# Round trip generator for road bikes



## OneArmedBandit (4 Aug 2018)

Hi,

Did search but couldn't find an answer.

There is a really good site - cycle.travel - for planning round routes. Basically, put in where you are and you can use a slider to choose how many miles you want to travel, whilst it shows you three different loops on the map.

The routes, intentionally or not, tend to be very scenic. However, they are only really suitable for mountain bikes.

Is there any equivalent where you can specify only paved routes, but still get cycle tracks included? I know you can build your own with RidewithGPS but I would love an impulsive "I want to go on a 100km ride" and five minutes later it's on the Garmin and I'm on the road.

Thanks!


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## OneArmedBandit (4 Aug 2018)

It's worth a try.

http://cycle.travel/

It is curiously quiet on how it chooses routes, but it has picked some very pleasant routes for me. I think because it doesn't match your request exactly - often the routes are 5+/- your request.

It appears to use OSM mapping and avoids any busy roads, for any distance, like the plague which can be nice. Often it ends up on routes where, by a combination of off road tracks and country lanes I don't see a car for many miles. But because of that it does take about 50% longer to cover the distance than it would if I stuck to a normal route.


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## cosmicbike (5 Aug 2018)

Garmin Connect will do this for you, and tends to put you on main roads.


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## jefmcg (5 Aug 2018)

Komoot does this too,and you can program it for road bikes.


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## DaveReading (5 Aug 2018)

OneArmedBandit said:


> The routes, intentionally or not, tend to be very scenic. However, they are only really suitable for mountain bikes.



That's not my experience (though, to be fair, there aren't many mountains round here ).

Cycle.travel does at least highlight any unsurfaced segments of a route that it has planned, and you can easily tweak a suggested route using the map to stay on paved roads.


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## Ming the Merciless (5 Aug 2018)

It probably uses the open source routing engine with osm data. To eliminate off road bits you would want to remove any non tarmac tracks / paths from the osm data in its database.


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## DaveReading (5 Aug 2018)

YukonBoy said:


> It probably uses the open source routing engine with osm data. To eliminate off road bits you would want to remove any non tarmac tracks / paths from the osm data in its database.



How ?


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## Ming the Merciless (5 Aug 2018)

DaveReading said:


> How ?



How what?


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## jefmcg (5 Aug 2018)

YukonBoy said:


> How what?


How... 


YukonBoy said:


> to remove any non tarmac tracks / paths from the osm data in its database.



---


jefmcg said:


> Komoot does this too,and you can program it for road bikes.


Hadn't actually used it for this. I don't think it does have this functionality after all.


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## Ming the Merciless (5 Aug 2018)

jefmcg said:


> How...
> 
> 
> ---
> ...



Osmium tool can filter the osm data by tags, so you can use that. Then pass the output osm data into osrm to build its routable graph database.


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## Tim Hall (5 Aug 2018)

The person behind cycle.travel posts on here from time to time I think. He certainly posts on YACF. Hang on, I'll try and summon him.

<fx>frantic tapping on keyboard</fx>
@Richard Fairhurst are you there ? Can cycle.travel be tweaked to prefer one road type over another?


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## NorthernDave (5 Aug 2018)

I've struggled to find one that keeps to paved roads suitable for a road bike.

There is a green lane near here that they all seem determined to route you down but part of it is a rough rocky ridged surface, which then gives way to packed earth which is impassable in anything other than a tractor from the first decent rains of October through to well into spring.


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## cyberknight (5 Aug 2018)

My town doent exist ....


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## jefmcg (5 Aug 2018)

cyberknight said:


> My town doent exist ....


Is it on https://www.openstreetmap.org ?


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## Heltor Chasca (5 Aug 2018)

I use Cycle.travel for all sorts. It does favour NCN routes but you can go in and edit your route. I have found it really handy for building stunning DIY Audax routes. 

But I think ‘suitable for MTBs’ is incorrect in my opinion.


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## OneArmedBandit (5 Aug 2018)

Tim Hall said:


> The person behind cycle.travel posts on here from time to time I think. He certainly posts on YACF. Hang on, I'll try and summon him.
> 
> <fx>frantic tapping on keyboard</fx>
> @Richard Fairhurst are you there ? Can cycle.travel be tweaked to prefer one road type over another?


I did manage to find a FAQ on the website which basically says they only one one "mode" because it allows them to generate routes quickly, and having a second preference avoiding unpaved roads would double the server power needed.

It is a real shame though. Without telling them what to do cycle route planners are ten a penny but the round trip function they have is really really really good in terms of the quality of routes suggested. as the site seems to be set up with hotels etc you'd think making an option for road cyclists would be a fantastic draw. If there was a way you could plan a, say 1000k loop, ask it to suggest accomodation suitable for cyclists every 150km, then you could plan a week away in less than an hour.


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## OneArmedBandit (5 Aug 2018)

Heltor Chasca said:


> I use Cycle.travel for all sorts. It does favour NCN routes but you can go in and edit your route. I have found it really handy for building stunning DIY Audax routes.
> 
> But I think ‘suitable for MTBs’ is incorrect in my opinion.


The routes it suggests to me are unsuitable for road bikes and would cause temporary infertility on a hybrid. However, I'm guessing the quality of cycle routes varies hugely by area. The ones here are rubbish.


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## cyberknight (5 Aug 2018)

jefmcg said:


> Is it on https://www.openstreetmap.org ?


yes but not listed on that website , i get one darn sarf or some in the USA


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## Ming the Merciless (5 Aug 2018)

NorthernDave said:


> I've struggled to find one that keeps to paved roads suitable for a road bike.



That is what I have managed in Basecamp by building my own maps from osm using mkgmap etc. The OSRM looks like the route to achieve that for an online planner.


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## Richard Fairhurst (14 Aug 2018)

Tim Hall said:


> The person behind cycle.travel posts on here from time to time I think. He certainly posts on YACF. Hang on, I'll try and summon him.
> 
> <fx>frantic tapping on keyboard</fx>
> @Richard Fairhurst are you there ? Can cycle.travel be tweaked to prefer one road type over another?



I’m here but on holiday so tapping this from a mobile! Let me try and get a few answers together...

The reason for no road-bike-only option at the moment is indeed as per the FAQ at the bottom of http://cycle.travel/about/maps - it’s basically a matter of server horsepower. I would like to do it one day but it’s probably not going to be any time particularly soon I’m afraid. But I’ll give it some more thought - I am doing a lot of reading on routing algorithms and experimenting with a few new things at the moment, so you never know...

Until then... basically the approach I try to take is: (a) never choose anything unrideable on a hybrid or, ideally, robust road bike (I ride a Croix de Fer and a Bike Friday, for what it’s worth!); (b) make sure any offroad sections are clearly highlighted so you can drag the route away to a road if you like. If it is choosing a bone-shredding track then either the data is wrong/incomplete in OpenStreetMap, or cycle.travel is interpreting it wrong - very happy to look at any cases you encounter and try and fix them.

Missing towns - it definitely shouldn’t do that - let me know which (by PM if you prefer) and I’ll look into it.


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