10 Tips To Make A Great Cycling Route

What do you look for when planning a route? Hills, distance, coffee stops? Let us know 👇

I love to correct OSM data. Please take a moment to improve the maps, especially with surfaces, bike lanes, etc. to help the next riders

So you have given up on using Komoot …? Personally I love RidewithGPS for planning my riding routes and also Komoot for hikes….

Black velvet! If on any ride you come upon a road, newly paved, you are obligated to ride it!

Do you actually prefer Strava for planning your routes? I’m more of a Komoot fan.

Most important is to start towards the wind.

Switch to satellite layer view to inspect certain roads up close. Sometimes Strava will dump you on a major roadway just because it's the shortest link or some local group rides frequently early morning, yet later in the day it's too busy.

I've been struggling to make routes. I was hoping this was actually going to teach me how. But what I'm noticing in this video is it has to be on a desktop? Like can I use my phone? Maybe this is why I haven't figured out how. Another thing is how do I make a file so I can then move it to my cycling computer?

I've got a big A0 sized poster hanging on my wall of my cycling area. The map is just a print out of OpenStreetMap for this area. I always draw in the routes I have done. This way you see the empty spaces you still need to visit and think of new routes to plan in Komoot! Great for finding new places!

I was surprised to not hear about checking with Local Clubs & Bike shops. They can often give some really good pointers like hidden sights or issues to avoid. Such as roads with bad traffic or seriously bad pavement. Near me are several roads that appear to be great and popular, but are a nightmare with skinny pavement, heavy weekend traffic & cars pulling Boats. In fact some of their 'Weekend' rides may be great introduction to an area you might want to explore.

You are missing advice on how to anticipate the level of traffic stress on the route. That is a major concern where I live. I usually spend a lot of time on Google Street View to try to assess that.

Komoot for planning rides cos it’s free. Cycling is expensive enough already!

Building a route with google maps and converting that kmz kml (?) to gpx file so i can upload it to my computer is a pain. There must be a better way

Google Street View is an indispensable tool to my route planning. You can also click the little yellow guy when on the normal or terrain view, and all of the roads with street view available will be traced in blue -- kind of like a heat map overlay, but in this case, you get an instant broad overview of where you can ride on the road and (maybe 95% of the time; still have to be a bit careful) not end up faced with a private property gate you can't get through, or some type of impasse. In this mode (with the street view "highlight"), all you need to do is click somewhere on a blue line and you'll instantly enter street view at that location (i.e. no need to drag the little guy from bottom/right to where you'd like to see). Super useful.

Great advice.. veloviewer is excellent for viewing your route profile 😊 Pete 🚴‍♀️🚴🏻👍

Based in the Netherlands one of the first things I take into account when planning a route is the expected wind direction. Ignoring this could make your ride pretty hard.

Kamoot b@@er Strava

Apart from elevation, I rely on wind direction and strength to know when and where I want the ride to be tougher/easier.

Good call on making a ‘shortcut’ if things don’t go to plan! Couple times I set off thinking I was fine but was actually brewing an illness and it feels like a real failure to have to completely stop and turn around.
Thanks Connor for another great video!

Komoot is better for planning

On longer rides I’ll make a circle around my home as a central point. So it can be a really long ride … but only 7-8 miles from home if I run into issues. Especially as I’ve a heart condition.

By golly, England is breathtaking.

Last week I had a route planned and all was going well, met a flock of geese, saw a bald eagle fishing in the river, nice urban/riverside scenery and it all came to a grinding halt when I came across surprise roadwork a third of the way in that veered me off on a miserable paved wasteland of scrap yards, truck garages and searing heat.

I guess I had to pay for the really solid one I did the day before!!!

Construction closed roads are the worst. Would be great if Strava supported some live data like regular Google or Apple maps

Goole maps, talk to locals, pack food. Strava is for suckers who are easily separated from their money.

“What’s down that road?” Is a common question I ask whilst out riding

Check the weather, particularly the wind direction. Try to have the wind behind you on the 2nd half of the ride. Plan to ride downhill into the wind and uphill with the wind helping.

Stalk other people, see where they ride on Strava. You can also search for clubs on Strava and if the club’s members have public profiles, you can get inspiration for routes from there. Some clubs even have Komoot Collections of their routes. And if there are cycling events around you they‘re usually organized by people who know good routes, so joining such events usually makes for a good time out on the bike. Plus there might be cake at the end.

Great video Conner I do this already

Route planning has great benefits. Back when I used to race, I had several canned routes I'd ride. Just to mix things up, I reversed the routes and started passing this woman rider. Our first date was Valentine's Day 1989. We've been together ever since.

How would you say Garmin Connect compares? What features does Garmin have that strava doesn’t and vice versa? I’m not really interested in paying for a strava membership at this point and would rather maximize what I have. Thanks in advance for any responses!

My wife and I are coming from the US and planning a bike trip starting in Bath next summer. I would love to know what some of your favorite routes are. We will be on a tandem, so some of the really steep climbs may be out of our range. 50K-60K ride is what what we like to do. Maybe we will stop by HQ and you can take some pictures with us Yanks. :)

My favourite is the Garmin Edge which has round trip routing functionality, which, as the name suggests, calculates a route from, and back to the starting point, based on whatever distance you give it.

Top 3 tips for a great cycling route planning experience?
1) Use Komoot
2) Use Komoot
3) Use Komoot

I live in the Netherlands, and I like to take a train to a far-off location and then ride my bike back home to Amsterdam. As a shortcut, I can always take a train from somewhere nearby.
I learned this from a mistake I made once: I went from Amsterdam to Groningen to take a train back home, but I was too late and had to wait for a train until the morning :D

I just bought my first road bike a Cervelo S1 I got it for 300 quid. I am excited to start cycling

I find most route planning apps don't differentiate between footpaths and bridleways. I use OS Maps app when planning gravel routes, either that or have Bing Maps up with the OS layer showing to double check which tracks we have legal access through

I also love to make use of Strava's personal heat map to explore--ride every road in an area. Great for relaxed zone 2 type rides, and this falls into Conor's tip about finding new places. I've found things I didn't know about even though I've lived my entire life in the same area.
Strava also has an add on called "Wandrer" which is specifically for this and gives you achievements for covering new roads.

I don't look at hills unless I want to climb a specific one.

Squadrats!

great video, I was hoping to find some new techniques, but it seems like I'm already doing what you listed. These techniques are all great for anyone looking to start making their own routes. I have noticed that Strava will sometimes list gravel as paved and vice versa, <5% of the time. I would sometimes get caught out with my rim brake race bike on a gravel or questionable paved road, but I'm now mostly riding my ENVE Fray (all-road bike) and look forward to a little light gravel or missing pavement sections; the newer wider wheels just eat those roads up.

Garmin also has a feature like that. Lots of fun!

the most useful thing for route planning (particularly when planning for other people to do the route) is to look at google streetview to find out what sort of road it is (e.g. cow-track, major A road, etc.) obviously strava does not have this (RWGPS does) and it's not everywhere in the world. strava's heatmap can also be somewhat misleading as as it appears to include runners/walkers as well ... and don't trust komoot without checking the route very carefully (it always seems to pick roads that don't exist).

I usually plan a route by maximizing elevation gain and steep sections.... hills4ever.

I use Outdooractive. It uses open streetmaps and has a bunch of community routes on it. Its not got many bells and whistles but its free.

I’ve tried using Strava’s ‘easy’ auto-routing function several times. It almost always tries to route me on roads that aren’t suitable for cycling (like 70 mph DCs), or maybe I’m just too scared…. Komoot for planning/routing. Strava for recording/fitness.

Has studio Connor got a wedding or a court appearance to get to? His hair looks, well, smart. It caught me off guard!

most important thing when planning a new route, traffic and shoulders. use google maps street view

Nice video. I have one thing to add. Do a wrong turn in a junction and you will discover a road you havnt thougt about. I did this trick in June and arrived 1,5 hours later on my destination, absolutely tired, but i discovered an absolutely beautiful and nice gravel forestroad that wasnt even on the map (outdated map from 2018), this road I have used four times the last month :)

free cycling clothes?