First post so be gentle.
Getting back into mountain biking after many years out of the saddle. I’ve found there are loads of apps and online resources for plotting/navigating/recording cycle routes. It’s all a bit overwhelming
Ideally I would like to be able to have an audio turn by turn navigation of the route I’ve plotted or downloaded as I don’t want to be constantly getting my phone out.
Im new to Strava, but have also looked at ride with GPS, view ranger and a cool online only resource Cycle.travel
What do you guys do? It’s clear your can’t really get total functionality in a single app.

If I want to follow a route then it’s the Garmin with the arrows on the device and a buzz when you go off route. In cities I’ve actually used Google maps sat nav to get me somewhere.

I like to use STRAVA as it is generally reliable has been about for ever and has a big community as such. With a big community you get lots of recorded trails. I tried the paid full version but doesn’t add much to the MTB experience. I think its intended audience is the roadie crew.

Cheers.
I tried a variety at the weekend on a 28mile jaunt in wilts.
I love cycle.travel for its ability to quickly create routes and export them in almost any format. It also has a neat ‘suggest a ride’ which throws up random routes over a specified distance. Downside is there’s no app.
I tried cyclewithgps, which looks incredible but wants you to pay for almost every basic feature. It does have turn by turn voice though.
From a recommendation on Strava I found bike tracker by pc ability on Google play store. It piggybacks off cyclewithgps and provides voice route guidance and progress for free! It really worked well even getting me back on track when I went wrong.
Finally I found viewranger app very useful to check as a map since it has Has multiple map types including open cycle ones (even os maps if you pay), so it’s richer than stravas mapping.

Phew. So it seems I shall be using cycle.travel to create routes, upload them to cycle with GPS, use bike tracker to give voice guidance and view ranger as a map……. All while recording the track on Strava lol.
Simples

Turn by Turn notification relies on the underlying mapping data, if the necessary data hasn’t been added to the map, or what has been added is incorrect, then no app or device can give you that info.

TbT is a “shortest path” algorithm, as such it works on junctions to let you know when to turn. Obviously this is fairly straightforward when you are on roads but not so much off-road. A track on the ground might not be a legal RoW, it might just be an animal track or a new farm or forestry track, so what you see as a junction of tracks on the ground is marked on the map as say a left bend in the one track it knows about.

Basically you can’t just turn your brain off and expect a device to guide you along the route. A bit of map, paper or electronic, reading knowledge and basic navigation skills are still needed: “along this track, over the hill and 400m later turn left then take the second track on the right” type thing so you aren’t constantly referring to the device.

For local road rides (and some local off-road) I’ll use a Garmin 520 as I know the roads and trails. When I say local, that’s basically the Yorkshire Dales and the Lakes. For areas I don’t know then I’ve a Garmin Oregon with both OS and OSM maps

I like mapmyride.com and gpsies.com for route creation.

On the bike I use a garmin 520 but also have Back Country Navigator app (android only, paid version) which allows me to diplay the GPX on on OS map (downloaded via bing and therefore free) andi its quite accurate in terms of location.

I find the back country app really handy for figuring out detours en route

I also take a real map and compass when I’m somewhere remote.

Whitestone I wasn’t suggesting turning your brain off, or that satnavs are infallible. I’m just looking for a useful set of tools as a beginner, who hasn’t yet made the jump to a pukka bike GPS computer, whilst also understanding that sh*t in = Shi*t out for any mapping software.
Cheers slackboy I’ll check out mapmyride and back country nav.

@jjxray – the usual request about GPS and Turn by Turn on here is for precisely that! A week or two later there’s often a post about the GPS “failing” and them getting lost 😉

Try OsmAnd, it can do a lot of stuff. ie you can download offline maps for the whole country, then plot a route, with turn by turn directions. Also lets you record a GPX track, so you could upload to Strava etc.

Cheers Craig I’ll give it a butchers

I also found plotaroute.com which is another desk top site for creating and exporting routes also with turn by turn directions.