I primarily use two route planning websites when deciding where to ride.
Both services integrate neatly with both Garmin and Wahoo GPS devices (see Navigation).
Ride with GPS
Ride with GPS (RWGPS) is simple to use. I tend to use it most often if I have a familiar route in mind that I would like to recreate precisely. Placement of ride waypoints is quite simple and you can create a route quickly.
For 99% of my rides I have the “Routing” mode set to “Driving”. In any of the other modes, the algorithm tends to favour paths a bit too often in my view. The major disadvantage to using this mode is that the route planning algorithm then favours speed over quality. As a result, I don’t believe you are given the best route for cycling. This isn’t a problem if you’re familiar with the area – you can correct it really easily (with waypoints) and pick only the roads you wish to ride on.
Komoot
I believe that Komoot is a stronger candidate for unfamiliar areas. In my view, the routing algorithm for road cycling is very good. If you simply have somewhere (or a small number of places) to be, and no (or very few) specific road preferences, the route it selects tends to be of high quality. Furthermore, there are lots of “Highlights” – user submissions of good landmarks and/or roads – and it’s easy to include these on your route should you wish.
Crucially, if you choose “Road Cycling” as your sport, the routing algorithm very rarely selects unsuitable terrain. In cases when it does, it’s possible to highlight these on the map by hovering over the surface (or waypoint) type in the left hand menu:
Most of the time, it’s a logical choice and avoids a main road and/or a long detour.
You should note that the reported surface type is not always 100% correct, but it’s not far off. The data for this is driven from OpenStreetMap (OSM) and can be editted by any user. If you do happen to find an error with the surface type, I suggest you correct it because this benefits other users. The Komoot basemap seems to be refreshed with new OSM data about every fortnight.
If you are hellbent on riding certain roads, Komoot is not so strong. It’s really easy to get the waypoints mixed up and it can be confusing to correct the order of those. It can also be quite a resource hog if you need to place a lot of waypoints – though I tend to have very few.
Next: Navigation
Your Comments
Please leave a comment below if your views differ to mine. I would be interested to hear your preferences!