Cycle Travel Question

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
Psamathe
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Re: Cycle Travel Question

Post by Psamathe »

doodah wrote:I suspect the answer will be -"No". So here is the question.....

Can Archies Campsite app be imported / overlaid into cycle.travel?

"Why?" I hear you ask. The reason is that I make my route on ct and then export it as gpx to Basecamp where I have Archies imported.

I then open the route and overlay the Archies app of the country that I will be cycling through. This then shows all the campsites. I select all the campsites on and near my route and put them as waypoints into my route and save.

When I open my route - using Garmin Oregon 600 - I have a gpx route with all the waypoints (campsites) nearby. Each campsite has all the info eg. telephone number, opening times inc seasonal, location co ordinates inc elevation and facilities. A boon.

Brilliant when I was doing the first half of the EV6 and going from Narbonne to Europoort last year.

The problem I have now is that my Mac has been updated with Big Sur and consequently made Base camp reallllly sloooooow - not just for me but for all users. It may seem a faff to some of you but it works a treat for me and gives a lot of flexibility and confidence to stray from your chosen route, if so desired.

So can Archies be imported / overlaid into cycle.travel?

Phew! Thank you.
Doodah

My "workflow" (horrible word) when touring (where I create a route each evening plus backup for the following coupe of days) is to use my iPad to select a sensible destination, then create the route in cycle.travel. Apps I use are iPad/iPhone specific (sorry) so if you don't use iPad alternative apps I'm unaware of would be needed.

Using https://mapout.app on the iPad I load Archies gpx int that app (which it handles really easily) and select a good destination site (and MapOut has some excellent tools to help in that regard incl. altitude plots, contours, etc.). Once destination chosen I use cycle.travel to create a route to the destination and download it gpx -> MapOut on iPad & iPhone and .tcx to Garmin. The gpx to iPad & iPhone is not really necessary, more of a backup.

cycle.travel does seem to show campsites but the icons are small and not too clear and have no details and (nothing to do with cycle.travel) - you have to zoom in a fair level. I suspect there are more marks than exist in the real world (cycle.travel can only show what OpenStreetMap data indicates).

Ian
doodah
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Re: Cycle Travel Question

Post by doodah »

Jdsk wrote:The biggest problems I've had with Garmins and USBs have been with the cable! This has never been fully explained but it does work better with official Garmin cables than some others. This only applies to data transfer rather than charging. It's been repeatedly reported on the Garmin support site.

I suggest trying the following and then reporting back:

With each of many cables as possible see if they:
1 Support charging.
2 Allow the Garmin device to mount as a volume in the Finder.
3 Allow connection to Garmin Express (the test that you've just done with one cable).


Thanks again Jonathan,
The answer to all 3 questions is 'Yes'. I will look for the dedicated cable that the Oregon came with and see if that works. The Oregon did get updated as I plugged it in and you know what can happen then. Still, thanks to your earlier post, I have my default and looking further down at the next post, there looks to be an even better option.

Thank you for your time - appreciated.
Ian
doodah
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Re: Cycle Travel Question

Post by doodah »

Hi Ian,

Thanks for the reply and the link to mapout.app. I also have an iPad and this just might be the ticket, especially as iPad does not support Basecamp -why?

Yes, I realise that ct shows campsites but one has to zoom in and 'search' for them. The beauty of using Archies is that the campsites can be marked as waypoints and flag up automatically as you near them. Also, it is easy to scroll down the list of waypoints and find one ahead without searching on a map. A press of the waypoint and it takes you there.

I have no beef with ct at all. It is an excellent route planning app. I just like to enhance it on the Garmin for my style of touring.
If I have any questions with mapout, is it ok to pm you rather than hijack this thread -or will that be considered bad form in regards to not sharing info?

Thank you also for your input.

Ian
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andrew_s
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Re: Cycle Travel Question

Post by andrew_s »

Psamathe wrote:cycle.travel does seem to show campsites but the icons are small and not too clear and have no details and (nothing to do with cycle.travel) - you have to zoom in a fair level. I suspect there are more marks than exist in the real world (cycle.travel can only show what OpenStreetMap data indicates).

For campsites in C.T., you've got...
1) tent/caravan symbols, as part of the OSM background.
These show whenever zoomed in sufficiently, but have no details at all.

2) Create a route, and select Hotels and Campsites --> Camping
This adds markers for all Archies campsites that are reasonably close to the route (3 miles/5 km?). These show at all zoom levels (more or less), and if you click on a marker you get the campsite name and phone number, plus links for the Archies website & app.
Note that Archies doesn't distinguish between tent campsites and caravan campsites, and all users campsites and members only Caravan Club/CCC certificated locations

The two are unrelated, and I believe that both are updated roughly monthly, and will reflect whatever is the latest state of OSM edits and reports to Archies.

The Archies campsites don't seem to get included on a GPS export (possible enhanchment?)
Angstrom
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Location: Montpellier, France

Re: Cycle Travel Question

Post by Angstrom »

andrew_s wrote:The Archies campsites don't seem to get included on a GPS export (possible enhanchment?)


I believe this could be resulting from Archies owning the Intellectual Property. Archies sell their app.
I have purchased Archies separately. When I have spotted a suitable Campsite I search it in Archies DB in where I can access the full details.
It isn't "seamless" but is good enough for me.
A link from CT to the Archies app on ANdroid would be quite nice.
"A cycle tourist doesn't have a track record. Just memories". Jean Taboureau
doodah
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Re: Cycle Travel Question

Post by doodah »

Angstrom wrote:
andrew_s wrote:The Archies campsites don't seem to get included on a GPS export (possible enhanchment?)


I believe this could be resulting from Archies owning the Intellectual Property. Archies sell their app.
I have purchased Archies separately. When I have spotted a suitable Campsite I search it in Archies DB in where I can access the full details.
It isn't "seamless" but is good enough for me.
A link from CT to the Archies app on ANdroid would be quite nice.


A link from CT to the Archies app on iPhone would be EVEN better. :-)

In fact, a link from Garmin Connect to Garmin Express on my iMac would be impressive :-(

Better still, a link from Garmin Customer Support to my inbox would be stupendous :-)
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mjr
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Re: Cycle Travel Question

Post by mjr »

Richard Fairhurst wrote:I think the full range of options are now there in the new mobile interface (I've just added undo), albeit in different places to the desktop.

I can't find undo. Or save! Where is it on mobile, please?
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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Richard Fairhurst
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Re: Cycle Travel Question

Post by Richard Fairhurst »

Hamburger menu! Top right.
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mjr
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Re: Cycle Travel Question

Post by mjr »

Richard Fairhurst wrote:Hamburger menu! Top right.

There is no hamburger menu! Well, except the browser one, which doesn't contain anything relevant.
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Psamathe
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Re: Cycle Travel Question

Post by Psamathe »

mjr wrote:
Richard Fairhurst wrote:Hamburger menu! Top right.

There is no hamburger menu! Well, except the browser one, which doesn't contain anything relevant.

Is it a font issue? as on my iPhone/Safari I get a hamburger menu character just to the right of the lat and long bar near the top - but you have a black box/X symbol there.

Ian
Richard Fairhurst
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Re: Cycle Travel Question

Post by Richard Fairhurst »

I think that's it. It's a Unicode character that looks hamburgery (☰). I'll look into whether there are any alternatives.
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mjr
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Re: Cycle Travel Question

Post by mjr »

Ah, pushing X revealed the menu rather than losing the route. Not obvious!

Other sites show hamburgers. I'll see if I can identify the character and font when I next use that device.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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Richard Fairhurst
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Re: Cycle Travel Question

Post by Richard Fairhurst »

Big new update today!

cycle.travel now uses scenic quality as one of its factors in choosing the best route. It's a gentle adjustment that mostly shows through on longer routes - it won't affect a short cross-town route much, and longer routes only subtly. But cycle.travel is all about finding an enjoyable route, and scenery is part of that.

A couple of examples: if you ask for Liverpool–Manchester, it'll now choose the Trans-Pennine Trail and (upgraded bits of the) Bridgewater Canal towpath, rather than just hammering down the East Lancs Road cycleway a few yards from the lorries. If you ask for Oxford to St Davids, it'll go via the Brecon Beacons, rather than (as previously) the Valleys. Or for Oxford to Bristol, it now ventures into the Cotswolds instead of a less interesting route via Carterton.

And this one amused me: if you ask for a route from Land's End to John O'Groats, its default suggestion now takes you via the sainted Rob's Passage! (As far as the A396, that is - it then heads off on different lanes.)

It's now live for all route-finding in the UK/Europe. I'll be adding it to Australia, NZ and North America soon (but that requires tracking down some new data).
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Sweep
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Re: Cycle Travel Question

Post by Sweep »

it's a wonderful routefinder richard but must admit to some worries about this.

Points I am wondering about.

Is this likely to add much distance to a route? - no idea if possible to say what this, very roughly, might add to say a 100 mile route?

Isn't scenic somewhat subjective?

The idea sounds interesting to someone who in the last lockdown easing cycled from Dorset to chichester on a cycletravel route that did indeed send me up miles of cycleroute alongside lots of traffic fumes but I just put that down to the problematical nature of that bit of the country and lived with it.
Sweep
Richard Fairhurst
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Re: Cycle Travel Question

Post by Richard Fairhurst »

It typically doesn't make a massive difference mileage-wise - sometimes it's even shorter. I think Land's End to John O'Groats has gone up from 989 miles to 1001. While testing, the differences I found were between -10% (i.e. new route 10% shorter) and +7% - so on average it probably balances out. There are plenty of journeys, of course, where the existing route is scenic enough already so it won't make a difference!
cycle.travel - maps, journey-planner, route guides and city guides
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