Planning your ride just got easier with plotaroute.com

It's a bit old school, but I really like reading an OS 1:50000 map, either paper or on-line. I can "see" things much more clearly than any of the newer formats such as "Google maps", which don't differentiate between certain grades of road and path. I have tried apps that "choose" the route, but it's a bit hit and miss, and when I tried this new tool a few minutes ago, the routes chosen included sections of road I would not dream of ever riding.

Just consider this. Does anyone out there think that an organiser of a orad race, charity ride or sportive, would use anything other than a OS mapping?

But I do like the way these apps show the length of the route, the total amount of climbing, the maximum gradient (good for gear selection) and the distance travelled as you progress along a route.

I currently use Viewranger to create a route of my choosing, using the OS 1:50000 overlay (a year's subscription for the entire UK is just a few pounds for just viewing and planning using your laptop, rather than the full package for use on your phone, which costs a lot more), then email the resulting gpx file to my iphone, and follow the resulting "breadcrumb" in "Bikehub".

I get the enjoyment of creating my own route using proper OS maps, the total guarantee that I'm riding where I planned to ride and, because I'm just following a breadcrumb rather than a full map, there's no need to slow down when coming up to junctions as a result of any map rendering delay.

The thing about "avoiding main roads" is that routing based on how important roads are is useless if it only goes by their official status rather than looking at how much traffic they actually carry and whether they have a shoulder or not. Minor roads sometimes carry very heavy volumes of traffic, and roads that are theoretically important sometimes carry very little traffic.

When I head east I often choose to cycle on a trunk road; it's only half as steep as the parallel minor road reserved for local traffic and cyclists, and it's actually a very quiet stretch of road because all but the most local traffic is taken up by a parallel motorway. It's a good choice in winter because it's kept clear of snow and ice. There are wire nets to catch falling rocks and lots of other safety features like reflectors on the bends. It's a very cycling-friendly route, but it's not recommended for cycling by google, and it's not officially part of the local cycling network. The "dogma" that cyclists shouldn't be directed onto trunk roads overrides the fact that the trunk road is often the safest and most practical route from A to B. I really wouldn't fancy following the cyclist signage instead and and taking the much steeper route down from the hills into town on a snowy, foggy night.

Very nice in lots of ways, but the cycle routing is provided by Google (you can tell by opening up the developer console and looking at the requests made). And Google's bike routing sucks, I'm afraid.

I don't want a random loop. I know where I want to go. I want it to plan a route there that uses roads no greater than B roads and then plan a route back along different B roads.

I've thought out how it should work already and now I'm going to have to write my own.

mine wants to take me to i.o.w, spain, france and jersey!!!!

yet not even out of portsmouth lol

Having just had a quick go at letting it plot routes local to me, I'd echo a couple of other comments that it does still seem to include some pretty major roads (such as dual carriageways and busy town centre thoroughfares), despite having the "avoid highways" feature switched on.

However, it does look like an interesting tool, one I'll perhaps keep an eye on from now on.

Let's just say they have some work to do.

And yes, it has chosen a ferry route to Dublin.

As usual doesn't help if you are planning a route that doesn't use roads. ie bridleways.

A welcome addition to the canon with some nice features but with no OS mapping I don't think I'll be stopping using bikehike any time soon.

EDIT: And I don't want to ride on NSL DC's ta. Not unless it is a TT!

Positives first
looks like a good tool for plotting your own route, then downloading as a gpx file, if thats your thing.

Good for looking at shared routes for new ideas, especially if you aren't in your normal area or are planning a trip

negatives
From what I have tried the route generator looks great as long you want to ride on main roads (even with the highway filter turned off).

For people with no imagination this is probably helpful but I actually enjoy planning a route myself.

Better than most but think the route generator is of limited value

ViewRanger among others is able to accept gpx files on an iPhone. I like ViewRanger, so to me it is the best, but you may not agree. ViewRanger also has a web site for creating new routes. Not sure how it compares with Plotaroute.

With Viewranger you can purchase OS 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 tiles which in my opinion are far superior to on Open source (free) maps. So if Plotaroute does not have OS maps, Viewranger is always going to be superior to me. But again you may not agree.

Try VR it's free to down load and it uses Open Source maps

EDIT:
I checked out Plotaroute and it is very similar to My Viewranger. Plotaroute has a nicer UI and is show the profile or long section much better that My Viewranger, but other than that there's not much to choose between them.

Question - can such a gpx file be used as a navigation aid on an iPhone and what's the best app to use?