Hi everybody,
I’m picking up my first gravelbike in 2 weeks and really excited to get going!
What I need is an app that lets me create A->B routes that mainly consist of gravel roads. I live in the Netherlands and have tried Strava and Garmin routes but they mainly stick to asphalt/paved roads.
Strava does seem to have some gravel routes that start and finish at the same location, but want to e.g. plan a route from home to somewhere in Germany/Belgium and that is mainly gravel.
Ideas are appreciated, thanks!
by Foxriver89
11 Comments
I use google maps only, but I will stay here for other guys recommendations
komoot or ridewithgps
If you’re in europe try geovelo (it’s free).
Komoot. Good maps, routes off-road and integrates with Wahoo
Another vote for komoot
So what I use is not just an app but a whole system. I use Komoot because it shows the surface breakdown and users photos, Strava Global Heatmap to see whereabouts people ride (gravel heatmap isn’t the best though), Google Maps Street view (of available) to check the road.
Once you find a few cool gravel Strava segments, look at the leaderboards, and check the routes that people on that segment took, and ride those routes. You’ll probably find a few people consistently show up on all gravel segments in your area – follow them and ride their routes.
Eventually you’ll get to know the gravel roads in your area pretty well and you’ll be able to draw your own cool routes. But at the beginning it’s a bit of a hit or miss and a lot od exploration.
But planning a long route like you want is even trickier, but it’s still a whole bunch of things I mentioned in the beginning. I have managed to plan pretty cool long destination routes like that, but once I ended up in this wet muddy trail just a few km before the destination, because I didn’t know the area and wanted to stick to off-road, it’s good to have an alternative planned, but that’s not always possible.
Strava works quite well in the Netherlands. You can change the routing from prefer paved to off-road when creating your route.
Definitely komoot. Side note – I definitely don’t use strava heatmaps for road since my car tolerance is a lot lower than most other riders. I noticed that most roadies favour fast and good surface over quiet roads.
Best one is https://bikerouter.de
I use Garmin explore sometimes
I use Strava heat maps to see where people are riding and either use Strava to create the route or RideWithGPS.