Using a cycling app to find fabulous motorbike routes

[The Other PaulG]

I've recently been doing quite a bit of longer-distance cycling (Cylist!!! Boooo! Stone him!! ) and have used a website called cycle-travel to do the route planning.

Week after week it has plotted the most fabulous routes on almost completely traffic free lanes and roads, taking me through some fascinating and beautiful parts of England that I would never have normally discovered.

Using it yesterday, it once again occurred to me how great that route would have been on a motorbike.

Not for your Hayabusa, or maybe even your R1300GS, but on a Himmy, or anything up to 500cc, or perhaps an old classic... these routes would be absolutely fabulous. They make you ride at a gentle pace, and because of that you see, smell and hear so much.

This won't appeal to the majority, but if you fancy life in the slower lane chugging around enjoying your surroundings, I'd strongly recommend this website.

Site - cycle.travel
cost - FOC
Notes - set the options to 'paved' to stay on sealed roads.



I am a techno-numpty but even I find it easy to use and export routes to my beeline.

P

 

[Wapping]

Thank you for this.

I have used several ‘cycle’ route blogs, websites and articles for ideas on routes. Just weed out any stretches that take ‘bicycle only’ cycle paths. Likewise, I have pinched ideas from ‘classic’ and ‘sports car’ sites, too.

The truth is that cyclists and ‘interesting car’ drivers, favour pretty much the same “No motorways, twisties only” D and N type roads and (more often than not) pretty much the same hotels, as red blooded bods, who just happen to ride a motorcycle.

 

[OMG!!]

Reason I travel to the West Coast of Scotland, getting away from the heavy traffic and congested roads further South.
These days with the popular NC500 and other now famous routes becoming clogged in the summer months, less well known routes are always welcome, and many still available. Ordinance survey maps of these areas can be an interesting good read.

 

[Wapping]

Here’s a post I made, pointing to book about pedalling across France, the route for which would make a very good holiday on powered wheels, two or four:

Thread 'France en velo - Book'

Aug 18, 2015

France en velo is a book; a book about bicycling. But don't let that put you off.

Nicely published, it suggests a 1000 mile, broadly diagonal (it's actually a large 'L') route across France from St Malo to Nice. Besides providing interesting sites to see along the way, it gives useful ideas on hotels, B&B's and campsites. Given that cyclists usually don't travel as far as any entrepid motorcyclist in a day (and as the suggestions are given for each day) you can see that there will be plenty of them. Add in that each route has pretty decent maps on the roads to take, you really do have...

• Wapping
• Replies: 2
• Forum: France (other than Alps, Pyrenees)

 

[Wapping]

Here’s another example:

From Caen to Cannes ~ Channel to the Med ~ 2013

From Saturday 31st August to Sunday 15th September, CTC Holidays’ Caen to Cannes cycle tour moved slowly but relentlessly south from the Channel port of Ouistreham to Cannes on the Cote d&#82…

bikeridesmw.wordpress.com

Most, if not all, of it would work well on a motorcycle or in a car.

 

[spm0912]

If you use Calimoto in France it often follows marked cycle routes

 

[stever1]

I found cycle . travel very good when i went mad in Urop on a cycle.
The only down side was it would take me up every steep hill it could find, sometimes taking me miles out of my way. Eventually i gave up and just navigated manually.