5 GPS Ride Planning Tools for Motorcyclists

[Juergen B.]

I'm a self admitted GPS nut and map-aholic, hate to admit how may GPS units I own, for my motorcycle, road bike, mountain bike, kayak... not to speak of iPhone GPS apps…

 

I found some utilities to convert google map routes to GPX format, and thought I'd share some of my favorite GPS tools to help me plan rides on my BMW Rides blog:

 

5 GPS Ride Planning Tools for Motorcyclists

 

Cheers, Juergen

[EddyQ]

Nice job JB ! And thanks for the info.

 

I do find Google pretty easy for routing. I like the satellite, street view and terrain. Though, Bing maps has better satellite images. One real problem is that Google and Bing does not identify road surface. It is very hard to tell if the road is paved or not. Mapsource is where I do my final route tweaking for that reason.

 

Everytrail looks like a cool concept.

 

Have you ever come across a maps based tool that you can "rank" decent motorcycle roads?? It would be very cool to plot a route using say Google with only the best motorcycle roads. I'd take a tool that I can plot my favorite roads on for future reference. The best tool I have now is Mapsource.

[Juergen B.]

Hi Eddie:

 

Thanks, that's interesting about mapsource being more reliable for road surface, makes sense. I too am looking for some good route planning / community sites. What I have so far is:

 

 

Open Road Journey http://www.openroadjourney.com/

Motorcycle Roads: http://www.motorcycleroads.us

Sunday Morning Rides is another: http://www.sundaymorningrides.com

Open Road Journey is another: http://www.openroadjourney.com

 

Does anyone have additional suggestions?

 

[Bernie]

MapSource has problems with road surfaces in the South. I have seen several roads marked as paved, only to find them being dirt when I got there.

Now this is in FL, AL, GA, TN, N-C, VA, W-VA.

Not sure about up north.

As I always say, use the GPS as a suggestion, but please do not follow it blindly of a cliff. It could hurt.

[FLrider]

MapSource has problems with road surfaces in the South. I have seen several roads marked as paved, only to find them being dirt when I got there.

Now this is in FL, AL, GA, TN, N-C, VA, W-VA.

Not sure about up north.

As I always say, use the GPS as a suggestion, but please do not follow it blindly of a cliff. It could hurt.

 

Isn't that the truth. I was up in Tallahassee riding down one of the canopy roads. I decided to turn off and follow a road that the GPS said leads to a major road.

 

As I make the turn, the paved road suddenly turns to hard packed clay, a little further down it's a single lane road and cars are coming the other way. OK, I figure they must be coming from somewhere. Maybe they know the shortcut too!

 

This road goes on for another mile or so and the clay turns to dirt and then soft sand. Now I know the GPS has sent me down the wrong path, so to speak.

 

Now I am passing old shaker houses that look like they were the housing for the old plantation slaves. Then some trailers, dogs on the loose, more trailers and then I heard it. The music from Deliverance. Actually, the music was only playing in my head but I got the message.

 

At any moment I expected to see Goober, the result of years of inbreeding. I made a quick 180 and headed back to civilization.

 

Lesson learned. Made for an interesting afternoon.

[Juergen B.]

The music from Deliverance. Actually, the music was only playing in my head but I got the message.

 

At any moment I expected to see Goober, the result of years of inbreeding. I made a quick 180 and headed back to civilization. Lesson learned. Made for an interesting afternoon.

 

Ha Ha! So if you are on a GS, do you keep going? That may explain a few things...