I’ve trawled through a few alternative gps plotting sites, but most only use osm type maps.
What I’m looking for is one that uses OS, so that I can check on definitive rights of way.
Plus the option to save as “track”. I have an OS subscription, so that can be used to plot routes, but when I tried creating a big test route, it all went wrong Grommet. No option to save as “track”

I’ve never used it so you will have to explore it yourself, but justgoride.co.uk has a route creator and you can select OS map from the drop down box. don’t know about saving as a Track gpx

I have an OS subscription, so that can be used to plot routes, but when I tried creating a big test route, it all went wrong Grommet. No option to save as “track”

I use OS App and think it’s great. Takes just a few minutes to plot a route. Doesn’t crash much for me and I tend to do quite long rides.

PS, what’s this mean:

No option to save as “track”

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

The problem with Routes created by the OS App is that  (outside National Parks) they only do direct routing, not following the lines on the map. If you want accuracy then you need to add an awful lot of Points to follow every squiggle. Uploading these to a Garmin, it’s easy to exceed the maximum number of Waypoints allowed on a Route. Making it a Track overcomes this limit.

Ah, many thanks.

It’s not OS, as you requested, but consider using Garmin Basecamp with the TalkyToaster free maps installed.
You can save as routes (with turn-by-turn prompts, when sent to your Garmin) or tracks (when you’ve exceeded to 40 waypoint limit)
Personally, I just break longer routes down into shorter sections, to retain the Turn by turn

cheers scotsroutes I had no idea what the dif was between gpx routes and gpx tracks

I just create a track in OS maps and export as a gpx. Can’t recall having a problem and can import the gpx into the Garmin, which then creates a course.

The Route / Track / Course thing comes up pretty regularly. I’ve considered doing a bit of a Primer/FAQ type thing on it. Might be a bit of a winter project.

What I used to do was use the OS Maps to create a route as it had “better maps” and then upload the route into Bikehike or ridewithgps.com and then export it as a gpx track.

Is bikehike completely down or is it just not showing map tiles because they’ve reached the daily limit? Can you still just upload and then export the OS Maps created route anyway, you don’t need to see the map tiles for that?

@roverpig hopefully recent Garmins are more capable but my Dakota 20 could only manage 41 miles of the South Downs Way as a full fat GPX Route before it reached its way point limit. Luckily I was on the BHF ride so didn’t really need it! 🤣

Just go ride looks great on the face of it but the routing is weird? Seems to keep wanting to send me down back roads even though there is an obvious straight route and I know it’s a good cycling option. Not sure where it is pulling it’s routing info from?

Bikehike does appear to be dead but it has done this over the years and come back to life eventually.

I hope it does because I’ve never really found anything that works as well for mixed terrain long rides.

The error is: “API Key has been blocked by Administrator” which doesn’t say if it’s explicitly OS related but since they stopped using Google Maps in favour of OSM because of Google’s change of terms it’s likely.

There’s this JavaScript error: OpenSpace is not defined at mapPack.js:129 (anonymous) @ mapPack.js:129

Which is this line (my bold):
var gMap,osMap,extBox,bOpen=false,mSrc=”MAP”,findPt=0,gMarker,gdir,gpl,opl,undoMngr,sCur,eFlush=false,startMarker,endMarker,gMove=false,osMove=false,bOSEdit=false,dragEditor,ctrlKey=false,hpID=0,hpIcon,seed,rteIcon,sha_lib_loaded=false,bLogon=false,lastRname,lastRdesc,mapState=0,distance=0,rData=[],ple,reqInProg=false,ou=’mph’,path=[],lastPt,eleGraph,eBuffer=[],hPoints=[],xcnv=0.62138818,eludist=[],eluspd=[],eldist=[],eluheight=[],ycnv=3.2808399,prRte,prId,prReq,prMkrArr=[],mflg=0,hvMkr,adClicked=false,gridProj=new OpenSpace.GridProjection(),BO=detectBrowser();function mapLoad()

OpenSpace is the Ordnance Survey Javascript library. It was replaced at the start of this month by a new API – https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-government/products/openspace

johnnystorm
Full Member

@roverpig hopefully recent Garmins are more capable but my Dakota 20 could only manage 41 miles of the South Downs Way as a full fat GPX Route before it reached its way point limit. Luckily I was on the BHF ride so didn’t really need it!

As above, save as a Track not a Route! My Dakota 10 must be 10 years old now and used it successfully for many long trips (always using tracks created on Bikehike)

Massive shame bikehike is down, really hope they get it up and running again.

+1 bikehike

I dropped the Admin an email reporting the error, just in case.

As I understand it, OS have discontinued the API that bikehike was relying on. The replacement API doesn’t have a free option for getting the 1:50k maps that bikehike used.

I’ve not spoken to the owner (we host the site, but don’t maintain it), but I suspect that’s it for bikehike. I’m sure it could be made to work using OSM maps only, but I think for many, bikehike’s key benefit was the access to the OS maps.

As I understand it, OS have discontinued the API that bikehike was relying on. The replacement API doesn’t have a free option for getting the 1:50k maps that bikehike used.

Bing Maps are still showing OS maps – wonder if they access via a different API?

Where’s the path is still showing OS too – but a note says that in Aug 21 OS moved to a monthly quota for maps rather than daily so it might start to struggle toward the end of the month.

It looks like Bing are serving the OS tiles directly themselves – they’re coming from dev.virtualearth.net, which is a Microsoft site. Presumably they have a licensing deal in place with OS.

I believe that OS will let you use up to £1k of tiles per month for free, but only if you give them credit card details and agree to let them bill you for whatever you use beyond that. As the tile requests come from the browser, not the server, it’s not possible to run a site like bikehike without risking potentially huge bills. The old API simply stopped serving tiles once you hit the free limit.

I wonder if Bing’s API gives access to OS maps on better terms.

I’m now getting on well enough with OS maps including really easy editing of routes. I actually prefer it to Bikehike now and the 3D flythrough is great fun.

Thanks to one of the Bareboners mentioning it I now export the OS GPX route and convert it to a track at alltrails.com/converter.

nooooo, bike hike is/was fantastic. so simple and yet powerful for multi discipline (road, offroad, completely off piste) route planning 🙁

Seems to be up and running again. Yay!

“Still a bit broken – Work in progress”.

I wonder if Bing’s API gives access to OS maps on better terms

Seems to be staggeringly generous. That’s where Backcountry navigator gets it’s tiles. You can cache as much of the uk as you like for free, for as long as you like. It auto downloads 3 map scales at once

A loop hole that must be shut one day

https://www.plotaroute.com/ has OS maps and more

I did get an email from the Simon at Bikehike saying he was working on it.

Suggested a CTRL F5 needed as a reload – working, just a bit slow.

I use justgoride and have done for years. When creating a route use the toggle for auto plot for road sections but turn that off when plotting offroad. I think that’s where your problem came from Op.