UKC

Always struggled with route planning on long rides due to

A. Finding myself on a major road with vehicles screaming past

B. Finding myself on tiny country roads with spaghetti type route navigation

C. Using cycle routing software and finding myself on bridleways and farm tracks screwing up my carbon wheels or having multiple visits from the PF.

So, anyone have any advice?

In reply to Indy:

I use

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/

in conjunction with mapmyride. Street map goes to OS 50,000 and 25,000 scale maps as you zoom in so you can gauge better what sort of road you are dealing with

In reply to Indy:

I use this site for both road and MTB rides

http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php

On one side you have a OS map, while on the other you can toggle between a simple map, satellite and open source cycling maps. Once you've created a route you can upload it to a Garmin or similar device.

If you do have a Garmin then their Base camp software is worth the effort getting to know, as a library of sections you have ridden with a view to building up longer routes

In reply to Chris the Tall:

Ive actually found the strava mapping pretty good for this.

In reply to Indy:

I mostly use the base maps on Garmin Connect, but like you say, it can lead you up rough tracks if you're not careful, so I also look at Google Earth streetview where available (usually for the urban bits) and also good old OS maps.

I like planning rides, but I also dislike over-planning. To a certain extent getting temporarily lost can add to the overall fun - just depends what sort of ride you want that day.

I did JOGLE last year using the system above. Uploaded the lot to a Garmin Edge 200 - job done.

N

In reply to Indy:

I use mapometer seems to work as long as you have follow roads set, use it for runs too

In reply to Indy:

For road biking I've taken apart a 2005 AA road atlas. I stuff the relevant page into a clear press-close placcy bag and put it in my pocket. This works well. Alternatively a 1:50000 map gives more detail but are more hassle to fold. Scanning a bit and printing off an A4 sheet works ok, but you can cycle off that much quite quickly.

In reply to Indy:

Plan it on google, drag route off major roads, load GPX onto OS mapping to check no bridleways.

In reply to Indy:

For planning routes I like http://cycle.travel/map - it quite often comes up with a good compromise between avoiding major roads and actually getting where you're trying to go. You can save routes as GPX/TPX.

In reply to VS4b:

Yes. When they introduced a route-planning facility a little while ago they added an option to select a route between 2 points based on the roads Strava-users actually use (it might even be the default). Essentially you get to harness everybody's local knowledge.

It's a pretty great idea and whenever I've used it it's found me a pleasant way to get from a to b (I recently used it to plan a route from Sheffield to Lincoln and back and it did considerably better than I suspect I would have done just using OS maps).

In reply to Indy:

Sustrans has online route mapping showing the National Cycle Network and local routes, and you can also find more details of individual routes

http://www.sustrans.org.uk/ncn/map

You can also get paper maps showing cycling routes