Myself and a few colleges are in the early stages of planning a long-distance (Approx 350 miles) ride later this year.

Are there any good internet applications that can be used for route planning? We’d be after a quiet route, rather than a quick one.

Also, we’d be going from the East-Mids to the South-West. Would we be better off going the other direction?

Google maps? works as a really basic route planner, street view is useful to confirm if roads are really roads or tracks. write the route on paper, no technology to go wrong with out in the middle of nowhere.

Single or multiple days, 350 miles in a single day isn’t really doable unless very high speed & no stopping even for a comfort breaks.

Don’t know about direction, but try sustrans routes if your after quiet over quick. Their website has a just about usable map app thingy.

I use google maps (here in Spain), stick in enough waypoints and you can easily avoid motorways etc.

http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/

use this to plan our lejog – you can print out paper maps and course files as well as upload to a gps

You could try bikehub

http://routes.bikehub.co.uk/

Planned the whole of my LEJOG last year using ridewithgps.com

I’ve found openstreetmap works best on bikeroutetoaster. Often google maps doesn’t know about little cycle lanes and things that join up otherwise disconnected roads.

Also, if any of you are using a Garmin, there is a great new course creator on the Routes section of your homepage.

I used bike hike to plan a John O’groats to Lands End ride, gives you the elevations too which was useful as well as the option of snapping to roads when planing. Uses OS maps I beleive and you can download/ save and upload files again if needs be.

bike hike

Thanks for the info, chaps!

We certainly won’t be riding the route in a day – perhaps 4 or 5 days is more realistic.

I’ve never riden that sort of distance before, so it’ll be interesting, to say the least!

http://www.ridewithgps.com is also great 🙂

Some good advice up there. As regards directi9on I would suggest riding ‘home’. No messing about at the other end waiting for a lift or train ride.

Doing Berwick to Derby did it the ‘wrong’ way as we lived at the South end.

For my LEJOG, I bought a large scale road atlas, and marked up a route with a highlighter. Tear out the pages you need and stick them in a map holder on your bars. Job done.

bikeroutetoaster always works well for me.

You could try Cyclestreets. http://www.cyclestreets.net/
It has options for planning a quieter route instead of the fastest route.

Not tried it myself as I don’t have an i-phone – but THIS could help – app showing the entire National Cycle Network. Alternatively you can get a map. Not everyones cup of tea but they are quiet routes which is what you askedfor in the original post

I use bikehike.co.uk. It can route using Open Cycle Map as well as Google. You can see it side-by-side with an OS map which is very handy.

Watch out if routing using Google – it’s knowledge of what is and isn’t a road can be a bit iffy, and on more than one occasion I’ve had a planned road route put me on a byway that would be a lot more fun on a mountain bike, and on another on a road that wasn’t even a through road (or a legal RoW). Having the OS map usually makes these things clear.

I’ve had a lot of success with planning routes this way even in unknown areas. Just spend as much time as possible on yellow roads on the OS map and it’s hard to go wrong.

I’d definitely recommend a GPS. Following a quiet route often means doing the opposite of what sign posts say, with lots of minor junctions. A GPS means you don’t have to stop to look at a map.

SW to home means you get the lumpy bit done early doors, but more importantly, means travelling with the prevailing wind, rather than against.