Cycle Travel Question

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
stu1102
Posts: 108
Joined: 24 Jun 2013, 8:38pm
Location: Beeston, Nottignham

Cycle Travel Question

Post by stu1102 »

I am doing a ride between Nottingham and Oxford and have found this excellent route planner and site



http://cycle.travel/ Click on 'map' in the top bar and you get to the map and route-planner.

The map itself is intended to highlight important stuff for cyclists, so minor roads don't disappear into the background, NCN routes are shown (but not to the exclusion of all else), there's subtle contours and hillshading

The route-planner is draggable like Googles Maps , but more bike-friendly. It likes minor roads and traffic-free paths, perfect for my wife the route planner also takes account of surfaces

Another nice feature is the ability to click a 'route' you have made in 'Cycle Travel' and get a Google Street view rendition of the route at a particular point


Turn-by-turn directions PDF also shows the place names along the route so you can navigate through the countryside by going from one village to the next

Also allows you to save the route as a GPX track or route file, TCX file or KML file


thank you Richard for all your hard work, we cant thank you enough,we have been to some beautiful roads, tracks, etc in France\UK using cycle travel







Dr X. Lin MD & Stuart Lunn
Last edited by stu1102 on 26 Jun 2020, 8:17pm, edited 12 times in total.
Sooper8
Posts: 864
Joined: 20 Aug 2012, 7:53am

Re: New Route Planner

Post by Sooper8 »

Thanks for that!
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Sweep
Posts: 8441
Joined: 20 Oct 2011, 4:57pm
Location: London

Re: New Route Planner

Post by Sweep »

I'd be interested in any gpx route you may devise between Nottingham and Oxford - any chance of a PM for you to send it to me?
Sweep
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simonineaston
Posts: 7993
Joined: 9 May 2007, 1:06pm
Location: ...at a cricket ground

Re: New Route Planner

Post by simonineaston »

That looks rather good at first glance - thanks for the tip.
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
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Graham
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Joined: 14 Dec 2006, 8:48pm

Re: New Route Planner

Post by Graham »

It was previously commented on by CJ, on the Forum, here

It is now my planner of preference.

The website author - Richard Fairhurst - is a member of this forum. Rules prevent him from promoting it himself here, but that does not stop others from singing its praises.
stu1102
Posts: 108
Joined: 24 Jun 2013, 8:38pm
Location: Beeston, Nottignham

Re: New Route Planner

Post by stu1102 »

Thanks Graham that's a very useful thread you've highlighted there in regards to this planner.....certainly aided my understanding

Sweep : have a go with planning a route between Nottingham and Oxord, if you really get stuck let me know.....it really is first class
Mark1978
Posts: 4912
Joined: 17 Jul 2012, 8:47am
Location: Chester-le-Street, County Durham

Re: New Route Planner

Post by Mark1978 »

It looks a bit - odd. I'll stick with the Strava planner.
DaleFTW
Posts: 318
Joined: 8 Jun 2013, 7:18pm

Re: New Route Planner

Post by DaleFTW »

That's actually pretty good. Big up Richard Fairhurst.
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al_yrpal
Posts: 11526
Joined: 25 Jul 2007, 9:47pm
Location: Think Cheddar and Cider
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Re: New Route Planner

Post by al_yrpal »

Looks interesting. I would like to support this because it is British.

I registered and it said it would send me an email, but it didn't?

Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
Richard Fairhurst
Posts: 2027
Joined: 2 Mar 2008, 4:57pm
Location: Charlbury, Oxfordshire

Re: New Route Planner

Post by Richard Fairhurst »

Thanks for all the kind comments! I wanted to build a route-planner that followed the sort of routes that I (and I think many other UK cyclists) enjoy - quiet roads but not at the cost of impossible gradients, cycleways but not quagmires, and with a background map that shows minor roads prominently. Oh, and pubs and cafés.

Still lots to do (never mind the rest of the site!) but the nice comments mean a lot - thanks.

Al - sorry, the eternal curse of registration mails falling victim to spamtraps I think. I've manually enabled your account; anyone else having problems, do send me a PM and I'll do the same.
cycle.travel - maps, journey-planner, route guides and city guides
freeflow
Posts: 1634
Joined: 29 Aug 2011, 1:54pm

Re: New Route Planner

Post by freeflow »

Tried using this to plot the route for the Rutland and Beyond Audax I'm doing this weekend. I failed to get the route to go along the A47 from the start on Haynes Road (Leicester) so gave up after 10 minutes trying. Other issues were that I wanted to scale the map greater than was allowed and that it wan't easily apparent how you edited the route. Not useable for me at the present unfortunately.
Norman H
Posts: 1330
Joined: 31 Jul 2011, 4:39pm

Re: New Route Planner

Post by Norman H »

Don't be discouraged by the odd negative comment. I had a quick play when you first went public and thought it was excellent. I recently recommended it to an End-to-Ender and she thought it was fantastic.

Congratulations
Richard Fairhurst
Posts: 2027
Joined: 2 Mar 2008, 4:57pm
Location: Charlbury, Oxfordshire

Re: New Route Planner

Post by Richard Fairhurst »

@freeflow - it's not really a 'plotting tool', to be honest; if you know the exact route you want to follow, something like BikeHike or RideWithGPS will suit you much better.

cycle.travel is designed as a route-finder rather than a plotter; you put in the places you want to go, and it finds a nice quiet route between them. The "nice quiet route" criterion rules out the A47, because it'll always try to route away from busy roads like that. I used to live just outside Uppingham and there was absolutely no way you'd have got me on the A47 on my bike, but you may be tougher than me. ;)
cycle.travel - maps, journey-planner, route guides and city guides
Galloper
Posts: 217
Joined: 6 Dec 2012, 2:21pm

Re: New Route Planner

Post by Galloper »

I like this a lot, just tried out the mapping by putting in a circular route for an area I know well and it came up with a lovely route, part of which would never have occurred to me.

Excellent.
freeflow
Posts: 1634
Joined: 29 Aug 2011, 1:54pm

Re: New Route Planner

Post by freeflow »

@freeflow - it's not really a 'plotting tool', to be honest;


No problem then. I was just fooled by the topic title. I was hopeful as mapmyride has been very laggy over the past few weeks.
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