Sorry if this has been done before.
I want to ride from Loughborough to Allesley in Coventry (in-laws) on Sat AM.
In the car we either go M1/M69 or down the M42 – there’s a swathe of country in between that I hardly know.
Google maps will do but is there a go-to site that helps plan road rides more efficiently?
I don’t have any nav device on the bike and I’m not on Strava – bit of a techno-numpty here 😳

google maps has a cycling option you can select and an avoid motorways option

Alternatively search for bakeries in the area and then plot a route between them

RideWithGPS

cycle routes will do an auto route – and you can set it to a quieter route.
BUT on longer distances it will struggle. (maybe ~20 mi+) to keep you off main roads

ride with GPS – you can draw the route on the map – avoiding anything big (use street view to get a feel) then print a turn bu turn cue sheet – like audax. then tape it to the bars and follow it.

A cycling buddy has just ridden from Blackburn to St Ives and back using nothing but Google Maps on his phone. He downloaded a “cycle” route every morning to his destination then switched off the screen, wore one earpiece and set off. The phone guided him at most of the junctions, with an occasional anomaly, and took him down some delightful routes. He says it was only using data at the point where it downloaded the route and the rest of the time was just using GPS.

I’ve just asked it for the cycling route to my home and apart from being wildly pessimistic about the time, it has chosen a good route, although about 3 miles longer than if I drove.

google maps auto route, the look at the route where it goes on to main roads and alter it by dragging the route of to mior roads.

CTC Journey Planner

Has options to bias towards quieter roads and SusTrans routes.

Frogstomps link 🙂

http://www.cyclestreets.net/

give you three options – fastest, quietest, balanced. NOrmally quite good

edit – ahh, I see the CTC have hijacked the Cyclestreets planner 🙂

Google maps caches up the route when you plot it, so you don’t need a data signal the whole time.

Op, buy a cycle specific nav device. Is my advice.
I use the cyclestreets website to plot a route. Then down load the gpx, it’s great.

Wayne

Just go on ridewithgps and plan the route from your door using country lanes. you can click on the map using street view to see if it is a quiet enough lane as you plan.

I planned a 100 miler to Cirencester going through Market Bosworth etc using it.

Great site – http://bikemap.net/

RideWithGPS FTW.

plotaroute.com

I like this one,
http://cycle.travel/map
it does tend to route you away from main roads though(which I like), it seems to be more scenic orientated than getting you somewhere fast orientated.

Map all the coffee shops.

Read their reviews paying particular atrention to the mention of cake.

Join the top three results.

I’ve found Strava routes to be pretty good. You can route by popularity, so it takes you down roads that a lot of other cyclists use.

I use http://cycle.travel/map to plot a route, you can tell it how much bias you want on cycle trails etc.

If I want to use that as a guide and plot my own I still like bikehike.co.uk

pleaderwilliams – Member
I’ve found Strava routes to be pretty good. You can route by popularity, so it takes you down roads that a lot of other cyclists use

I’d be careful on that one – some are 5am specials/safety in numbers – a quick look shows the A628 Woodhead Pass as pretty popular – as is Cutgate

my votes as per majority above http://www.cyclestreets.net/ as said the options thing works and gives good ideas – a root around the routes on ridewithGPS can be informative