Recall the thread title: following a predefined route.


Google Maps does not provide voice prompts for following a designed route. You give it a destination and it takes you there. Cyclists don't need this function very often. They normally need to be able to follow an unfamiliar course such as a 60 mile loop posted by someone in their club or from some other source. Rather than use a cue sheet attached to a handlebar, the rider now has the option of using a smartphone that will follow a GPX track with many waypoints. Like Google Maps, the method I have suggested provides voice prompts with street names for navigation without looking at a map. This is a great way to ride and surmounts the issues of limited street name and turn prompting by combining the features of two apps.

I can vouch for OsmAnd, it really is a very nice piece of software. I use it all the time in the car and recently also on my bike. I must admit that it is not very intuitive, you have to spend a lot of time to get familiar with the interface. A little clunky.

Recently I found something that is really simple to use: "Soviet Military Maps"
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...aps.free&hl=en

There is a free and a Pro version (3 euro), I don't recall the exact advantage of the Pro version. The name "Soviet Military Maps" may raise concern, but the app is really very straightforward.

With this app you can bulk-download OsmAnd maps (or other maps, but not Google maps) into the phone. I think it downloads tiles, not vector-maps so storage is inefficient but for a bike trip it doesn't bother me. You can use the app to plan a route: zoom in on the map until you have enough detail, then set your markers. Afterwards you can tell the app to start following the route from start to finsih, or in opposite direction. Simple. You can store multiple tracks.

While riding the track you get an arrow on the screen pointing to the next waypoint, and when you're within 20 meters of your waypoint your hear a "ding" and the arrow starts pointing to the next waypoint. Simple.

When I bike through the city I still use OsmAnd which works as a navigation system, but out in the woods without any OsmAnd roads and no navigation, this one is really simple.

I have used Osmand to follow pre-entered gpx routes a few times now, and found it quite reliable using the voice prompts. However, yesterday I tried to join a gpx route midway, and found it was ignoring the defined route; even trying to take me onto the A4 at one point! I have read somewhere that it will try to take you back to the start of the ride. Does anyone know a way of persuading Osmand to pick up a route at a sensible mid-point?

I have seen OsmAnd do that. When missing a GPX waypoint and going straight to the next waypoint, OsmAnd sometimes stubbornly tries to send me back to the missed waypoint. It can be confusing, but I remember that in the end it will give up and forget about missed waypoints. Not sure how to force him to do that.