planning mtb routes how do you do it.

I mostly ride locally and i have difficult in planning a route. Id like to some longer routes but presently that will end up with me gettong so far and then having to ride on the road back home because i will end up somewhere where i dknt know where the next next trail is or where it will end up. So how do you all plan an off road route. There seems to be no good free mapping on line so is the only way to pay for os maps surely there is another way.

bikehike.co.uk

Recent?y I’ve been using strava a lot. Either string segments together, or find a local rider and use their routes.

Is it worth persevering with OS maps? It’s a skill that could be very useful when things go tango uniform

I’ve been using free OS style maps on my Garmin from talkytoaster.co.uk/maps for 3+years with no problems.

I use bikeroutetoaster.com to plot off-road routes, I’ll normally gather parts of the routes from previous rides or find new sections by searching for other peoples rides on Strava. If you need to splice multiple sections of routes together bikehike.co.uk is useful (it does plot too).

For longer rides I sometimes plot a route ending at a train station to get maximum off-road miles without going back on myself or riding long road sections.

Bing Maps has free OS maps. I’ve found some great trails by pouring over the maps (not always on Strava incidentally)

Google Streetview and Satellite view can be useful to see if a track looks fun or just heads across a field 😀

Mapmyride or Garmin Connect to plot and work out roughly what amount of climbing there will be and how long the route will take, plus download on to my Garmin

Having a train station somewhere along the route is also a great idea!

It is also worth exploring when it is dry as you are less likely to get bogged down halfway down some nasty track in the middle of nowhere. Exploring down contours and climbing up roads or wider tracks helps here too. Let gravity be your friend 😆

We have so much technology at our fingertips now there isn’t really any excuse to not hunt out new trails 😀

I mostly ride locally and i have difficult in planning a route. Id like to some longer routes but presently that will end up with me gettong so far and then having to ride on the road back home because i will end up somewhere where i dknt know where the next next trail is or where it will end up.

So how do you all plan an off road route.

Spent £8 on a OS map, joined the bridleways up noting the contours and off I go. Sometimes its rubbish others it was ace. I didn’t know where the next lane or bridleway was either sometimes you just have to get out and ride.

I have viewranger app on my phone, never need to use it.

OS maps, mag reviews, guide books, mates & experience.

I reckon you have to go a long way to beat a paper OS map for route planning. The whole area in front of you, without having to scroll around. Maybe get into Strava and use it to mark up the OS map with some popular places people ride and you’re golden.

I can’t imagine just downloading routes from someone else and blindly following a Garmin on your bars, no thanks.

Round here? I just go and get lost.

When I stayed near Ambleside recently. I looked at the top 10 leaderboards for the close DH segments, then looked at the rides they did and downloaded/followed the GPX. The assumption that the fastest rider would know the best loops seemed to work out pretty well

jam bo – Member

Round here? I just go and get lost.

Same really. Doesn’t matter how lost I get, I can always follow a trail or 2 and they’ll end up at a road… if I’m on a road it has either road signs or google maps to get me home if I need a quick point in the right direction.

Unless you’re in the absolute middle of no-where it’s quite hard to get LOST in West Berks.

guidebooks (and an OS map just in case) are how I learnt my way around. Now I just go out and ride and make it up as I go.

Once you start to learn an area then even if you go a bit wrong you soon get back on track. It’s great to explore a new trail and find “oh, this is where it comes out”

I use a combination of OS maps and Strava. Finding trails on an OS map is one thing, but Strava tells you how, and if, the locals ride it.

jam bo – Member
Round here? I just go and get lost…

The serendipity of getting lost is one of my favourite ways.

I like to go out for a ride with no destination and just keep an eye out for any interesting track and see where it goes. Sometimes they just end in the middle of nowhere, but if is something visible ahead, so then a bit of hike-a-bike. (I’m in Scotland).

I have OS maps on my iPhone and that’s for checking what’s around when I get stymied as opposed to for following..

For cases of being seriously lost, I carry an OS map. 🙂

It’s very hard to beat an OS map for getting an impression of the area and if you want to plot a route.

Half the fun of mountain biking is the exploring / getting lost bit.

OS map and go and explore.

This ^^.

Strava segment explore is handy for finding tracks in an area, the Strava heatmap also.

On a more useful note ‘The Hug Maps’ does route planning with OS, ‘Where’s the Path’ lets you see an OS frame in parallel with an aerial shot and ‘Geograph’ has lots of pictures tied to grid squares which lets you look at the quality of tracks to assess their bikeability.

Start another post asking to join a longer ride in your area.

Or target a promising looking area a bit further than usual and head out there with an OS map and compass to have a sniff around.

I tend to find routes initially using a guide book. Plotting them on a map ( I use quo) then tweaking maybe a bit. Ill then ride it then go back to the map and tweak again. At this point ill have a route ill share with my mates.

OS Maps are my prime source. Either paper versions or via OS GetMap/Map subscription which is £1.50 a month. Did a new ride yesterday exploring new areas and used the new Beta test OS maps app which is excellent and runoured to be free with an OS Map subscription.

All this is added to route suggestions on here, internat and strava searches

Maps or OS Getamap, plot, ride, remember.

I’ve done this recently on a large area which has been opened up for bikes/horses.

Got the paper OS 1:25k out, spread it out on the lounge floor, used a highlighter pen to mark all legal off road routes in that area, for the big picture as robdob says.
Then I plotted a few possible routes using bikehike, in conjunction with where’s the path to zoom in and try to get an idea for which tracks would make the best ups and which the best downs.

Then I use back country navigator app to get out and follow the route ( I love maps and map reading but they’re nowhere near as good for mtbing as a GPS with OS). I’ve then made some notes on the paper map of sections I’ve actually ridden and decided should only ride one way. Once I’ve done the legal bits I’ll look at odd cheeky bits that might make it all more interesting.

Ride with gps to map the route.

Get info from OS maps and strava.

I look at strava segments then click on the people who ride it and see where else they go on that ride.

Ridewith GPS snaps to bridleways, footpaths and cycle paths.

Get the app and use the route section to see the route you create and then hit show my location to see where you are on that route. Not exactly turn by turn (which you can pay for) but it helps to get you in the right place.

openstreetmap
or more specifically, opencyclemap, which is a more useful view of OSM when cycling or hiking
strava heatmap can be handy to check a singel path ot road, but the heat is not just the number of people that have ridden it, btu the number of data points… so some section swap between hot and warm, which gives a clue as to steepness (at least it can show like that for roads). I’d be looking for the faint lines, where few people have been, since that might show a cheeky trail rather than a bridleway fireroad superhighway.

OS maps.

Hi new to forum, I use pc mapping from memory-map. Map my intended ride on software, upload to garmin Oregon 300, add garmin to bike and off I go. I also take spare batts and a map of the area. Love route planning and riding natural stuff, not a trail centre fan.

Bikehike or Wheresthepath

this website is good for finding bridleways: http://www.cyclestreets.net/
enter a start and end point and click to find the quiestiest route.

I usually set a route in my head before departing but other times I go out specifically to try and find new stuff, get lost, have an explore. Sometimes when I set off without setting a route out in my head I can spend 10-15 minutes at a junc weighing up the consequnces of the turn, really frustratingly wasting time so I always try and work out a route in my head during the day before the ride.

I have a look at the website suggestions. I know a few of the mtb riders around here and there are few groups. You know there are not many as there are ten or so names of many strava segments and know all of them. I do go out and explore but it normallh ruins a ride as i miss a turn and end up in some lumpy field wondering what am i doing here.

I use a custom OS map from the OS website. I set my postcode as the centre of the map, and ordered a flat map rather that the usual folded map. I then framed it and screwed it to the wall in my hall way. I can plan routes easily from it.

https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/shop/custom-made-maps.html

Either, OS map and a beer or follow my nose while out riding.