Creating route for roadbike - Garmin and RWGPS

[Markymark]

Drag the little streetmap man over your map. If the roads on your route all turn blue then they are accessibly by car, so will be accessibly by bike. If they aren't blue then do a streetview of the junction to take a closer look.

Ah, yes, very good. Not 100% as some roads may not be covered by Google Street View but it's massively quicker at narrowing it down and certainly quickly drew attention to the off road section on my last trip.

 

[coffeejo]

Try bikehike - it shows you OS mapping alongside google maps / OSM to you get the best of all worlds. You can download the route in pretty much any format (I use gpx tracks for my Garmin 800).

 

[JtB]

I think the idea is that in the routing options on your garmin you set it to car/motorcycle....? This should avoid canal paths, tracks etc. I am new to my Garmin, and I read this but haven't had a problem yet with it set to bicycle. I only changed it after my latest ride.

I'm new to Garmin too, but the Garmin options you mention are for when the device plots a route, while the OP is using an internet site to plot the route instead.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Quick plug for my favourite route planning site: www.gpxeditor.co.uk

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Routing via A roads is only a problem if you don't put in cues along the way. There is also an "Avoid highways" box you can check on RWGPS

Not good if you want to avoid major trunk roads like the A64.
@0-markymark-0 you just need to be a bit more careful in planning making sure you have waypoints going round the dodgy bits, I have my 705 set to keep to roads (don't do cycle paths) don't usually have any issues, but then I only use the mapping as a guide to how far to go as I know most of the roads in a 20-25 mile radius, which is a lot of roads.

 

[Markymark]

Not good if you want to avoid major trunk roads like the A64.
@0-markymark-0 you just need to be a bit more careful in planning making sure you have waypoints going round the dodgy bits, I have my 705 set to keep to roads (don't do cycle paths) don't usually have any issues, but then I only use the mapping as a guide to how far to go as I know most of the roads in a 20-25 mile radius, which is a lot of roads.

Thanks. @Mark1978 gave the great advice of dragging the little man to show Google Streeview covered roads. This is a really quick way of showing on a page all the roads. It's worked really well.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

I'm new to Garmin too, but the Garmin options you mention are for when the device plots a route, while the OP is using an internet site to plot the route instead.

If the file you export is a gpx navigation route it only exports the waypoints/junctions lat/long points the garmin routing is used to create the route from the map/s you have on the system. If you export as a course file this exports the whole route (tcx from rwgps) and would include any plots you made manually, if you switch to the draw mode it will draw a straight line between two plots so you could create a course over the moors for example.

 

[Markymark]

The trouble with my Garmin is that unless it is TCX, the distance to next field get's messed up. The TXC uses the cues to make this work and I find it really useful.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Thanks. @Mark1978 gave the great advice of dragging the little man to show Google Streeview covered roads. This is a really quick way of showing on a page all the roads. It's worked really well.

Just one draw back, google have yet to walk all the paths in the world, they have started it I believe, heck they haven't even come down our lane so you can't see our house on it.

 

[Markymark]

Just one draw back, google have yet to walk all the paths in the world, they have started it I believe, heck they haven't even come down our lane so you can't see our house on it.

Yeah, I'm know its not 100% but its a very quick guide for a 70m route that is pretty quick.If there's any dodgy bits then I just streetview it and see for myself.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

The trouble with my Garmin is that unless it is TCX, the distance to next field get's messed up. The TXC uses the cues to make this work and I find it really useful.

I take it you have tried the gpx option, though not sure you might need to convert it to a fit course file, I know the 500 I had I just dropped the tcx course into the new files folder, not to sure re the units doing mapping and the fit file system. its why I prefer the 705 as its easier to use the files and fix them.
Also the default export speed for the free rwgps is car speeds certainly on tcx courses, I use a utility called tcx converter to adjust this if I need too.

 

[Markymark]

Yeah, I tried gpx and the Distance To Next did't work. When it works its pretty much the only thing I look at - I get onto a road and know I have, say, 4m before I have to worry about coming off.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

@0-markymark-0 this is the util i was on about http://www.tcxconverter.com/TCX_Converter/TCX_Converter_ENG.html it writes direct to the unit (well the ones I have had), also its possible with it to create a history file from a course by putting in an average speed, and export as a history file which might be a way round your problem, create the route in rwgps import into tcx converter save as history file put in your history folder (or whatever its called) do ride from history, I can see that missing the waypoints a true course file has though, just be careful with any autosyncs as it might be seen as a new ride, again another reason I prefer doing somethings manually.

also useful for strava (if you use it) if something fooks up

 

[Markymark]

@0-markymark-0 this is the util i was on about http://www.tcxconverter.com/TCX_Converter/TCX_Converter_ENG.html it writes direct to the unit (well the ones I have had), also its possible with it to create a history file from a course by putting in an average speed, and export as a history file which might be a way round your problem, create the route in rwgps import into tcx converter save as history file put in your history folder (or whatever its called) do ride from history, I can see that missing the waypoints a true course file has though, just be careful with any autosyncs as it might be seen as a new ride, again another reason I prefer doing somethings manually.

also useful for strava (if you use it) if something fooks up

Thank you, I'll give that a try!

 

[Nigelnaturist]

@0-markymark-0 its a bit clunky from what I remember and did on occasion crash, but it is great and correcting the avg speed for a course file I do about 15mph so if I set it I set for about that.