Help with a route finder UK

Trips, adventures, bikes, equipment, etc.
Post Reply
MIB2020
Posts: 167
Joined: 24 Feb 2020, 10:46am

Help with a route finder UK

Post by MIB2020 »

Hi, looking for circular off road routes around the uk , with some reviews , 20 to 50 miles. Nothing too extreme and preferably within 60 miles or so of Birmingham.
Looked at a few different apps but unsure if they are worth subscribing to. Fed up with using an OS map and planning my own routes only to find routes overgrown, no longer suitable , blocked etc
I prefer using a GPS and can download gpx files.

Thanks in advance Mark
User avatar
chris_suffolk
Posts: 738
Joined: 18 Oct 2012, 10:01pm

Re: Help with a route finder UK

Post by chris_suffolk »

MIB2020
Posts: 167
Joined: 24 Feb 2020, 10:46am

Re: Help with a route finder UK

Post by MIB2020 »

Thanks, have seen this, tried a route but it was a bit more hybrid than true mtb.
User avatar
chris_suffolk
Posts: 738
Joined: 18 Oct 2012, 10:01pm

Re: Help with a route finder UK

Post by chris_suffolk »

Problem I have found; it's often very hard to create a route using bridleways and no roads. Hence, in my case at least, why cycle.travel adds in some roads.

You can 'tweak' a cycle.travel route if you can see a bridleway route that it's not using, but I've spent quite some time with paper OS maps spread out and often failed to come up with a decent route that isn't hybrid - especially of the type of length you are looking at.

Good luck
bungle73
Posts: 239
Joined: 26 Feb 2016, 10:19pm

Re: Help with a route finder UK

Post by bungle73 »

Try scouring a bookshop or Amazon for books of MTB routes. There are plenty around, and I have acquired a few over the years. Particularly the ones by Nick Cotton (not the one from EastEnders) are usually reliable. They have all sorts of useful info in them, and you can usually be sure the route is a) worth it, and b) rideable.
MIB2020
Posts: 167
Joined: 24 Feb 2020, 10:46am

Re: Help with a route finder UK

Post by MIB2020 »

Thanks for the help, it’s a difficult one to solve, been doing a mixture of planning and exploring, found so good routes just by following my nose but it’s never guaranteed and does lead to a few dead ends.
Zulu Eleven
Posts: 235
Joined: 26 Oct 2018, 9:25pm

Re: Help with a route finder UK

Post by Zulu Eleven »

Have a look at some of the routes on http://www.shropshiresgreatoutdoors.co.uk/cycling/

Have a look at the horseriding ones too.
User avatar
cycleruk
Posts: 6065
Joined: 17 Jan 2009, 9:30pm
Location: Lancashire

Re: Help with a route finder UK

Post by cycleruk »

You could borrow MTB books from the library.
Join a local-ish MTB club. I gained a lot of route experience and a lot more enjoyment when riding with others.
Virtually all my rides have involved some road riding to join up the off-roads.
I personally found O.S. maps to be the best way to find routes as they show bridleways etc.
Another option are MTB forest routes which have specific laid out trails.
A Google search - "MTB routes" brings up a fair few ideas.
You'll never know if you don't try it.
PacoJones
Posts: 14
Joined: 12 May 2021, 7:12pm

Re: Help with a route finder UK

Post by PacoJones »

Use the Segment Search option in Strava to find off-road segments in the area you're interested in. It will show you all the riders who've been through that segment. Click on each rider to see their activity history. Copy any routes you like the look of that they've done - they'll generally be MTB routes otherwise they wouldn't have been cycling through an off-road segment in the first place.

If you have a Premium Strava subscription, you can get the routes as gpx files, then upload them to Komoot and it will tell you the breakdown of road, cycleway, singletrack, etc and the surfaces (natural, gravel, asphalt, etc).
Richard Fairhurst
Posts: 2029
Joined: 2 Mar 2008, 4:57pm
Location: Charlbury, Oxfordshire

Re: Help with a route finder UK

Post by Richard Fairhurst »

Online MTB/gravel routing isn't yet as good as on-road routing. As a base dataset OpenStreetMap is the only game in town (OS don't have a routable dataset of paths outside National Parks, and Google/HERE/TomTom have virtually nothing), but OSM can be a bit patchy on path permissions - paths will sometimes be marked for a short distance as footpath when they should be bridleway (or restricted byway, or whatever). It's getting better, and some areas have been mapped really well, but there isn't yet a competent off-road router for the whole UK.
cycle.travel - maps, journey-planner, route guides and city guides
User avatar
RickH
Posts: 5832
Joined: 5 Mar 2012, 6:39pm
Location: Horwich, Lancs.

Re: Help with a route finder UK

Post by RickH »

PacoJones wrote: 20 May 2021, 8:29am Use the Segment Search option in Strava to find off-road segments in the area you're interested in. It will show you all the riders who've been through that segment. Click on each rider to see their activity history. Copy any routes you like the look of that they've done - they'll generally be MTB routes otherwise they wouldn't have been cycling through an off-road segment in the first place.

If you have a Premium Strava subscription, you can get the routes as gpx files, then upload them to Komoot and it will tell you the breakdown of road, cycleway, singletrack, etc and the surfaces (natural, gravel, asphalt, etc).
It depends whether it bothers you or not but many of the off road segments near me are not on public paths (although some are on footpaths, a few on bridleways). They are just random routes, often through woods, that have got used & then probably popularised by their presence on Strava.
Former member of the Cult of the Polystyrene Head Carbuncle.
PacoJones
Posts: 14
Joined: 12 May 2021, 7:12pm

Re: Help with a route finder UK

Post by PacoJones »

RickH wrote: 20 May 2021, 11:44am It depends whether it bothers you or not but many of the off road segments near me are not on public paths (although some are on footpaths, a few on bridleways). They are just random routes, often through woods, that have got used & then probably popularised by their presence on Strava.
Yes, that's always possible, even if you pick a Strava segment that is a bridleway or other legit stretch, there's no guarantee all parts of the route will be compliant. However, as the OP is looking at 20-50 mile off-road routes, anything he finds in that vein is likely to be largely following bridleways and the like.

It's always a case of making the best of a sub-optimal situation however you compile a route, the mapping simply isn't that good or up-to-date. However Komoot seems to be quite good at flagging up when your route takes you off permitted ways and offers to reroute you.
Post Reply