Ridewithgps No More

Please be fair and thoughtful in your opinions. No rants please.
maxglide
Posts: 194
Joined: 19 May 2013, 5:35pm

Ridewithgps No More

Post by maxglide »

Ridewithgps is the latest website I use (once used..) fallen victim to the Net disease of, If it 'aint broke, it soon will be. They had, for a few years, a functional useful site, but then they decided to 'improve' it.

Every time you view one of your routes it now defaults to the new 'improved' view, which brilliantly, hides half the screen with a useless 'app, connectivity, iphonery' menu on the left. To return to the old, classic view, you must click on a menu and select, classic view. Every time. And there's no way to keep classic view as the default.

Also the Sign Out icon - which was located logically on the Home page has now been buried on the Help page. It took me 10 minutes to find that out. So another 2 extra clicks to leave.

Hindering of the user thus, requires immediate termination of such services. Bye RWGPS.
Psamathe
Posts: 17650
Joined: 10 Jan 2014, 8:56pm

Re: Ridewithgps No More

Post by Psamathe »

maxglide wrote:Ridewithgps is the latest website I use (once used..) fallen victim to the Net disease of, If it 'aint broke, it soon will be. They had, for a few years, a functional useful site, but then they decided to 'improve' it.

Every time you view one of your routes it now defaults to the new 'improved' view, which brilliantly, hides half the screen with a useless 'app, connectivity, iphonery' menu on the left. To return to the old, classic view, you must click on a menu and select, classic view. Every time. And there's no way to keep classic view as the default.

Also the Sign Out icon - which was located logically on the Home page has now been buried on the Help page. It took me 10 minutes to find that out. So another 2 extra clicks to leave.

Hindering of the user thus, requires immediate termination of such services. Bye RWGPS.

I never trusted their routes after a "test route" sent me down the A14 3 lane cross country trunk route from the Felixstowe container port - with no cycle lane. A route for a cyclist best described as "certain death". So why would a cycle routing site create a cycle route on such a road? Ans: its not really creating cycle routes.

Ian
Bez
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Joined: 10 Feb 2015, 10:41am
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Re: Ridewithgps No More

Post by Bez »

It has its quirks but it still dumps over everything else out there for what I want to do with routes.

My main complaint is the terrible authentication system which means that connecting a third party application to it involves handing over your username and password. They've had a long time to move to something more secure and seemingly haven't shown any intention of doing so.
Cosmicbike
Posts: 39
Joined: 8 Feb 2018, 8:08pm

Re: Ridewithgps No More

Post by Cosmicbike »

For the new foibles, it's still my go to planner. That said, using RwGPS and Veloviewer to plan rides around Explorer squares is annoying, so I have started using Strava's route planner with the Veloviewer add on via Chrome. Working OK so far
althebike
Posts: 242
Joined: 10 May 2018, 12:58pm

Re: Ridewithgps No More

Post by althebike »

My main gripe with ridegsp is that every route contains segments where cycling is not permitted
Bez
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Re: Ridewithgps No More

Post by Bez »

althebike wrote:My main gripe with ridegsp is that every route contains segments where cycling is not permitted


Have you played with the settings? There are driving, cycling and walking modes, and you can get different results according to which map you are using (eg Google vs OSM maps). I find some routes are best constructed using a combination of the above, and occasionally there's even an awkward bit where I have to bring "draw lines" into play to manually link two points that aren't covered by either routing engine.
Psamathe
Posts: 17650
Joined: 10 Jan 2014, 8:56pm

Re: Ridewithgps No More

Post by Psamathe »

Bez wrote:
althebike wrote:My main gripe with ridegsp is that every route contains segments where cycling is not permitted


Have you played with the settings? There are driving, cycling and walking modes, and you can get different results according to which map you are using (eg Google vs OSM maps). I find some routes are best constructed using a combination of the above, and occasionally there's even an awkward bit where I have to bring "draw lines" into play to manually link two points that aren't covered by either routing engine.

Easier to just use https://cycle.travel which does not suffer the same issues and creates excellent routes without all the messing around.

Ian
User avatar
cycleruk
Posts: 6065
Joined: 17 Jan 2009, 9:30pm
Location: Lancashire

Re: Ridewithgps No More

Post by cycleruk »

My go-to route planner. My main gripe is it will sometimes alter the route up or downstream when editing it. Just have to make sure that I put in enough waypoints to keep it on the roads I want. I only use the free version so can't complain. :)
The new style is a not to my liking but it is easy to change to "classic mode" under the more button.
I never "sign out" - should I do?
You'll never know if you don't try it.
Wemmick
Posts: 17
Joined: 1 Nov 2012, 10:48am

Re: Ridewithgps No More

Post by Wemmick »

maxglide wrote:Also the Sign Out icon - which was located logically on the Home page has now been buried on the Help page. It took me 10 minutes to find that out. So another 2 extra clicks to leave.

Really? On my Windows laptop, the drop down icon at top right, for sign out, stays visible in the header of every page.
Bez
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Re: Ridewithgps No More

Post by Bez »

Psamathe wrote:Easier to just use https://cycle.travel which does not suffer the same issues and creates excellent routes without all the messing around.


You see issues and messing around; I see features which give me more control. Cycle.travel is keen on using off-road routes, which is no good if you want to do a road ride, and I haven't spotted any way of changing its routing algorithm. Plus it has other foibles: for instance when dragging part of a route it seems to regularly end up with the via-points in a wonky order, meaning they have to be juggled around manually (this is hugely frustrating and in itself is enough for me not to use it).

With RWGPS I can choose the driving mode for when I want a brisk road ride with few junctions, the cycling mode for when I'm willing and able to use unmetalled roads and/or twiddle my way through quieter lanes, and the walking mode for planning mountain bike routes. And I can switch at will so that I can do sections of each within a single ride as I wish, without having to place lots of markers to negotiate with an algorithm that wants to plan me a different type of ride. Plus I can swap maps: Opencyclemap is great for following marked routes (I have one on the go currently which uses several stretches of Voie Verte which would be insanely hard on Google Maps) whilst I prefer Google Maps for road ride planning because I've become familiar with it and OSM is absolutely terrible at deciding what labels to display on settlements.

Don't get me wrong, Cycle.travel's nice enough if it works well for how you happen to plan routes. But RWGPS works much better for how I happen to plan mine. (I'm not sure if Cycle.travel supports other features that I use in RWGPS, like custom cue sheets, ride splitting/extending, and so on.)
Last edited by Bez on 4 Sep 2018, 10:38pm, edited 1 time in total.
Bez
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Re: Ridewithgps No More

Post by Bez »

Wemmick wrote:Really? On my Windows laptop, the drop down icon at top right, for sign out, stays visible in the header of every page.


Same here on Not Windows :)
althebike
Posts: 242
Joined: 10 May 2018, 12:58pm

Re: Ridewithgps No More

Post by althebike »

Bez,
My post was incorrect, I was referring to cyclestreets, and just confusing myself when I posted, please disregard my post.
100%JR
Posts: 1138
Joined: 31 May 2016, 10:47pm
Location: High Green,Sheffield.

Re: Ridewithgps No More

Post by 100%JR »

Change happens!
Personally I don't find it that much different but I still prefer Strava for plotting routes in an unfamiliar area.
pete75
Posts: 16370
Joined: 24 Jul 2007, 2:37pm

Re: Ridewithgps No More

Post by pete75 »

maxglide wrote:Ridewithgps is the latest website I use (once used..) fallen victim to the Net disease of, If it 'aint broke, it soon will be. They had, for a few years, a functional useful site, but then they decided to 'improve' it.

Every time you view one of your routes it now defaults to the new 'improved' view, which brilliantly, hides half the screen with a useless 'app, connectivity, iphonery' menu on the left. To return to the old, classic view, you must click on a menu and select, classic view. Every time. And there's no way to keep classic view as the default.

Also the Sign Out icon - which was located logically on the Home page has now been buried on the Help page. It took me 10 minutes to find that out. So another 2 extra clicks to leave.

Hindering of the user thus, requires immediate termination of such services. Bye RWGPS.


Go to settings RWGSLABS and disable Route Page Beta. This gets rid of the side pane and keeps the setting.

Sign out is one of the option sunder the cyclist icon on the top right hand corner of every page apart from the help page.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
pete75
Posts: 16370
Joined: 24 Jul 2007, 2:37pm

Re: Ridewithgps No More

Post by pete75 »

Psamathe wrote:
maxglide wrote:Ridewithgps is the latest website I use (once used..) fallen victim to the Net disease of, If it 'aint broke, it soon will be. They had, for a few years, a functional useful site, but then they decided to 'improve' it.

Every time you view one of your routes it now defaults to the new 'improved' view, which brilliantly, hides half the screen with a useless 'app, connectivity, iphonery' menu on the left. To return to the old, classic view, you must click on a menu and select, classic view. Every time. And there's no way to keep classic view as the default.

Also the Sign Out icon - which was located logically on the Home page has now been buried on the Help page. It took me 10 minutes to find that out. So another 2 extra clicks to leave.

Hindering of the user thus, requires immediate termination of such services. Bye RWGPS.

I never trusted their routes after a "test route" sent me down the A14 3 lane cross country trunk route from the Felixstowe container port - with no cycle lane. A route for a cyclist best described as "certain death". So why would a cycle routing site create a cycle route on such a road? Ans: its not really creating cycle routes.

Ian


Interesting. What settings did you use - optimise for driving perhaps? Have just plotted a route from Cambridge to Felixstowe port and nowhere does it use the A14. I had optimise for cycling selected.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
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