4 ms·

Citymapper is a limited amount of cities. What do "real" cyclists use? I get the feeling they use a garmin-like gps devices made for cycling? In the past, I'

by throw7 6y ago

Citymapper is a limited amount of cities. What do "real" cyclists use? I get the feeling they use a garmin-like gps devices made for cycling? In the past, I've tried to plan a route in google maps (for just driving), but once you import and try to use it, it recalculates your route.

egypturnash 6y ago
I don't own a car and cycle everywhere in my city. On a $300 bike with a milk crate lashed to the rear rack it came with because I really don't want to worry about locking up something pricier, or worry about destroying it on the many pothole. I just use Google Maps's cycling directions, combined with my own mental map of things like "tree coverage" which is kind of important for avoiding heatstroke in a tropical city. I've never seen a map provider that even begins to track that. All the cycling apps seem to be designed for people who want to train to be racers. I give zero fucks about that. I just wanna get where I need to go, or drift aimlessly around the city when I need some exercise.
- jakecopp 6y ago
  > All the cycling apps seem to be designed for people who want to train to be racers. I give zero fucks about that. I just wanna get where I need to go Citymapper and OsmAnd are brilliant for this! Also +1 on milk crates strapped to the back, I do that too and they're great for groceries :D
abrowne 6y ago
What's a "real" cyclist? Someone who rides for sport in full kit and trains for races? Someone who commutes to work and runs errands in street clothes, even in bad weather, maybe because they don't have another option? A casual weekend family rider on rails-to-trails? Someone on a cross-country tour?
- Someone 6y ago
  Anything but the first ;-). English needs a separate term for the first, as Dutch has (https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/lycra-on-the-streets-of-the-netherlands/ https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/lycra-on-the-s...) Also relevant to your excellent remark is https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200724-will-covid-19-make-urban-cycling-more-inclusive https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200724-will-covid-19-....
  - jakecopp 6y ago
    You often hear MAMILs (middle age men in lycra) in Australia!
analog31 6y ago
That's a hassle. I get a nice route all worked out in Google Maps on my desktop, then try sending it to my phone. It seems like the only data transferred are the start and end points. Thankfully I live in a mid sized city, and don't really need super precise directions. When I'm out in the country, I find it helps a lot to have a compass. You can get a bell with built in compass, made for kids bikes, and it's really handy
- petre 6y ago
  Try Graphhopper. You can download the GPX track. It has three bike profiles, the default for touring which avoids hills, one for MTB which uses single/double track and one for road bikes. There are three options, the middle one gets you the track. Test with geojson.io which can save to github gists. Ah, the bell with compass, it's cute. Looks a bit like sailboat nav gear.
petre 6y ago
Komoot, Wahoo Elemnt Roam and communities dedicated to route planning such as OMTM. Most of it gets contributed to OSM.
diiaann 6y ago
Not sure what you mean by "real" but I use Strava to plan the route. I try to look up real routes that people have done or use their popularity feature. It then syncs automatically to my Garmin bike computer. Wahoo bike computers are popular too.
putnambr 6y ago
I know you probably mean road cyclists, but I haven't seen Trailforks mentioned. Nothing beats it for singletrack route planning. Komoot is good too, but at least in my area of NA the elevation calculation is off by quite a bit. When I've used it for longer routes, I've ended up putting in at least 1,000 ft more of climbing than it has told me would be on the route. Trailforks doesn't have that problem. If you have a local IMBA chapter, most of them have accurate trail profiles as well. For road cycling routes, I use Strava. If you want detailed routes that are popular with local cycling clubs, Trek stores usually have surprisingly good handouts on local routes.
- phillc73 6y ago
  I've not heard of or used Trailforks before. Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out now. However, my go to website and app for off-road adventures (on foot and two wheels) is ViewRanger[1]. Maybe it's a bit too UK and EU focused for you, but I've found it to be really good and the app's improved a lot over the last five years. Their BuddyBeacon[2] is also a nice feature. While not open source, the best part is they provide a direct apk download, so you're not locked to Google or Apple's store to download and install[3]. [1] https://www.viewranger.com https://www.viewranger.com [2] https://www.viewranger.com/buddybeacon/v2/ https://www.viewranger.com/buddybeacon/v2/ [3] https://www.viewranger.com/software/software.php https://www.viewranger.com/software/software.php - visit on your phone.
- ar_turnbull 6y ago
  I've liked Komoot quite a bit for planning longer road bike loops in or near the city — surprised it hasn't taken off more but I suppose it's a pretty niche market. Integrates wirelessly with Wahoo bike computers (suck it Garmin haha) and is free for your local region too.
  - ako 6y ago
    Agree, komoot is what I also use for planning. Shows all the different terrains, elevation, for different sports (mtb, road cycling, hiking). I don’t ever use komoot for recording though, phone uses too much battery. Recording is done through a polar watch, synced to strava. Watch is also best for wind and kitesurfing, no need to bring a big expensive watch on the water.
quartz 6y ago
Most (road) cyclists I know use a combination of: - strava heatmaps (https://www.strava.com/heatmap https://www.strava.com/heatmap) - ridewithgps routes (https://ridewithgps.com/find https://ridewithgps.com/find) - club routes posted on club websites (like sf2g routes for getting down the peninsula from SF https://sf2g.com/routes.html https://sf2g.com/routes.html) - google maps streetview to check quality of bike lanes - city-specific cycling forums (ex: https://reddit.com/r/nycbike https://reddit.com/r/nycbike where the first decent routes using the new tappan zee / cuomo bridge bike lanes have popped up) It's still a lot of work to plan a decent 50+ mile ride if it's through an area you're not familiar with. I really wish google maps could do more to show me traffic volume to help select between different routes... I'll take an empty wide road over a bike-lane running next to parked cars any day.
jabroni_salad 6y ago
google maps is a nice go-to service but not a good route planner because it is aggressive about snapping to the grid (streets it knows about). When I plan my route on garmin I am not getting a turn-by-turn list but rather a gps trace to follow, so I can plan the route to go arbitrarily anywhere I want. Personally I use the strava heat map and garmin to do everything since that represents where people actually go and not what some algorithm thinks will be good.
lmm 6y ago
I use OSMAnd with BRouter, the second-choice option in the article. Handles a 600km audax with no sweat.

by throw7 6y ago

egypturnash 6y ago

I don't own a car and cycle everywhere in my city. On a $300 bike with a milk crate lashed to the rear rack it came with because I really don't want to worry about locking up something pricier, or worry about destroying it on the many pothole. I just use Google Maps's cycling directions, combined with my own mental map of things like "tree coverage" which is kind of important for avoiding heatstroke in a tropical city. I've never seen a map provider that even begins to track that. All the cycling apps seem to be designed for people who want to train to be racers. I give zero fucks about that. I just wanna get where I need to go, or drift aimlessly around the city when I need some exercise.

jakecopp 6y ago
> All the cycling apps seem to be designed for people who want to train to be racers. I give zero fucks about that. I just wanna get where I need to go Citymapper and OsmAnd are brilliant for this! Also +1 on milk crates strapped to the back, I do that too and they're great for groceries :D

abrowne 6y ago

What's a "real" cyclist? Someone who rides for sport in full kit and trains for races? Someone who commutes to work and runs errands in street clothes, even in bad weather, maybe because they don't have another option? A casual weekend family rider on rails-to-trails? Someone on a cross-country tour?

Someone 6y ago
Anything but the first ;-). English needs a separate term for the first, as Dutch has (https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/lycra-on-the-streets-of-the-netherlands/ https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/lycra-on-the-s...) Also relevant to your excellent remark is https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200724-will-covid-19-make-urban-cycling-more-inclusive https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200724-will-covid-19-....
- jakecopp 6y ago
  You often hear MAMILs (middle age men in lycra) in Australia!

analog31 6y ago

That's a hassle. I get a nice route all worked out in Google Maps on my desktop, then try sending it to my phone. It seems like the only data transferred are the start and end points. Thankfully I live in a mid sized city, and don't really need super precise directions. When I'm out in the country, I find it helps a lot to have a compass. You can get a bell with built in compass, made for kids bikes, and it's really handy

petre 6y ago
Try Graphhopper. You can download the GPX track. It has three bike profiles, the default for touring which avoids hills, one for MTB which uses single/double track and one for road bikes. There are three options, the middle one gets you the track. Test with geojson.io which can save to github gists. Ah, the bell with compass, it's cute. Looks a bit like sailboat nav gear.

petre 6y ago

Komoot, Wahoo Elemnt Roam and communities dedicated to route planning such as OMTM. Most of it gets contributed to OSM.

diiaann 6y ago

Not sure what you mean by "real" but I use Strava to plan the route. I try to look up real routes that people have done or use their popularity feature. It then syncs automatically to my Garmin bike computer. Wahoo bike computers are popular too.

putnambr 6y ago

I know you probably mean road cyclists, but I haven't seen Trailforks mentioned. Nothing beats it for singletrack route planning. Komoot is good too, but at least in my area of NA the elevation calculation is off by quite a bit. When I've used it for longer routes, I've ended up putting in at least 1,000 ft more of climbing than it has told me would be on the route. Trailforks doesn't have that problem. If you have a local IMBA chapter, most of them have accurate trail profiles as well. For road cycling routes, I use Strava. If you want detailed routes that are popular with local cycling clubs, Trek stores usually have surprisingly good handouts on local routes.

phillc73 6y ago
I've not heard of or used Trailforks before. Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out now. However, my go to website and app for off-road adventures (on foot and two wheels) is ViewRanger[1]. Maybe it's a bit too UK and EU focused for you, but I've found it to be really good and the app's improved a lot over the last five years. Their BuddyBeacon[2] is also a nice feature. While not open source, the best part is they provide a direct apk download, so you're not locked to Google or Apple's store to download and install[3]. [1] https://www.viewranger.com https://www.viewranger.com [2] https://www.viewranger.com/buddybeacon/v2/ https://www.viewranger.com/buddybeacon/v2/ [3] https://www.viewranger.com/software/software.php https://www.viewranger.com/software/software.php - visit on your phone.
ar_turnbull 6y ago
I've liked Komoot quite a bit for planning longer road bike loops in or near the city — surprised it hasn't taken off more but I suppose it's a pretty niche market. Integrates wirelessly with Wahoo bike computers (suck it Garmin haha) and is free for your local region too.
- ako 6y ago
  Agree, komoot is what I also use for planning. Shows all the different terrains, elevation, for different sports (mtb, road cycling, hiking). I don’t ever use komoot for recording though, phone uses too much battery. Recording is done through a polar watch, synced to strava. Watch is also best for wind and kitesurfing, no need to bring a big expensive watch on the water.

quartz 6y ago

Most (road) cyclists I know use a combination of: - strava heatmaps (https://www.strava.com/heatmap https://www.strava.com/heatmap) - ridewithgps routes (https://ridewithgps.com/find https://ridewithgps.com/find) - club routes posted on club websites (like sf2g routes for getting down the peninsula from SF https://sf2g.com/routes.html https://sf2g.com/routes.html) - google maps streetview to check quality of bike lanes - city-specific cycling forums (ex: https://reddit.com/r/nycbike https://reddit.com/r/nycbike where the first decent routes using the new tappan zee / cuomo bridge bike lanes have popped up) It's still a lot of work to plan a decent 50+ mile ride if it's through an area you're not familiar with. I really wish google maps could do more to show me traffic volume to help select between different routes... I'll take an empty wide road over a bike-lane running next to parked cars any day.

jabroni_salad 6y ago

google maps is a nice go-to service but not a good route planner because it is aggressive about snapping to the grid (streets it knows about). When I plan my route on garmin I am not getting a turn-by-turn list but rather a gps trace to follow, so I can plan the route to go arbitrarily anywhere I want. Personally I use the strava heat map and garmin to do everything since that represents where people actually go and not what some algorithm thinks will be good.

lmm 6y ago

I use OSMAnd with BRouter, the second-choice option in the article. Handles a 600km audax with no sweat.