New route mapping site
 

I discovered the http://www.mycycletour.com site recently while looking around for things to put on my site. It was launched in Jan, 2013 and is similar to other mapping sites like mapmyride.com, etc, though it appears to be specifically designed for bike touring. It is a good idea, in that it automatically calculates an elevation chart and a difficulty rating from 1 to 10 and lets you post photos of your ride afterward. The site is slick looking, uses Google's mapping interface and also offers the street-view feature. It is clear that someone has put some serious time and (likely) money into this project and I wish them well.

But it has a serious shortcoming that I discovered in the first minute of entering my first route.

The main problem is caused by the underlying system design that you enter a starting and ending point for your tour and it then creates a route for you. While this isn't a problem in and of itself, it is a non-starter if you are trying to ride a loop tour. I tried to create a map for my upcoming loop tour in SW Texas but got nothing. The only way to create such a route is to create an ending point along your intended route, clicking to creating waypoints (you get 8) where you actually want to ride and then moving the ending point to another place along your route. This has to be repeated until the route gets back to the starting point.

Frankly, this is enough of a bother that I'd rather stick with one of the existing sites where you click on the map to generate the route and then you mark the end when you get there. This is how mapmyride.com works. Also, only 8 waypoints, which are needed to make changes in the calculated route, would likely be a serious shortcoming to anyone trying to create a route of any length. One way around this limitation is to "link" routes together, which the system allows.

That said, it is a very nice looking system that is good for point to point routes and may, sometime in the future, have lots of routes that would be a good place to search for touring ideas. The route I created was number 29.

MyCycleTour - site for planning your next bike trip
 

Yes - better support for loops is something that is on the to-do list for MyCyleTour.com. At this point the simplest way to input a route is to pick an end-point that is somewhere along your route, perhaps the furthest point out, then create a waypoint for another point along the route. Once you have done that you can drag the end-point to overlap the start-point and then fill in other waypoints to define the loop. It does require a few more steps, and it would be easier if loops were better integrated.

The limit on waypoints is unfortunately a limit to the underlying google maps api that is used. It can ultimately be expanded to 23 waypoints, but this will be a little further in the future. In the mean time the Link Routes option does allow people to expand on the 8 waypoint limit by defining trips that contain more than a single route (which are in turn linked together).

Where many of the other ride mapping sites do a good job in mapping, they are mostly training / performance sites and focus less on providing information and data that is useful to people doing longer trips. As an example, some of the recent additions include the ability to overlay Panoramio pictures on the map to get an idea of what you'll see along the way. There are also some other features in testing that includes the ability to use the map to see hotels, B&Bs, restaurants and other attractions. All focused on providing info for touring trippers versus people just out for exercise.

I haven't checked the site out yet, but it sure would be nice if the maps automatically showed a little shower icon where hot showers are available. That's the one amenity that really makes a perfect ending to my touring day. I suppose this is also one of those many features that would be different from the training map sites.

MapMyRide.com doesn't seem to be limited to 23 waypoints (I just created a map with 40).

Review of cycle trip planning website - items fixed!
 

The two problems identified in this review have now been fixed! The site now provides very simple support for loops, and also supports more than 8 waypoints. There are also a lot of other enhancements since this review was written. Just wanted to set the record straight and thank raybo for the review which highlighted these key items.

That's all been fixed now - support for as many waypoints as you need!

Have you tried mapping something out with the ipad?

I tried to export a GPX and got an error: "413 Request Entity Too Large". Is there any way to import GPX files?

Not sure if possible, but a big addition would be to add things like bike friendly routes and campsites. I know the latter probably isnt possible at this point, but I do hate creating routes and then going through with street view to find that I'll be riding 25 miles on rough dirt/gravel country roads.

On the question of GPX error - there appear to be system limits in the underlying technology that create issues for very long routes. The simple approach is to split the route and "link" them in mycycletour. That means you end up with more than one file to load, but that's not such a bad thing for GPS devices. You can certainly store multiple days in a single file (at least in my experience).

On the topic of bike friendly roads - the routes are planned using google which looks for specifically for bike routes, and if it doesn't find any then goes on secondary roads. It shouldn't be taking you on dirt / gravel roads. I've this problem when having my garmin gps set the route - i.e. you end end up on a dirt path over a hill... or worse. At least with MCT you can do the satellite view and take a look at the road.

On the campsite question you can now see campsites and other accommodation on the map when you go to displayroute. Once you have your route planned you can pick your stayover points by going to the map - just above it there's a pull down called "Places" and you can select "campsites" or hotels, or coffee, or pizza, etc.

I don't think I'm computer illiterate but I can not get a map to show when I try to "create" a route. Yes, I am logged in. There is just a big blank white space where it seems obvious that a map should be. What am I doing wrong? I'm using Internet Explorer. Thanks for any help.

How does it compare with ridewithgps.com ? Just curious, thanks.

I'd be happy to get into a little more dialog if you could email concerns @mycycletour.com versus using this forum. Send along the version of IE you are using and perhaps your computer OS (Windows 7 or Mac or whatever). Also do you have any issues seeing other people's maps posted in their routes?

First off you don't need to pay up to $10 per month for the extra features like GPS support. It does look like a nice site to be fair, although like most sites it is somewhat geared towards performance training versus tripping and planning. Mycycletour let's you search hotels, restaurants and more and also shows a rich layer of nearby pics from public sources. There's even a feature coming that will show a satellite view of the route as if you we're riding it - ie like a movie. The whole point is to get the greatest sense of the feel of a route.

Try it again. The maps presented try to center on the location that is obtained from you browsers IP address. The service being used created a problem in some browsers / devices - for example I saw the same thing on my iPad... no map. Traced it to the location service, so now changed it to a more generic service (google). It now works on my iPad... hope it works in your browser.

The GPX route capability has been revamped and the result is that significantly larger GPX files can be supported for download.

I'm interested in any other feedback on the value of importing GPX files. The site is more targeted at planning and sharing, but I can see how this would be nice for those folks who do routes with their GPS and simply want to upload. It may not happen in the very near future, but it can certainly go on the list.

If you get a chance, try out the GPX download and let me know how it goes! Thanks.

It's not published yet, but a beta version of a new feature is on the site called "VISUALIZE 3D" that is a very cool way to see any route that's in the library or that you create. By displaying any route look for the button just above the map and press it. Depending on your browser and device you can either view the route as a google earth tour on the site, or download a KML file that can be opened in the google earth app. Not all devices support the google earth API in the website (e.g. IOS/iPad/iPhone, and IE10) so you have to download. Since you can't download to an IOS device there's also an option to email it to yourself and open it from your device. Want to know what a route will REALLY be like... check this out!

I'm looking at a route from France (near the Pyrenees) into Spain - a route that actually follows one of the old pilgrimage paths to Santiago de Compostela. Sounds like an interesting route to take but what's it really going to be like?

So I mapped it at http://www.mycycletour.com and you can see the route at http://www.mycycletour.com/displayro...RouteNumber=70 . It's pretty good - I can see the map, I can even see some pictures along the way, and I can drop the little man-icon on the map to get a street view image anywhere along the route. But it's still hard to get a sense of the ride. So now I click on the little button "See it in 3D" (just above the map). It takes a second, but it loads the google earth plugin and then plays the route... just like flying in a helicopter along the whole route. Get a cup of coffee (or a glass of wine) as you could be watching for a while. It is absolutely awesome.

Here's an image that I cut and pasted from the tour - on the site you just hit the play button and it flies the route. It works on any route in the system. You can put in your own route then see it. If you can't put the google earth plug-in on your device, then you can download a file and play it in the google earth app.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=321444

My problem with no map appearing seems to be solved, thanks.

Just a quick update. It's now published but its called "See it in 3D" and not Visualize 3D. Great feature.

Great. Glad to hear its working for you.

New routes on mycycletour.com for USA, Britain, France, Italy and now China! Visualize 3D is not "See it in 3D". Great feature.

Check out the latest on youtube - http://youtu.be/2PhOypTLQzs . Lots of new routes to share!