Best way to navigate a 50 mile ride...?

[TomHenshore]

Ah, sadly OsmAnd doesn't have all the functionality on apple devices that it does on Android. No routing features, it's just a big map!

 

[Fab Foodie]

Ah, sadly OsmAnd doesn't have all the functionality on apple devices that it does on Android. No routing features, it's just a big map!

ridewithgps is easy to plot a route with and gives you satellite views as well and the app works well on an iphone.
In the past I would plot a route onto the pages torn from an old map/road altas or nowadays colour photocopies from a decent scale road atlas. Trace the route with a coloured pen and carry a compass. I always seemed to get where I was going without too much fuss. Sometimes I'd also write on a card or the back of my hand/arm the villages to go through and use road signs ....

 

[Tim Hall]

Ah, sadly OsmAnd doesn't have all the functionality on apple devices that it does on Android. No routing features, it's just a big map!

Plot a route on your cycling route website of choice, for example bikehike. With Osmand I've found best results if I turn off the "follow roads" option. You'll end up with a series of straight lines going from point to point. If you put those points at key junctions so much the better.

Export/Save as gpx.
Load gpx onto your phone (you may have to put it in the Osmand tracks folder)
Run Osmand. Click configure map, select GPX track, pick the relevant track.
Click the arrow button, which generates turn by turn instructions. Say Yes to "Do you want to use the displayed track for navigation"
Click "go"
Listen to the voices as they tell you where to go.

 

[mjr]

Ah, sadly OsmAnd doesn't have all the functionality on apple devices that it does on Android. No routing features, it's just a big map!

Sorry. I didn't spot that your phone is a prisoner

 

[Tim Hall]

Plot a route on your cycling route website of choice, for example bikehike. With Osmand I've found best results if I turn off the "follow roads" option. You'll end up with a series of straight lines going from point to point. If you put those points at key junctions so much the better.

Export/Save as gpx.
Load gpx onto your phone (you may have to put it in the Osmand tracks folder)
Run Osmand. Click configure map, select GPX track, pick the relevant track.
Click the arrow button, which generates turn by turn instructions. Say Yes to "Do you want to use the displayed track for navigation"
Click "go"
Listen to the voices as they tell you where to go.

Damn. Reread your answer. Ignore wot I wrote.

 

[w00hoo_kent]

One of the best things about http://cycle.travel/map is that hard-top routes are solid lines and rough stuff is dashed and it weights them in a way that works for me. Some are wrong but it's fairly easy to edit openstreetmap.org to change them.
Unsurfaced junk and motorist-jammed booby traps are both excellent reasons for using a satnav. Avoiding long detours after you're tricked into a booby trap is another one.

I've no idea what they looked like on the map, I have (well had) route blindness riding from Dartford to Greenwich when being dropped off at my wife's works to then commute in. The situation wasn't helped by the fact that I'm always anxious about time elapsed commuting in, I rarely have oodles of wibble around time.

So I found myself somewhere between the NSL dual carriageway to Thamesmead and the Welling Rd in to Shooters Hill, having turned myself around at least once and spending 10 minutes going both back east and down hill then saw a cycle route sign for Woolwich, I can get to work from Woolwich I thought, so I followed it. Carried the bicycle across a footbridge over the railway, picked my way through an industrial estate and ended up in the middle of nowhere, but at least I was following the signs to Woolwich. Then the tarmac ended. There were choice words. I got in to work something like 45 minutes late having traced the route of the river rather than the much straighter option.

A lot more map work and I now have a good route that has worked for me once. Unfortunately I'm not based at Greenwich for the next 2+ years...

 

[Racing roadkill]

I use my phone with google maps set to navigate mode. It knows the difference between right and left, and doesn't throw hissy fits for no good reason, unlike my Garmin, which is beyond useless.

 

[coffeejo]

[QUOTE 3834146, member: 9609"]When I am new roading this is exactly what I do - the night before I plan it on OS maps and check some of the junctions out on street view, I don't make any notes but will take the map with me. Are you any happier with a GPS device ? I would guess it would take some of the fun out of it for me - may be I just love my paper maps.[/QUOTE]
I still do that for tricky / complicated junctions or if I want to decide which road to take. I've not got my GPS set up to give me turn by turn directions but instead use it as a digital map. The disadvantages are obvious but it does mean it's waterproof, I don't have to get it out of my pocket at each junction, and it tells me where I am (particularly useful if I've not plotted a route and am just following my nose).

 

[Davidc]

If someone's done a GPX I sometimes import into my phone and use Cycle Computer pro, and just track the route on that. I have occasionally produced my own on Bikely and imported that, but I still prefer using an OS map and a compass with it if needed.

On rare occasions when I get lost I can use GPS on the phone with a 'maps with you' map which is easier than pre GPS methods, or if I take my old Garmin Foretrex 101 I get a grid reference readout which is ideal with an OS map.

Going on a group ride is better though - let someone else navigate and you can grumble gently at them when they get lost!

 

[mjr]

Going on a group ride is better though - let someone else navigate and you can grumble gently at them when they get lost!

Hah! It's not like I've ever led a group onto the wrong side of an A road... oh, wait but that was only the once and now I'm less worried about appearing confident, I double-check the satnav if in any doubt after the spoken direction!

But if it's when they get lost for your group, then shouldn't we volunteer you as a new wayfinder?

 

[Davidc]

Hah! It's not like I've ever led a group onto the wrong side of an A road... oh, wait but that was only the once and now I'm less worried about appearing confident, I double-check the satnav if in any doubt after the spoken direction!

But if it's when they get lost for your group, then shouldn't we volunteer you as a new wayfinder?

NO.

 

[Cyclist33]

What happened to old fashion signposts? Have they all been removed in the name of progress so that we all need gps wherever we go? All you need is the name of the places you will go through and anyway, you are only going 25 miles away from home, not hundreds. Enjoy your ride and don't worry .

Trouble is round here, you only get so far and then the signposts run out. In fact I've found this to be a universal truth, you take a sign to place x and within a few junctions, x is no longer signposted. Then what?!

That doesn't even take into account little country lanes where there isn't any signage in the first place.

 

[Milkfloat]

That doesn't even take into account little country lanes where there isn't any signage in the first place.

These are the best kind and the reason I follow a route in the first place. I know all the A and B roads within miles of me and most of the C roads too. I like to plan a good new route each time I go out. I guess the fact that I work for a mapping company means I love a good map, so the route planning is fun and not a chore.

 

[theloafer]

Hi all,

Next Saturday I've planned for a mate and I to ride a route I've planned that's just under 50 miles. I've had training in route planning in the past as I'm a qualified ride leader, but I've never actually planned a route where i'm unfamiliar with the roads before...

The roads are all decent b-roads, most of which happen to be on national cycle routes anyway, but my question is what would be the best way to navigate when on the bike...? Are there any decent Apps out there that can act as a cycling-sat-nav? Would just simple route cards hanging around my neck be enough...? What are your experiences?

I'm all up for an adventure and getting slightly lost, but I would also like to get home for dinner...

Thanks in advance :-)

try the http://www.cyclestreets.net/mobile/

 

[SpokeyDokey]

These are the best kind and the reason I follow a route in the first place. I know all the A and B roads within miles of me and most of the C roads too. I like to plan a good new route each time I go out. I guess the fact that I work for a mapping company means I love a good map, so the route planning is fun and not a chore.

Me too - I love maps. I spend ages planning mountain hiking routes and cycle routes on them.

Sadly, I think GPS has nailed the art of traditional map route planning. Ditto proper use of compass and map.

Three winters back my mate and I 'guided' a couple off of Fairfield in absolutely dire conditions. We'd stumbled across them as they were desperately trying to figure out how to get off the mountain in very low visibility (sleet) and high winds.

They had a GPS that had 'died'. They had no spare batteries. They had no map and no compass. Bonkers.

Asked why they had no map and compass we were told that 'you don't need one with a GPS'. The irony escaped them I think.

Didn't even thank us for getting them down safely. Hey-ho. At least they were alive.