Following on from the opening post. I ordered the book from Germany, it arriving on my doostep (via Parcelforce) this morning.
Nicely published and no doubt even better if you could read German.
The maps work nicely and the GPX files (linked to each route) download really well via the book’s QR codes. The QR code opens up into a really nicely presented webpage on my iPhone. I see it is backed or sponsored by the German ‘Biker Betten’ group, who have similarly well presented web pages, biker friendly hotel guides and lots more besides.
Here’s just a sample of one, I picked at random from the book and downloaded onto my iPhone, then into MyRoute on my iPhone. As simple as A B C. I am confident that using one more phone based app, I could ride to the route from my front door and then ride along it.
Here it is, hosted on MyRoute but shared with the forum:
None of this involved anything more than an iPhone and no IT ability above that of pond life. If I can do it, anyone can. Play around, it won’t break.
As you can see, it is pretty much an unadopted road, probably poorly surfaced and maintained linking two Italian towns or villages. It would probably be of no great interest to hardcore, rufty-tufty off-road gods, but for those who like riding (or just want to try) say, some of the smaller roads around, it would definitely be OK. I have ridden worse on my 1600. I have also had bods on my Wanders moaning thst some of the roads in the Belgium Ardennes are not billiard table smooth for their Adventure (with a capital A) GS motorcycles.
I see that the QR code in the picture above works, so you can try it for yourselves.
I need to look at the book some more, to see what type of other routes (there are 332 of them) the publisher has offered up. My gut feeling in two minutes? If you are already a King of the TET, then you probably know how to find awesome off-road tracks and routes, without any help. For those less blessed, it might well be useful. Buy one and share the costs between your mates.
PS Why English publishers cannot take a leaf out of the German’s book and start to publish similar good quality guides, all using fairly simple modern technology, is a mystery. They’d rather rely on some scabby maps, some often very unclear words and a few pictures. But hey, that’s bikermate Britain.
TA Biker mate" Followed by, "Which way do I turn, when I arrive at the shores of European continent?
