Fantastic Bike Friendly Spain: 'official routes in The Pyrenees :)
- Thread starter Simon_100
- Start date
Thanks for all the other comment guys.
There's another region to the south - where Motorlandia is located, i.e. MotoGP Aragon, and they've done the same. Their site is still in Spanish only but after the tourism department helped me with a bit of research last year I promised to proof read and amend the final draft of the English version ...
The ride there - from Mequinenza to Alcañiz - is also one of the best in Spain! (thumbs) - and while we're veering off topic to La Coruña province in the northwest (and why not!) if you want a totally crazy and amazing ride take the AC-301 from Padrón to a village called Martelo on the road from Santiago to the coast. If you're wanting to go to Santi turn right, but on the coast head to Muros, one of the loveliest places I know and a great place to stay, swim eat - especially eat as it's a genuine fishing town
The camping there sucks but there's a fantastic one just around the headland at San Francisco. The camping is located in the walls of the defunct monastery gardens and is just a few hundred yards from the beach, where it would coat twice as much!
Back on the subject of food - yes, further off topic - Padrón is of course the home of the (in)famous pimientos de Padrón, those little green peppers that you see in tapas bars where it's said that one in ten blows your head off - well in Padrón itself every single one blows your head off! Don't ask me how I know this. You see women selling these by the roadside whereas in most of the rest of Spain women lining the roadside are prostitutes - don't ask me how I know this either!
Regs
Simon
There's another region to the south - where Motorlandia is located, i.e. MotoGP Aragon, and they've done the same. Their site is still in Spanish only but after the tourism department helped me with a bit of research last year I promised to proof read and amend the final draft of the English version ...
The ride there - from Mequinenza to Alcañiz - is also one of the best in Spain! (thumbs) - and while we're veering off topic to La Coruña province in the northwest (and why not!) if you want a totally crazy and amazing ride take the AC-301 from Padrón to a village called Martelo on the road from Santiago to the coast. If you're wanting to go to Santi turn right, but on the coast head to Muros, one of the loveliest places I know and a great place to stay, swim eat - especially eat as it's a genuine fishing town
The camping there sucks but there's a fantastic one just around the headland at San Francisco. The camping is located in the walls of the defunct monastery gardens and is just a few hundred yards from the beach, where it would coat twice as much!Back on the subject of food - yes, further off topic - Padrón is of course the home of the (in)famous pimientos de Padrón, those little green peppers that you see in tapas bars where it's said that one in ten blows your head off - well in Padrón itself every single one blows your head off! Don't ask me how I know this. You see women selling these by the roadside whereas in most of the rest of Spain women lining the roadside are prostitutes - don't ask me how I know this either!
Regs
Simon
Excellent post and thread.
I'll have a go at cutting all the routes into BaseCamp, as I did for the similar thread on the routes from the Swiss Tourist Agency. When it's done I'll share them here for everyone, too.
Simon, when I have created and checked the routes, you are very welcome to share them with the owners of the tourist websites. They could then see if they can load them into their websites, perhaps?
Whilst there has always been a huge number of routes available in Germany, France and of course the Alps, Spain (outside of the Pyrenees and Picos) was largely ignored. I managed to get my hands on three or four nicely published books dedicated to motorcycle touring in the rest of the peninsula. Though published in Spanish, a route is a route, a map is as map and a photograph is ever only a photograph.
I'll have a go at cutting all the routes into BaseCamp, as I did for the similar thread on the routes from the Swiss Tourist Agency. When it's done I'll share them here for everyone, too.
Simon, when I have created and checked the routes, you are very welcome to share them with the owners of the tourist websites. They could then see if they can load them into their websites, perhaps?
Whilst there has always been a huge number of routes available in Germany, France and of course the Alps, Spain (outside of the Pyrenees and Picos) was largely ignored. I managed to get my hands on three or four nicely published books dedicated to motorcycle touring in the rest of the peninsula. Though published in Spanish, a route is a route, a map is as map and a photograph is ever only a photograph.
Hi Wapping, great, I'll share these with the relevant people.
I've seen a few of the books but I find these tend to focus on scenery, POI's, food, etc. not that there's anything wrong with that but I've yet to see a road book with the very best rides - ride Magazine's routes, worthy though they are don't really fit the bill either - work for me perhaps? Do you know any publishers that would be interested in a proposal?
Regs
Simon
I've seen a few of the books but I find these tend to focus on scenery, POI's, food, etc. not that there's anything wrong with that but I've yet to see a road book with the very best rides - ride Magazine's routes, worthy though they are don't really fit the bill either - work for me perhaps? Do you know any publishers that would be interested in a proposal?
Regs
Simon
I'll dig out the books I've got and list them out, along with the author and publisher. I found them all by just surfing around on the Internet.. Made easier when I worked out the Spanish for 'motorcycle'. I ordered them via Amazon on their Spanish website, guessing what the boxes to fill in were. I didn't end up with 500 plastic torches and a hat stand, so I guess I did it right.
Richard
PS The Ride guide is OK I think, for its intended audience. Or at least it gives bods some ideas and easy to download routes. Great for anyone who refuses to buy a map.
BOOKS ARE:
Las mejores rutas en moto por la peninsula Espana, Pirineos y Portugal. Inspiración Viajera (which sounds jolly like, inspirational way to go, to me). Published in hardback by ANAYA Touring
Espana en moto, Las 21 mejores rutas. Published in hardback by Libros Cupula / Motociclismo. Author Gustavo Cuervo.... Though I have a sneaking feeling that's not his real name. I think the chap has a blog or website?? I mean, who would call themselves 'Bent Gustavo'?
Three box sets of routes, again all published by ANAYA Touring:
(1) Espana, Portugal y Pirineos en moto, 8th edition. Pedro Pardo
(2) Espana en moto, again by Pedro Pardo
(3) Los Caminos de Santiago en moto, author unknown
Richard
PS The Ride guide is OK I think, for its intended audience. Or at least it gives bods some ideas and easy to download routes. Great for anyone who refuses to buy a map.
BOOKS ARE:
Las mejores rutas en moto por la peninsula Espana, Pirineos y Portugal. Inspiración Viajera (which sounds jolly like, inspirational way to go, to me). Published in hardback by ANAYA Touring
Espana en moto, Las 21 mejores rutas. Published in hardback by Libros Cupula / Motociclismo. Author Gustavo Cuervo.... Though I have a sneaking feeling that's not his real name. I think the chap has a blog or website?? I mean, who would call themselves 'Bent Gustavo'?
Three box sets of routes, again all published by ANAYA Touring:
(1) Espana, Portugal y Pirineos en moto, 8th edition. Pedro Pardo
(2) Espana en moto, again by Pedro Pardo
(3) Los Caminos de Santiago en moto, author unknown
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I have copied and made the first 9 routes up in map source, if some one would like to confirm they are the same as the maps in the pdf or as near as can be, many thanks. they are all in 1 file.
dropbox link https://www.dropbox.com/s/cq6xfclodxamckg/9 spanish routes.gdb?dl=0
dropbox link https://www.dropbox.com/s/cq6xfclodxamckg/9 spanish routes.gdb?dl=0
Nope, gustavo Cuervo is real enough:
[video]https://www.youtube.com/user/gustavojcuervo[/video]
BTW cuervo means 'crow', as the the feathered variety - a relation of Russell Crow perhaps
That's very brave of you to buy in a load of Spanish books! I didn't mean to demean the RIDE Routes - but they are really a digital copy from the Michelin maps, not much the worse for that either!
That last book looks curious, the Caminos de Santiago are the several log distance pilgrim's routes to the city and beyond to Finisterre from all over Europe, plus several that start in Spain - it's quite lethal following them as there are literally thousands of the blighters, the one's accompanied by mules are the worst ...
Regs
Simon
[video]https://www.youtube.com/user/gustavojcuervo[/video]
BTW cuervo means 'crow', as the the feathered variety - a relation of Russell Crow perhaps
That's very brave of you to buy in a load of Spanish books! I didn't mean to demean the RIDE Routes - but they are really a digital copy from the Michelin maps, not much the worse for that either!
That last book looks curious, the Caminos de Santiago are the several log distance pilgrim's routes to the city and beyond to Finisterre from all over Europe, plus several that start in Spain - it's quite lethal following them as there are literally thousands of the blighters, the one's accompanied by mules are the worst ...
Regs
Simon
dropbox is an online storage facility that enables you to store files for yourself or to share with others if you wish, the first couple of gigs are fore free when you sign up, if you require more space there are ways to get more free space, this link gives you a few ways. http://trendblog.net/get-free-dropbox-space/ or you can just upgrade.
hope this helps.
hope this helps.
A man after my own heart.... and you have saved me a job.
Just some observations and by no means any criticisms of the excellent work.....
(a) I haven't checked them, though at a quick glance they seem OK
(b) In BaseCamp (which I use) some seem to be created in the motorcycle preference and some in the motorcar option. This might not make a difference but it can sometimes lead to conversion difficulties if other bods' preferences (set up on their device) differ from your own. I turn off all the options anyway, as I don't want the software to take me anywhere where I don't want it to go. In the GPS section you can sometimes see the confusion created when bods cannot work out why the software won't route them where they have asked it to go.... all beacuse they have told the dumb stuff (which is often very clever) to always miss out motorways and always head down every goat track.
(c) They are .gbd files. That's fine though some bods might struggle with the file extension. Might be better as .gpx perhaps????..... Albeit my Mac and DropBox often adds .txt to the .gpx file extension, rending them into a text file and about as useful as a chocolate fireguard.
(d) Nice the way you've turned the way points into shaping points, so they do not alert.
(e) I created one route, the first one, using BaseCamp. By luck, just starting from the first town and clicking on the last created an identical route to the PDF, which saved any pulling around. I coloured it red, just to match the PDF. I also added a link to the website in INFO and cut'n'pasted the route's description, within INFO, too. I have started to use the ability of BaseCamp to carry all sorts of additional INFO within routes; quite useful to help remember some things and / or link to other helpful sources of information.
Here it is on DropBox, too:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/71t731nfncbzbkp/(1) Trans-Pyrenean Lleida.GPX?dl=0
If and when anyone downloads it, check that the file ends in a .gpx extension or it won't load
DropBox.... I am no IT wizard but it's so easy (drag and drop) that even I can manage it.
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Nope, gustavo Cuervo is real enough:
[video]https://www.youtube.com/user/gustavojcuervo[/video]
BTW cuervo means 'crow', as the the feathered variety - a relation of Russell Crow perhaps
That's very brave of you to buy in a load of Spanish books! I didn't mean to demean the RIDE Routes - but they are really a digital copy from the Michelin maps, not much the worse for that either!
That last book looks curious, the Caminos de Santiago are the several log distance pilgrim's routes to the city and beyond to Finisterre from all over Europe, plus several that start in Spain - it's quite lethal following them as there are literally thousands of the blighters, the one's accompanied by mules are the worst ...
Regs
Simon
I'm rather disappointed to find it's a real name.... Cuervo I translated in my mind to 'Curves and bends' which seemed a good name. Always fun doing homemade translations, I find..... usually when faced with a menu!
I think the Caminos de Santiago name of the book has only lifted the name from the famous 'Pilgrims way' concept. The routes look fine, I'd certainly ride them on anything from a donkey, a GS to a FireBlade. The book comes with dedicated maps in a nice package. Will I ever ride all or any of them? Some I've done but just scratched the surface. It's nice to have anyway, if only as a pipe dream or bucket list. I collect touring books and maps, which now stretch across Europe, mostly in local languages which is always a laugh. The whole thing has turned into a real industry, with some very good stuff out there.
You are spot-on with the Ride comment. I got the gist of it from your post. I was only keen that some other fellows might read it and then not bother to download any of Simon W's efforts
Wapping, i create all my routes using a varied selection of progs depending on file format, when copying a route from a map that has very little scale i do tend to take a best guess at the actual route and look at the (in my opinion) best roads around the said map route. with reference to gdb and gpx i tend to use gdb as it will work in either basecamp or mapsource with no issues. I believe if you change the file extension from gdb to gpx it will still work in base camp, but it will throw an error up when you open it this can be ignored and file will work ok.
I have a dual monitor setup that makes copying routes from actual maps a lot easier as you can imagine.
with reference to the activity profiles i understand that this may be an issue as it will all depend on how this is set in map source or base camp, or even on the gps unit as there are so many variables that can be chosen. I tend to deal with this at export of file to gps unit by not letting it recalculate the route.;
By the way i didnt even try to let basecamp or mapsource calculate a route from start to end, i should have it may have saved some time.
I have a dual monitor setup that makes copying routes from actual maps a lot easier as you can imagine.
with reference to the activity profiles i understand that this may be an issue as it will all depend on how this is set in map source or base camp, or even on the gps unit as there are so many variables that can be chosen. I tend to deal with this at export of file to gps unit by not letting it recalculate the route.;
By the way i didnt even try to let basecamp or mapsource calculate a route from start to end, i should have it may have saved some time.
Top man!
Give us all a heads up when you create the last route, please.
Richard
Give us all a heads up when you create the last route, please.
Richard
Top man!
Give us all a heads up when you create the last route, please.
Richard
I was getting tired in the we small hours this morning and left that one for today, will upload as soon as i can, and many thanks for the input/critique of the work.
This is the number 10 route, made using mapsource .gdb, transfered to basecamp saved as a .gpx with basecamp then re opened using basecamp and then saved as a .gdb using basecamp, all very confusing i know but still works using both progs. link below.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/a6gpjpbk7lox09y/10 lands of lleida.gdb?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/a6gpjpbk7lox09y/10 lands of lleida.gdb?dl=0
Thanks very much for all your work.
The website owners could, I guess recreate the Garmin files and / or convert them into Google maps or summat similar and embed them into their website. It would be like the Swiss Tourist Office did and one stage up from Ride's way of just displaying the links. The Spanish fellow has gone to a lot of trouble to create a nice site. Doing a little more would make it better still.
The website owners could, I guess recreate the Garmin files and / or convert them into Google maps or summat similar and embed them into their website. It would be like the Swiss Tourist Office did and one stage up from Ride's way of just displaying the links. The Spanish fellow has gone to a lot of trouble to create a nice site. Doing a little more would make it better still.
It would be very easy to create and embed the maps in google earth as the garmin progs come with a function to view in google earth, and from there you could save them. He has certainly done a very good job with his website and as you say it could be made better, but so could a lot of things, it would all depend on someone being able to spend the time and effort to make the changes.
The other region to the south that was refered to on this page, http://www.bajoaragon.es/actualidad/noticias/731-rutas-moteras-por-el-bajo-aragon- The maps from that site are in this gpx file you will need to view the website for information of routes.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/whcgoyeq0bapb5a/Maps from south of aragon.gpx?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/whcgoyeq0bapb5a/Maps from south of aragon.gpx?dl=0
First class info and help from you both. Thank you 
First class info and help from you both. Thank you
Couldn't have put it better!
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