So usually I just hit the bike trail, go so far, turn around and come back. No big deal, and I track it with my phone using Endomondo just for the heck of it. But now I am getting into longer distances (just started road biking last year) and can actually travel places. Earlier this week I thought about doing a loop on the country roads. I pulled up google maps which I typically use to navigate, but on my phone I couldn't figure out how to drag the route onto certain roads. Basically google tries to map out the fastest or shortest route between point A and B. I specifically want to take the scenic route across roads of my choice, with the same stop and finish.

I can do that fine on the computer, creating start and stop slightly apart then dragging the route to roads I wanted, then dragging the destination back to the start. But on the phone I have not figured out how, is this possible?

I tried one thing I thought might work, and created the loop on the computer and emailed myself a link, which I opened on my phone in google maps. It opened just as I wanted with a loop. But as soon as I told it to navigate it said destination reached and shut off (since I was starting at the same spot as the destination!). So I went a ways and tried to bring it back up, which it wouldn't unless I turned my data back on, went back into my email, and opened it new again. For some reason at multiple points in the trip it switched from the loop I had planned out to the shortest way back again, and I had to shut it all down and start over from the email link, what a PITA when your just trying to ride.

Any suggestion for future trips? I know I could study a map but often times the roads aren't called the same thing as on the map, or there is no sign at all. I'd just like my phone to announce 'turn left in a quarter mile' as I am approaching an intersection.

RideWithGPS and its app will do mapping and turn-by-turn on your phone, but I think now you have to purchase a subscription to get that feature. At $50 a year, it might be worth it, since that's way cheaper than buying a Garmin 810/1000 to get navigation. I prefer using a Garmin to trying to use my phone, but that's a wholly personal decision...YMMV.

Map my ride lets you setup routes in advance at least the paid version. I could setup the route in advance but found it a bit clunky when setting it up on my laptop. Worked fine for out charity ride last year setup the routes and made them public so anyone with the app could access them if they chose. still had the paper maps and pavement marking, which seems to work the best if you can follow a colored arrow.

Thanks for the suggestions but I don't plan on paying for a new GPS or Map My Ride since there are plenty of free versions of similar software. For the few times a season I might actually map an unfamiliar route I'll just keep using the google method on a computer and emailing it to my phone for now.

As far as I know ( someone correct me if I'm wrong ) but opening an account with "RidewithGPS" is free. They do however offer a paid subscription version that give you more mapping options. I use the free version with the "CueSheet" app and the "Locus Pro" app on my android based phone. You will likely want to upgrade to the paid versions of the apps. Basically it's just a one-time fee of perhaps $10 ( I bought mine yrs ago so I don't know current price ). CueSheet is probably the easier one to work with but does require that the app be online in order to navigate. For me not a problem. Locus Pro is a bit more technical but gives the user more options for both online and off-line navigation. As far as I know only the apps cost money ( one time fee ) but the mapping services from "RidewithGPS" and "Mapmyride" are free ( for entry level version )

(* Note, with Locus Pro you have to open a free account with Dropbox in order to get your planned routes off of RWGPS. Cuesheet doesn't require a dropbox account. )

Anyway, paying a small one time fee for an app is certainly worth the money for getting a feature that offers "voice" turn by turn navigation from your smart phone. The biggest downside is that using your phone for navigation will use up your phones battery. Not a big problem if your phone has a good size battery ( or you have a back up battery source ).

With some idea of the roads in your area, you could explore until it's time to go home and then have your phone find you the quickest route from wherever you happen to be.

Yes of course that's always an option. I'm still more interested in my actual question though. Especially those days where I may drop off my son and have say 2 hours to ride before I have to be back... and want to do a loop of around XX miles to fully take advantage of it.

However, I just realized that my Endomondo Sports Tracker app might be able to do this. It has the feature of making a route, which I have never used. And I always have it running while on the bike, even if i am using google maps I have them both going. Perhaps I'll try and test this out. Still wish I could create custom routes on the android google maps, but dragging the route onto specific roads (like you'd do on the pc) results in moving the view instead of the route.

I don't know why you are fixated on Google maps. Google maps is basically a feature designed for people who drive cars. Yeah, would be nice if it were more user friendly and offered custom routing features but it doesn't. Takes just minutes to plan a route on RWGPS once you get used to it.

Just realized I might have misunderstood you. Are you saying you want to create the route on Google map from your phone? Might be possible with a Bluetooth mouse. They can be setup with android phones but using one on the road wouldn't be easy. I saw a video on youtube using a mouse with an android phone but I'm not sure the mouse will work the same as it does on a PC or tablet.

I'm not fixated on google maps, but it certainly does do custom routing exactly how I want it to - on the computer. The problem is getting that custom route onto the phone and then it sticking to it (seemed to have lost the custom route a couple times for no reason and reverted to a fastest way back route).

But yes, it would be nice to create the route on the phone itself, for those impromptu rides I don't have a chance to plan on ahead of time on the computer. Bluetooth mouse is interesting, I've never tried to pair a mouse before with my phone. I just might try that to see what happens.

Still haven't looked up how to do custom routes on Endomondo but apparently this does exist so I think I'll be set once I figure out how. I always have that running while on the bike anyhow.

It would be nice if Google map let you navigate a set route from your phone. Google map is very much linked to Google navigate which is primarily designed for use with motor vehicles. I remember fooling with it for a while but when I found RWGPS I didn't need it anymore. Google map I use though for times when I just want to navigate something unplanned.

There have been times when I've been on planned routes and found it necessary to bail out because I wasn't feeling good. If I had the option to plan a new route from the phone I'm not sure how easy that would be to do from the phone considering how small the screen is anyway. Generally speaking I figured there's two kinds of rides, the planned and the unplanned. If planned you just sit back and let the app tell you the next turn. For unplanned it's really not that hard to quickly view a map ( while stopped ) to see what your best options are. Even if you had the option to design a new route from the phone it would probably take you just as much time to do that than to just stop to look at the map periodically.

If I bail on a route I'm running on Locus Pro I can still display the planned route while riding in a different direction. This is sometimes helpful in getting to where I want to get. Then if it turns out that I'm hooking up differently with the return ( planned ) route the Locus app will pick up the route and start to navigate again if I want it to ( from the spot am at ). Cue sheet will do this too but with Cue Sheet you have to manually advance the map to just before the next turn. Not hard to do as Cue Sheet gives you an actual Cue Sheet. Keep in mind that with any app running a planned route if the app has a "off route alert", you might want to disable it if going off route.