![]() Memory Map uses IGN maps, produced by the official French government mappers. However, if I was starting from scratch with a cycling GPS, I’m not sure I’d spend the money on mapping software. These days I use Memorymap or Tracklogs to plan in general terms the route I want to follow, but I plot it in ridewithgps. It’s always better to plot the route on the same mapping you’ll be using to follow them. This can make the GPS behave unpredictably. Secondly, if your GPS has mapping, it won’t be the same as the maps the software uses. However they all have significant drawbacks (aside from having to pay!)įirstly, they have no routing algorithm, so you have to do the whole thing manually. I like both of these because the mapping on screen is much clearer than the online services, so it’s easier to figure out which is the best route. For cycling in France I use Memorymap, which has IGN mapping (IGN is the French equivalent of the Ordance Survey). In the UK there are various options – I’ve used Tracklogs, which incorporates very high quality Ordnance mapping. The other method is paid for mapping software. Then you download the route you’ve created to your GPS and you’re good to go. I always check the route manually because it does throw up some odd decisions from time to time and can send you up unnecessary climbs, but I’m impressed how well it does the job, especially as it’s free. You’ll need at least 4 points to plot a circular route. The site includes a pretty good routing algorithm, which means you can put in as few as two points on your route, and it will create a bike-friendly route between the two points. Ridewithgps uses the crowdsourced bike-specific Open Street Maps which are pretty good, although you can find some roads are missing in more remote areas. I generally use ridewithgps, but you can also use Strava and others, including Googlemaps. The most obvious ones to use are the free online services. So let’s start by looking at various mapping options. The GPS will then guide you around the route you’ve plotted. You use some sort of mapping software to create the route, which you then download to the GPS. The basic method for this has remained unchanged since the first units appeared. Plotting a route was much quicker than writing my cryptic instructions, and on the road, navigational errors ceased almost completely. I’ve been using bike GPS units since the first primitive models came to market, and I was instantly hooked. These days there’s a very obvious solution to all of this: use a GPS. I used to write cryptic instructions on a slip of paper which I’d tape to my stem, but that was time-consuming and prone to mistakes (there’s an example from Audax rides here :). You can stop to look at the map, but with frequent junctions, that gets annoying, and a long tour might mean lots of maps to carry. Keeping to back roads means lots of junctions and probably a lack of useful signposting. The problem is that if you’ve done a good job, it’ll be really complicated. Once you have your route, you then need to follow it. If you want to minimise climbing, as many cyclists do, you’ll try to find valley roads, but often they’re busy, meaning a much more complex route on back roads is necessary. Hills add another complication to the mix. Car drivers don’t like wiggles because they’re slow, which is yet another reason for cyclists to embrace them. Usually the smallest, wiggliest roads are the best – the wiggles create interest, and are usually there because they follow attractive natural features like a stream or a hillside. The traditional solution to this is hours spent poring over maps, trying to figure out which are the nicest roads to ride. Road signs aren’t much help because they’re usually aimed at car drivers who have entirely different priorities – follow them and you’ll end up on the busy roads you want to avoid. It means that the route needs to be enjoyable rather than efficient, concentrating on nice scenery with as little traffic as possible. However, when it did work OK, it transformed my long-distance bike rides.If you're yet to make the jump to using a GPS for cycling, then Peter Quaife has this advice.ĭownload bike routes in France for your GPSĪ bike ride is usually more about the journey than the destination, which throws up a raft of navigational issues to deal with. I have given up on my old Garmin Edge Touring Plus because it simply can't be trusted to work without freaking out and/or re-setting everything in the middle of a ride. ![]() All the features look fantastic and I'm sure I will use a lot of them, but my basic objective is to use the device to navigate me reliably on routes I have created using RidewithGPS I want to be sure that I can use Karoo 2 for a very specific, and basic, function.
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