[Closed] how do you navigate long road rides?!

Easy, have a rough idea of where you want to go, and ride! This is the joy of the road bike! I'm re living my teenage years, when I used to just go for drives, to see what was out there and drive down roads to see where they go!

GPS unit or GPS/mapping on my phone. or just get out and learn the area with a map as backup.

Sign posts .

I always have a rough idea where I was heading, moving between villages and towns using b roads where at all possible, I tend to carry a couple of OS maps with me, and a GPS phone. Never really have much of a destination in mind though.

Plan on bikeroutetoaster then follow the beeps on the Garmin.

It is worth at least pawing over maps before you go out - just going out and following road signs tends to take you along the shortest, busiest routes. I'm out to ride, not arrive, so seeking out the less direct way of getting places (or not quite get places then) is more interesting.

It used to be the case that I'd try and look out the most interesting circuit, but in fact some of the more interesting rides round here come from deliberately going along roads that are dead ends.

I tend to have stared at a map for a while before I go out, sometimes have a scan or print of the map in my pocket if I need my memory jogged, and sometimes have no real plan but a iPhone in my pocket to check my options. If you've planned a particularly detailed route then one of those little map holders on your bars is useful to save rummaging for a map too often, I find most on the market are too big/stiff, if found one thats about 5" square and soft backed, but I got it about 10 years ago from somewhere or other.

Had a great ride yesterday mostly on roads I've never noticed before, went out with half an idea, stopped to share jelly sweeties with a lovely veteran lady cyclist who gave me a mountain of tips and routes that lead to roads and landscape (and an especially fine eatery) on my doorstep that I knew nothing about.

Back in my day...

pawing over a map 🙂

I have a friend who asks for ballpoint figures...

just going out and following road signs tends to take you along the shortest, busiest routes

Depends what signs!

Round my way there are plenty of the old style black and white road signs like this:

[img] [/img]
(Not a local one!)

Which are usually on the less travelled roads as on the busy routes they've all been replaced.

pawing over a map

Your thinking of 'pore over' as in 'study closely'. I'm not that thorough. I mean to paw over - like a bear checking whether his dinner is dead yet

Quick look at a map before I set off for a rough idea of waypoints then just follow signs and nous

I prefer pawing 😉

Combination of:
Routes I already know
Signs
o/s maps chopped up so they fit nicely in a jersey pocket
Stopping to locate myself is a nice way to get a quick rest and enjoy the scenery
or, find a local club, they'll know the best roads for riding

I don't pour over the map tho, that would blur the ink

I usually pick simple routes so I've only got to remember a handful of road signs, does tent to mean busier roads but on the moors the quieter roads tend to be the even steeper ones!

Use The Force.

If its in a 40 mile radius of here, just follow my nose and link bits together. If you ride enough you'll soon know all the little roads (and potholes) in the area anyway.
Dodge big black clouds and try and get a tailwind home 🙂
If all else fails, aim for the sea and turn left or right depending on where i hit the coastline.
Heading out for 60 odd miles in a minute, no idea where i'll end up, just make it up as i go along.

Back when I did road centuries, I'd note some places I'd like to pass through, like pretty villages, decent hills etc and then figure out a route that took them all in via back roads. Then I'd either photocopy the map page or tear it out of the atlas (sorry dad). Most of the time I could remember to go left or right at certain places. And if not, it was always fun getting lost-ish. What you have to watch out for is an outward tailwind...

some tips I heard was to write out the juctions and tape to bars tear off when passed.

I wrote a list of turnings and tried not to sweat it to death (only 15 miles extra)

Possibly thinking google maps and laminater and phone maps

Garmin Edge 800 seems easiest...

Draw route on mem map fdownload to garmin sometimes print of the map gps unand therits are really cheap now and there are lots of online
route planners

Garmin Edge 800 seems easiest...

Except when it rains, mine crashed yesterday and refused to turn off so had to wait for the battery to die, this is my 2nd as the 1st never recovered from a very wet ride.

I study a google map the night before and plan the route and try and remember any key bits in my head. Have my iPhone with me, so if I'm not sure I just check the map on the phone.

I have been known to stick my TomTom in the pocket of my shorts and turn the voice up loud.

Look at route, remember key junctions/places, make notes.

If lost use road signs...

i paint the route on my nails

[img] [/img]

Find someone who is local and suck their wheel for 4hrs. Works nearly everytime, all the time.

I now use my GPS but I used to plan it out on google maps. Print an overview map or carry a road map as well as having pace notes.

It is not a problem for shorter rides but doing a 100mile route (trying to follow a sportive route can be a bit of a chore. Big junctions will have signposts but little ones often didn't. Spent a lot of time on street view looking at junctions to make sure it was obvious.

Worth having a few way points in your mind incase you get lost (big towns/villages that are signposted from everywhere so you can get back to familiar roads.

Rather than going out and doing one big loop from new I would normally build up gradually and add to existing known loops to make it easier.

http://wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm

is pretty useful as you can run two maps in parallel (satellite and map)

I usually print off a high level view map of roughly where I'm going. I normally write the towns and villages I'll be passing through on the back of that. I'll only refer to it if I get completely lost for a long time though. That's one of the joys of riding a road bike, exploring, finding nice places.

1) Have a rough idea.
2) Use signposts.
3) Stop at a garage if you really don't have clue.

1) & 2) For any ride from the front door.
Added 3) for LEJOG and other longer rides.

the problem today was that though i wanted to just go where the mood took me, i was obliged to meet the wife at her friends' house 45 miles away and it was a new ride so i had to be accurate. seemed to work out ok, i didn't get lost once! interesting input from all, though - i like the way different people have different attitudes to the concept. 🙂

1) Have a rough idea.
2) Use signposts.
3) Stop at a garage if you really don't have clue.

This, I find it really hard to believe you could need anything else. It's a road bike and you're doing, what, a 60-100mile loop? And you need a GPS???

+1 on getting lost.

I made an unknown detour today, but guessing which direction would be good by my shadow on the ground helped plenty. And the fact the area I'm riding in is bordered by the sea seems to help.

I have taken a torn out page from a road atlas, to at least give me some place names.

The rest of it, just make it up.

If you're out in the middle of nowhere and unlikely to come across any road signs it can be useful to make a 'route card' before you go out, just a simple one you can glance at showing the junctions. So basically draw an arrow pointing the way you want to go at that junction and then a rough distance to the next junction. Attahch this to your bars and combine with a basic cycling computer which tells you the distance you've travelled will keep you right. Although a map and/or a gps in you're bag is handy if you get [i]really[/i] lost.

I seldom plan routes, I just have rides that are longer or shorter than planned.

Used to use a Garmin eTrex Vista C, now using a Sony Ericsson Xperia Active with MyTrails Pro, using a custom map style via Cloudmade for maximum clarity, following GPX files generated from Google Maps via GMapToGPX via Dropbox. Which sounds a hundred times more convoluted than it is - it takes about a tenth of the time it took to get a route onto the Garmin, if that.

I have a plan to write an Android app designed purely to navigate super-long routes imported directly from Google Maps, but with two websites to get out of the way beforehand it's going to be a while until I get round to it - until then MyTrails is tiding me over rather better than I'd expected.

Local rides don't need navigation; following signs and getting lost works if you've got spare time/energy; but a GPS of some sort is rather better if you're limited by either of those.

do all of you who have problems/need maps/GPS etc. roadride in areas far from home?
can't imagine getting lost anywhere in a 60mile radius from home.
the whole point in my roadbike is to ride it from home tho.

can't imagine getting lost anywhere [s]in a 60mile radius from home[/s].

do all of you who have problems/need maps/GPS etc. roadride in areas far from home?

I printed a rough googlemap of Lake Como when I went out a few years ago. But mainly guess as I went over some of the "hills" (mountains more like) and got thoroughly lost. It was great..!

lol @ Don, he's got a point..

ourman - that's called "sightseeing" 😉

ourman - that's called "sightseeing"

Well, judging by some of the [i]bella donnas[/i] I saw, it certainly was..!

mogrim - This, I find it really hard to believe you could need anything else. It's a road bike and you're doing, what, a 60-100mile loop? And you need a GPS???

Doing a tour made me really resent doing loops - I much, much prefer going A-to-B.

I sometimes get a train somewhere from work on a Friday afternoon and ride 200km or so home, often trying out new roads - in the winter that can mean riding almost entirely in the dark (easily missing turns and signage) and in foul weather and getting home in the small hours of Saturday morning, and I'm buggered if I want to be sticking in an extra 20km of getting lost on top of that 🙂

Also, the next big ride is about 450km and I'm buggered if I want to be sticking even an extra 20 yards on that one...

Poly - I know folk who will sit and input destination details to their GPS before they drive somewhere they've been hundreds of times, funnily enough they're all blokes.

You could imagine it's because blokes have poor memory but the reality is
blokes like gadgets/toys but most are tight (so want to eek every penny of VFM out of any new toy they get)

and when you've missed the turn and just lost 100m of height and need to climb back up very frustrating

You can't miss the turn if you haven't planned the route.

[i]You could imagine it's because blokes have poor memory but the reality is
blokes like gadgets/toys but most are tight (so want to eek every penny of VFM out of any new toy they get) [/i]

Real geek blokes would know that the GPS stores a list of last visited places. Those guys you know sound like nerds.

I don't care, I'm a girl but into girls and you probably have hardly any hair

It does always shock me at work, when some of the people there don't even know where some cities are in England, let alone how you would go about driving to them (some have never left Dorset!)

Not sure if it was because we drove around a fair bit when i was a kid going to MX races, but i'm pretty sure i could get myself to most towns in this country without a map.

I seldom [b]plan[/b] routes, I just have rides that are longer or shorter than [b]planned[/b].

How's that work then?

I seldom plan [b]routes[/b], I just have [b]rides[/b] that are longer or shorter than planned.

[i]what approaches have others found effective?[/i]

I just go out with a rough idea of where I want to go and take any roads that look nice. I know my local area well enough to do well over 100 miles without getting lost.

How can you live somewhere and not know it well enough that you need a map to get anywhere. You must know which direction to head for home.

I ride with people that have no clue whatsoever whether home [from wherever we may have stopped] is roughly N,S,E or W

I sometimes wonder how they've managed all their lives

If I see a sign for a gated or singletrack road I take it.
This can cause issues if on the way back home, but on the way out it's all good.

It's an island FFS!

i hadn't realised there would be so many conflicting views on the subject (though probably should have expected it!).

the notes ziptied to the top tube worked pretty well, though the font was a bit too small to read it easily - i'll know for next time! i reckon a stem mount rigid plastic sleeve would be ideal, though accept i'd probably look like a roadie's worst nightmare with that, my peaked helmet and mtb gloves on. 😆

I also tend to check out junctions on Google Street View before a ride. A picture paints a thousand words and all that...

i'd probably look like a roadie's worst nightmare with that, my peaked helmet and mtb gloves on

I think you probably overestimate how much they'd care, and wearing a peaked helmet on a road bike is just silly.

Drop them on the climbs, then they'll notice you 🙂

well some of them even nodded back when i was out on sunday! the peak didn't feel that silly riding into pouring rain and a headwind, i was quite glad i hadn't bothered to take it off. 🙂

Surely most people have an idea where they are at some point? But for long new rides I just scribble down a few villages on a scrap of paper and ride off in their general direction.

and wearing a peaked helmet on a road bike is just silly

No, it's not. They are useful in sun and also rain. Why else would you wear one on an MTB?

For navigation if it's going to be intricate (for instance, if I am heading towards the Forest of Dean, or using a network of lanes far from my house) then I use a Garmin Edge 305 pre-programmed with the route.

I have used signposts, random turnings and paper maps previously. You can't rely on signposts generally because sometimes they are not there, and you won't know in advance. Most of the roads near my house I know, but the further afield I go the more roads there are of course and the fewer I know.

Usually i know where i am or have a good idea anyway, but i'm riding to my sister in laws which is just over 100 miles and haven't ridden the route before so i'll write down the places i'll be passing through with the road numbers on it and stick it in my pocket. I'll have my phone as backup too.

No, it's not. They are useful in sun and also rain. Why else would you wear one on an MTB?

But MTB's don't have drops, and when you're blasting down a twisty moutain road it gets in the way.

Sometimes I just go out for a ride and play it by ear but i find that once i'm outside the immediate area I have a tendency to stick to major roads as they have the better signage, unfortunately they also have the most traffic. So normally I'll sort the route out beforehand and follow it on the garmin. This way means that I can look out the quietest looking roads in the area which are often not signposted whilst being sure that the road actually leads somewhere useful.

Even after living in the area for years I still unearth the occasional gem by pawing through the map beforehand.

They are useful in sun and also rain. Why else would you wear one on an MTB?

I don't. They're just a fashion accessory with little useful purpose.

They're just a fashion accessory with little useful purpose.

As above, they seem to help keep rain and sun out of my eyes.

Fair point re the drops, that's why I like visors that can flip up a little bit.

I just stick to routes I know. I know loads of roads to loads of places, I can usually make a route.

Live somewhere small, like the Isle of Man, then you can't get lost at all.

but you get italians cutting you up every time you try to put a bit of speed on...

😆