Best GPS routing site: RideWithGPS.com

[WP3D]

Just wanted to let you guys know about https://ridewithgps.com/, its by far the best routing software I've found for motos and can export to GPX files to upload to a garmin/tomtom.

Here is an example of a route I'm planning on riding with a friend from his house in Lago Vista, I just got my first moto this week and lets see if I can handle a ride this long.

 

[blupupher]

Is it easier that basecamp to figure out?
I have used it (basecamp) about 10 times, and every time I do it takes me 10 minutes to figure out where to even begin.

 

[Jarrett]

I've been trying to tell these guys that for years, they don't listen

Their app is great for active routing as well. It's all I use for following specific routes anymore.


Side note, I got a kick out of your first post on the forum, as a brand spanking new rider, being one that tells riders with years of experience what's best for them to use.

Bravo on a **** of an entrance

Welcome to the forum!

 

[WP3D]

Is it easier that basecamp to figure out?
I have used it (basecamp) about 10 times, and every time I do it takes me 10 minutes to figure out where to even begin.

ya the Garmin software (all of it, basecamp included) is pretty terrible. Reliable hardware tho, but Garmin's atrocious software is the reason strava and so many other sites, RideWithGPS included, have become so successful - someone was going to step up to the plate, and they did.

 

[WP3D]

I've been trying to tell these guys that for years, they don't listen

Their app is great for active routing as well. It's all I use for following specific routes anymore.


Side note, I got a kick out of your first post on the forum, as a brand spanking new rider, being one that tells riders with years of experience what's best for them to use.

Bravo on a **** of an entrance

Welcome to the forum!

Lol, not trying to be a dick, I just tried a half dozen sites before finding it, and then saw in another post about people struggling with google maps limit (which I did too), just trying to help.

 

[gixxerjasen]

Tried to sign up, said I already had an account. Logged in with old creds and wow, my only activity in there is "Bicycle Cleveland" from when I lived there in 2010, before I had a smart phone. Can't recall how exactly I tracked that, possibly my garmin watch.

I'll look at it, but I took the time to learn Basecamp and it's not so bad once over the initial hump and I've gotten pretty good at it and it works well once you know what you are doing. It's kind of like photoshop, not intuitive to use but powerful once you know how it works. We had a basecamp boot camp thread on here a while back that got me over that initial hump.

Definitely RWGPS is using open streetmaps, I recognize some of my edits.

 

[Simmons1]

I'll look at it, but I took the time to learn Basecamp and it's not so bad once over the initial hump and I've gotten pretty good at it and it works well once you know what you are doing. It's kind of like photoshop, not intuitive to use but powerful once you know how it works. We had a basecamp boot camp thread on here a while back that got me over that initial hump.

Agree 100%

 

[veriest1]

Ride With GPS is pretty good. I've used it a handful of times.

Morethan10.com helps with sharing linger routes via Google Maps.

But I'm primarily a Basecamp guy. There are some features it has (esoecially in trip planning) that are just hard to replicate. It can be setup to calculate time to location and each way point based on YOUR average speed and stop times and just so many other things. It's pretty powerful software once learned. Basecamp also seems to be based more around database software than what we'd consider mapping software these days and that probably doesn't help with the learning curve.

 

[Tuco]

One thing Basecamp does that I've not seen in any other route planning software (not that I'm a guru on the subject) is that it high lites non-paved roads. I clicked thru RWGPS a little and there was no visual difference between paved/non-paved road surfaces. I checked RWGPS settings too and no switch, that I found, to indicate dirt road. But the software is pretty slick and fairly intuitive; I like it.

Like others have said the Basecamp learning curve (paraphrasing here) sucks, and the user interface is vintage 1980's but after ya get the hang of it, it ain't so bad for route planning.

 

[gixxerjasen]

One thing Basecamp does that I've not seen in any other route planning software (not that I'm a guru on the subject) is that it high lites non-paved roads. I clicked thru RWGPS a little and there was no visual difference between paved/non-paved road surfaces. I checked RWGPS settings too and no switch, that I found, to indicate dirt road.

One other thing about Basecamp is, no matter how good you are with it, it always seems there's something new to learn about it. I learned how to drag and drop routes to change them when planning my California trip. And now I'd like to know how to turn on this dirt road highlight because I don't see mine doing that. Tuco, care to share how this is done?

 

[Jarrett]

One thing Basecamp does that I've not seen in any other route planning software (not that I'm a guru on the subject) is that it high lites non-paved roads. I clicked thru RWGPS a little and there was no visual difference between paved/non-paved road surfaces.

It does it by default when I use RideWithGPS:

 

[Tuco]

It does it by default when I use RideWithGPS:

View attachment 306687

Curious. I did not see that on roads I know to be gravel.

 

[Tuco]

One other thing about Basecamp is, no matter how good you are with it, it always seems there's something new to learn about it. I learned how to drag and drop routes to change them when planning my California trip. And now I'd like to know how to turn on this dirt road highlight because I don't see mine doing that. Tuco, care to share how this is done?

I don’t remember if I did anything special to enable. Will check later today.

 

[MartiJ]

For those that do like BaseCamp here is a recent set of videos that could be helpful to you all.

 

[Tuco]

One other thing about Basecamp is, no matter how good you are with it, it always seems there's something new to learn about it. I learned how to drag and drop routes to change them when planning my California trip. And now I'd like to know how to turn on this dirt road highlight because I don't see mine doing that. Tuco, care to share how this is done?

This is an area around Lott, TX. The double-dash roads are non-paved. Do you not see these double-dash roads on your Basecamp map?

 

[Tuco]

One other thing about Basecamp is, no matter how good you are with it, it always seems there's something new to learn about it. I learned how to drag and drop routes to change them when planning my California trip. And now I'd like to know how to turn on this dirt road highlight because I don't see mine doing that. Tuco, care to share how this is done?

I've created .pdf that shows how to turn on unpaved roads...

Unpaved.pdf

drive.google.com

 

[gixxerjasen]

Getting a bit off topic here, but those instructions just show the unpaved roads, but it's not really marking them in a special way. Here's an example near my house.

That unpaved section...

 

[Tuco]

Well I don't know. That setting and double-dash appearance generally works well for me. I've noted the map updates from Garmin are slow when the actual road surface changes. There are a few roads around here that used to be gravel, are now paved, and Garmin still shows as gravel. Until your picture above, I've not seen on a Garmin map a road marked as paved but was, in fact, dirt.

 

[bwdmax]

You can select different maps in Basecamp. Depending on how you bought your maps or uploaded free maps. You can select the map in your GPS and if you have more than one GPS with different maps then you can see different things. My point is Basecamp itself doesn’t know if the roads are paved or not it is the maps you select and their level of detail. I could be all wrong as my computer is dead and can’t look at Basecamp.

 

[Tuco]

You’re right; it’s the maps that know.

You can select different maps in Basecamp. Depending on how you bought your maps or uploaded free maps. You can select the map in your GPS and if you have more than one GPS with different maps then you can see different things. My point is Basecamp itself doesn’t know if the roads are paved or not it is the maps you select and their level of detail. I could be all wrong as my computer is dead and can’t look at Basecamp.

 

[Jarrett]

I love how these threads inevitably go.

Post 1: Hey, here's this easy to use, intuitive web app for routing. It just works.
Post 2: Basecamp is better
Post 3: I can't Basecamp to work
Post 4: Watch 40 hours of Youtube videos and maybe you can
Post 5: I did, but I still can't get Basecamp to do this basic thing (that the easy web app from the 1st post does by default)
Post 6: Well, you just need to adjust your flux capacitor settings in Basecamp.
Post 7: I did that, but now all of my routes are reversed and apparently it is now giving me directions on Mars
Post 8: Well, then you need to go rewatch video #37 on Youtube about how to change your navigation preferences from Mars back to Earth
Post 9: I did that but now it just shows me how to navigate the Indian Ocean for some reason
And on and on and on...

 

[bwdmax]

I honestly would like to have a get together with some people who use different types of navigation and software and have them demonstrate how they use it and why they like what they like. Sometimes the user experience comes from intent and expected outcome. I really don’t think there is best route planner or best navigation device. I think some are better for specific things.

I hesitated for a long time to post my explanation of Basecamp mapping in a non-Basecamp thread. I’ll try my best to stay on topic of RideWithGPS.

 

[Jarrett]

I'm just joking, don't quit posting Basecamp tips on my account