Cycling UK Forum

Does anyone know of a bike satnav that offers a "quiet route" option? I often need to cycle to new destinations in central London but I don't want to be on main roads.

(I currently use the Bikehub satnav app, but this is a little 'cranky' and it's time to upgrade to a really sound piece of kit if I can find one.)

Thanks!

I'm not clued up on satnav 'apps' but if you were looking for say, a specific gps device, several of us here use the Garmin eTrex 20 which goes for around £130 - £150 ish depending on where you shop.
Velomaps http://www.velomap.org/download/odbl/#E ... _downloads when installed on your gps and set to autoroute tends to favour cycle friendly routes although as the program won't distinguish between mountain bike and road bike, your route could very well be a mud plugging event at one end and nice paved roads on the other.
There is of course the safe option of plotting your own known route and uploading that into the gps and then just following the pink line onscreen.

Try this page: http://www.cyclestreets.net/

There is also an Android bicycle satnav app - Bikeroute that uses the above site to calculate routes - and you can download all the maps to your phone - so as long as you plan the route whilst you have a data connection, you only need a gps 'lock' to navigate.

One of the Mio (Magellan) Cyclo family of bike computers might work for you.

You can create multiple bike profiles (6) for the desired routing type: City bike, Race bike, Mountain bike, Car, or Running.

For each routing type you can set the routing preference by selecting Prefer, Allow, or Try to avoid in each route option.

The route options are:
Major roads
Cycle routes
Unpaved roads
Cobblestone*
Highway
Ferries
Walking routes

(* For OSM only)

There is also a Surprise Me function which will offer 3 alternative routes.

BikeHub route planner gives you the option of fastest route, balanced route or quietest route with a GPX download option

My Garmin allows you to avoid certain routes, and you can even specify cycling or walking as the activity.

For my own point, I've set mine to "automotive" because I don't want it navigating me along cycle tracks. I've set it to avoid toll roads and major highways, but navigate as if I'm a car.

You have to be careful to use the right settings for the combination of satnavs & mapping you have.

Some OSM based cycle mapping uses the "highway" (motorway) tag on cycle paths so using the default car settings will route on cycle paths in preference to other roads. Check info from the mapping source for more info.

Rick.

Mick F wrote:My Garmin allows you to avoid certain routes, and you can even specify cycling or walking as the activity.

For my own point, I've set mine to "automotive" because I don't want it navigating me along cycle tracks. I've set it to avoid toll roads and major highways, but navigate as if I'm a car.

Mick I came to exactly the same conclusion for the same reasons

Oh, and another thing.
If my Garmin navigates me as a cyclist or walker, it has no comprehension of hills!
Main roads tend to be less hilly.

I could buy the topographic maps from Garmin, and that could help.
http://www.garmin.com/uk/topolight

On a similar subject - is it possible to stop CycleStreets from including walking sections?

Cycle.travel (in chrome browser)
EsvFile Explorer App
OSMand App

I use cycle.travel which calculates its routes from the density of traffic. It gives you the routes with the least motorised traffic and makes some use of decent bridleways etc. If you set it to export the route to a gpx file and then open that file with ES File Explorer it will open a route in Osmand, and that gives you excellent voice guided navigation instructions and an on screen display. Its far superior to Garmin, I sold mine after trying this combination.

All on my android phone and although it sounds complicated its not and it all takes just a couple of minutes to sort out an excellent route. I use it a lot.

Al

al_yrpal wrote:Cycle.travel (in chrome browser)
EsvFile Explorer App
OSMand App

I use cycle.travel which calculates its routes from the density of traffic. It gives you the routes with the least motorised traffic and makes some use of decent bridleways etc. If you set it to export the route to a gpx file and then open that file with ES File Explorer it will open a route in Osmand, and that gives you excellent voice guided navigation instructions and an on screen display. Its far superior to Garmin, I sold mine after trying this combination.

All on my android phone and although it sounds complicated its not and it all takes just a couple of minutes to sort out an excellent route. I use it a lot.

Al

Al, do you do all of that on the phone, so
1. Plan a route on the phone using cycletravel in chrome
2. save the *gpx file somewhere and then open it via ES file explorer, which opens it in osmand?

thanks

al_yrpal wrote:Cycle.travel (in chrome browser)
EsvFile Explorer App
OSMand App

I use cycle.travel which calculates its routes from the density of traffic. It gives you the routes with the least motorised traffic and makes some use of decent bridleways etc. If you set it to export the route to a gpx file and then open that file with ES File Explorer it will open a route in Osmand, and that gives you excellent voice guided navigation instructions and an on screen display. Its far superior to Garmin, I sold mine after trying this combination.

All on my android phone and although it sounds complicated its not and it all takes just a couple of minutes to sort out an excellent route. I use it a lot.

Al

This sounds interesting - I'm going to give this a closer look - thanks

Just one thing to add, a decent size external battery to keep the phone going. I put the phone in the transparent map holder on top of my bar bag. When external power is needed I just connect the cable to the phone. The battery is carried inside tbe bar bag. if you want to deviate from the route cycle.travel produces you can simply drag the points to where you want. I often do routes on the bigger screen of the PC or a tablet and simply copy the .gpx file to the phone, but you can do it all on your phone if you have good eyesight.

Al

My recommendation for external battery pack is to run with them plugged in from the off then if it starts to rain you can disconnect with a good level of charge in the phone.