Creating maps of local rides
 

It occurred to me while I was riding one of my usual local ride that it might help others if I described my local rides just like I do my bike tours.

It would be nice to provide a detailed map so others could easily find the route.

Do you know of any web site I can use to create maps of biking routes for display online?

Thanks,

Ray

Gmaps pedometer and save the link to it.

http://www.routeslip.com/
Routeslip.com is another cycling mapping site

bikely.com. Similar to routeslip, but under active development. Far better than gmaps pedometer.

I use routeslip. It is also nice to search for other folk's saved routes in my area.

Maybe I should spend more time at routeslip, but it looked to me that the waypoints of the ride were connected by straight lines instead of following the actual layout of the map. I didn't see any way to force the routing along streets (like you can do in DeLorme).

Is there a way to do this?

I'll try the other sites as well.


Thanks for the ideas.

Ray

Here's an easy way......save a picture of the map from Mapquest. Use an MS toolbar program such as the drawing bar, or some other, to "draw" your route on the picture. Mapquest generally has all the little side roads. Be careful to keep the compression low enough that it will upload at less than 100kb.

Presto.

Here is one from a 2-1/2 day-2 night tour which, should anyone care to inquire, makes an excellent weekend trip leaving out on Friday afternoon, for anyone in the Ft Worth-Dallas area.

The online sites that use google maps (routeslip, bikely, gmaps) do not support any automatic routing. You must plot multiple points to follow along a road's curvature. It's a bit of a pain, but really not such a big deal. The bigger hassle is when you want to modify the route and have a lot of points to move.

Both bikely and routeslip are fantastic sites for colaborating on routes with other riding partners. They're also great for researching routes, or parts of routes where you are unfamiliar.

Routeslip and bikely both appeared on the scene about the same time. Unfortunately, the author of routeslip has not been able to maintain development. Bikely is undergoing active development so new features keep being added.

I use TopoUSA a lot for making routes, but usually end up transferring routes to bikely to share them with others.

Yahoo maps recently got upgraded with a new interface. One of the features allows you to place the cross hairs on a road and right click -> "Drive to here," and it adds the destination to your itinerary. You can create a route simply by plotting some of its key points.
http://maps.yahoo.com/index.php (make sure to click broadband map in the top right if the old interface comes up)

Also check out www.geoladders.com

That yahoo maps link works great eliktronic....nice.

I would add favoriterun.com; however, the issue is the same as routeslip: there's no way to edit a route in the middle. To edit one must delete each waypoint in reverse to the point to be changed. Otherwise, one must payfor and use a mapping software such as; Arcsoft or GeoMapper.