or checking your instructions, or traveling on some less attractive roads in your destination area.

One of the most potent outdoor route maker apps for planning perfect cycling, hiking, walking, MTB, and running routes is Route4Me route planner. Take the time to map out a path that maximizes smiles per mile, even if you’re not far from home!

Plotting a route

Using your smartphone to plot and follow routes has never been easier, thanks to the spread of smartphones with GPS capabilities and several free applications.

Using Strava’s mapping function, you can see where the most popular routes are in a particular region, which might be helpful if you’re visiting a new city for the first time and don’t know where to start. As an additional benefit to planning a route, you’ll know precisely how much climbing you’ll do. Avoiding congested or bad roads is another option.

When creating your route is too much work, or you’d want to see what other cyclists are riding, some websites let you do just that. After inputting a few details about your desired route, Bikely generates a list of suggested itineraries.

Opencyclemap.org is an excellent resource for cyclists who wish to avoid clogged major routes when riding in a big city. Unlike CycleStreets.net, it cannot be used to map out routes. Using the National Cycle Network, wherever feasible, provides a selection of three alternative ways based on your starting location and ultimate destination.

Download to a GPS device or smartphone

After finishing your trip, you will need to update your GPS device or smartphone. With smartphones, you don’t need to bring a computer with you. It is as simple as opening a compatible app, creating a route, and then tapping Go to follow the path you’ve already created. As well as capturing the activity’s duration and location, many applications like Strava also give helpful metrics such as speed and distance traveled.

If you’re using a GPS device like the Garmin Edge, connect it to your computer by USB (or Bluetooth, if supported) and then download the route to the device. When transferring data from your computer to your phone or tablet, follow the works’ directions. Using a website or program that exports the route to a linked GPS device is convenient.

Following a route on the bike

It’s only a matter of following the route you’ve generated and saved to your GPS device. When planning a way, there are two primary options.

As a result, the app provides turn-by-turn guidance or flags up the best route at important intersections. With this option, you don’t have to think about anything other than having fun and taking in the sights.

You may use an interactive map to illustrate your present location and the route you need to follow. This option requires greater attention to the route, but it also gives you more leeway to deviate from it for whatever reason, such as noticing a fascinating road. There may also be warnings for future intersections on specific devices.

Conclusion

Instructions may be turned on and off in specific applications and devices. Allow yourself at least 50 meters of response time. Having a decent amount of zoom on your smartphone will ensure that you don’t miss your turn at a roundabout or turn off early.

Security is a top concern. Put your riding computer/smartphone somewhere where other riders will see it. While biking, resist the urge to play with your phone or gaze at it for lengthy periods. Distracted riders have been the cause of many riding accidents.