Cycling UK Forum

When I'm cycling out of my home patch it would be really useful to know the whereabouts of facilities I might need if I hit problems.
I'm thinking primarily of bike shops but it might be a bike friendly cafe, train station, taxi, psychoanalyst or whatever.

I could just ask a passerby, but I spend a lot of time on backlanes so often there aren't any and in any case it's good to be self-sufficient.
I could look them all up before I leave home but I don't always decide in advance where I'm going and anyway don't wan't to spend my time like that......

Does anyone know of a website where the public posts all this sort of stuff so that cycling-specific info for a specific area can be downloaded and either printed out or transfered to a GPS?

(there used to be something similar in the early days of GPS for car drivers (e.g. speed camera locations) before all that sort of thing came as standard).

If not do you think it would be useful? Maybe CTC should consider extending the bike-friendly B&B thingy on their web site?

Thanks

Doug.

The experience seems to be that it is not easy to get people to share their knowledge in the way you suggest and it's hard to keep it up-to-date when they do.

I think most of the sites which present this type of information already, usually for drivers, are basically a form of advertising where the providers of the particular service keep their own info current and pay for the privilege of it being displayed.

Even the Association of Cycle Traders doesn't seem to think it's worth publishing a map or similar to help cyclists away from their home area to find a bike shop.

I'm not up with GPSs but you can set up Google Maps with your own info on them. Sustrans seems to be trying to put all their pot hole info onto one and it could be possible for CTC (or even somebody on this forum independently) to set up a map of cycle places that we could all add to. I don't know if this could then be placed into a GPS or not.

As example here is a map of my local Fairtrade outlets
Link

<Mod: post edited to shorten link>

Try the following link:

http://www.ctc-maps.org.uk/cyclists_welcome/by_location

Snakes wrote:Try the following link:

http://www.ctc-maps.org.uk/cyclists_welcome/by_location

Snakes: I can see how this would be good for forward planning but there doesn't seem to be a way of extracting information in a usable format to take with me just in case.

A print of bike shop names and telephone numbers isn't much good without an indication of where they are - unless you know where you're going to break down.

The list is very sparsely populated at the momement - e.g. 2 bike shops within 20 miles of Manchester.
I'd be happy to spend some time putting information into it if there was some way of extracting the information in some usable format and taking it with me on a ride.
Or am I missing something?

zenzinnia wrote:I'm not up with GPSs but you can set up Google Maps with your own info on them. Sustrans seems to be trying to put all their pot hole info onto one and it could be possible for CTC (or even somebody on this forum independently) to set up a map of cycle places that we could all add to. I don't know if this could then be placed into a GPS or not.

As example here is a map of my local Fairtrade outlets
Link

<Mod: post edited to shorten link>

Thanks zenzinnia - I'll have a look at this.

i have GOOGLE MAPS on my phone....its exactly the same as the internet site...just search for say a bike shop - and it shows you where they are near to your location....and it gives directions

here is a website where you can download it free direct to your phone ( if you have the suitable software and cable )

http://mosh.nokia.com/search?find=google+map

the software i use to transfer GOOGLE MAPS to the phone is called NOKIA PC SUITE...this may be downloadable off the internet but i have it on a CD.

lauriematt wrote:i have GOOGLE MAPS on my phone....its exactly the same as the internet site...just search for say a bike shop - and it shows you where they are near to your location....and it gives directions

here is a website where you can download it free direct to your phone ( if you have the suitable software and cable )

http://mosh.nokia.com/search?find=google+map

the software i use to transfer GOOGLE MAPS to the phone is called NOKIA PC SUITE...this may be downloadable off the internet but i have it on a CD.

Lauriematt: following zenzinnia's suggestion I've been looking at google maps this evening. I'd just twigged about running it from my phone and was downloaded the application to give it a try when an email arrived to tell me that you'd posted a reply to my question! All this technology

It does exactly what I want - even lists them in the order of nearest first. And will also work for all the other things I listed on my OP - will provide a great safety net when I'm out and about.

Thanks for the help on this - I'm dead pleased.

lauriematt wrote:i have GOOGLE MAPS on my phone....its exactly the same as the internet site...just search for say a bike shop - and it shows you where they are near to your location....and it gives directions

here is a website where you can download it free direct to your phone ( if you have the suitable software and cable )

http://mosh.nokia.com/search?find=google+map

the software i use to transfer GOOGLE MAPS to the phone is called NOKIA PC SUITE...this may be downloadable off the internet but i have it on a CD.

Lauriematt: following zenzinnia's suggestion I've been looking at google maps this evening. I'd just twigged about running it from my phone and was downloaded the application to give it a try when an email arrived to tell me that you'd posted a reply to my question! All this technology

It does exactly what I want - even lists them in the order of nearest first. And will also work for all the other things I listed on my OP - will provide a great safety net when I'm out and about.

Thanks for the help on this - I'm dead pleased.

i used it when i cycled Lands End to John o Groats this summer....because my maps werent very detailed - it was handy just to be able to view local maps as close up as i wanted!

i even use it locally when i need to see where an address is or where a pub is etc.......brill

I have POI files loaded into my GPS. Garmin have some of their own which arnt all that useful for a cyclist. However I have Lot's of UK & European campsites, bike shops etc which are more cyclist orientated.

http://archiescampings.eu/eng2/

http://www.gps-data-team.com/poi/

http://www.poiplaza.com/index.php?p=co

http://www.poihandler.com/overview.aspx

http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modules.php?name=POIs

there are other links just google for POI files you want.

Decathlon & Halfords are also POI sets worth having if you are on a busted bike in the rain.

You will need to download garmins POI loader
http://www8.garmin.com/products/poiloader/

to get the info into a Garmin GPS...dunno about other makes.

Multimap has some facilities

HikerBiker also has some handy links such as cashpoints, bikeshops, etc.

Mainly I research before the trip nd have a list of facilities on my laptop

lauriematt

Thanks for that. Amazing the things you find out on here. I regularly look at Google maps and it had never occurred to me you could find bike shops like that. Obviously, the ones with their own website that you can then check for opening times etc are the best but the fact that some businesses still don't have a www is not the fault of the system.

I've been using my iPhone as it has Google Maps and the Internet to get me all the information I need. What I do need though is a compass on the bike, because a GPS compass is useless unless you're moving in a straight line.

In all fairness though, I think some of the high end Nokia phones are more suited to cyclists than the iPhone. They have the same applications but the phone is more rugged and you can run apps in the background, such as GPS tracking of your route.

If you are riding a pre planned route why not look up listings for bike shops etc on yellow pages .com for the area then just mark them on your map...not perfect but simple and cheap...and weightless given the need to take the map anyway.