Cycling route-planning apps can help you find new places to ride, navigate unfamiliar terrain, and keep tabs on what other cyclists are up to.
You can find user-uploaded navigation in an online database on apps like Strava, Komoot, and Ride with GPS, and you can use the built-in mapping tools to create your own.
The top cycling apps can assist you with various tasks, including route planning, efficient training, bike maintenance, and more. Although there is no shortage of cycling-related apps, it can be challenging to weed out the duds from the gems.
Top Three Best Cycle Route Planner Apps
Route4Me
The Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) and the Vehicle Route Problem (VRP) are both needed to plan an effective multi-stop bicycle route (VRP). Even the most straightforward bicycle route, with 15 stops, can have countless permutations. So, just like with cars, bicycle routes need to be highly optimized.
With Route4Me, you can plan the quickest and cheapest bicycle routes possible with our proprietary optimization algorithm, allowing you to conquer that final stretch of your journey easier. As a bonus, your bicycle routes can consider various factors, including customers’ time windows, service times, employee availability, traffic, weather, and more.
Route4Me’s proprietary optimization algorithm considers all user-specified settings and constraints, computes millions of possible cycling roads and routing scenarios, and then generates one or more routes with the best possible Bicycling turn-by-turn and navigation instructions.
Google Maps
Google Maps, widely lauded for rendering the car satnav obsolete, also does a passable job of outlining routes for cyclists. The app provides verbal and visual cues to help you find the quickest route from point A to point B.
You can also toggle on a “cycling layer,” which will draw attention to all paths specifically designed for cyclists. The failure comes from the fact that it occasionally directs you down shared-use paths, which are much tenser than roads. In addition, if you miss a turn, it will frequently force you to take a long detour when simply reversing the course would be quicker and easier.
While Google Maps probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of cycling, you can use it to highlight bike paths in green and find roads with less traffic that are better for cyclists to travel on in more than 220 countries and territories.
After entering your destination’s coordinates, select the optimal route (if more than one is presented) and set off. Accurate and up-to-the-minute data will be presented on distance, travel time, and current traffic conditions.
Let’s say you want to find a free, highly rated, effective, and precise bike navigation app. Google Maps is a natural place to look first. However, unlike many of the alternatives presented here, this one does not include a route-building option.
Komoot
Komoot is rapidly becoming one of the most downloaded navigation apps in the world. It’s great for giving directions on two wheels, but it supports everything from hiking to e-biking. You can set your starting and ending points in advance, and Komoot will figure out the best route for you based on your sport and fitness preferences, be you a seasoned gravel grinder or a novice bike tourer.
It also has a handy Discover section to look up tours and routes. Whether you create your route from scratch or follow one that has already been laid out, you will be able to get an idea of the types of terrain you can expect along the way, such as challenging inclines and winding bridle paths.
The “key to the outdoors” is the Komoot GPS tracking app, which helps cyclists, runners, and walkers plot their routes.
The Planner on Komoot allows you to customize your journey based on factors like the desired surface (for example, paved roads, dirt paths, or singletrack trails), distance, elevation gain/loss, and more.
The route and topographic maps can then be downloaded directly to your device, allowing you to keep tabs on your rides and use turn-by-turn voice navigation even when you’re out of range of an internet connection. Along the way, you can explore exciting stops and recommend your favorites to the rest of the Komoot community.
After you’ve completed a workout, the Komoot app will synchronize your data across your devices, including Android Wear, Wahoo ELEMNT/ELEMNT BOLT, and the COBI app, and Garmin devices through Garmin Connect.
You’ll be able to keep track of your travels with geotagged photos, highlights, and helpful hints, all of which you can then share with others on Komoot. In time, people will recognize your hard work and upvote your posts, potentially elevating you to Pioneer.
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