Strava routing oddity.

[GOATever]

I frequently use Strava to plot routes, then ride them to check them out for suitability for any led rides Im planning. Strava does tend to do something very irritating though, it often leaves gaps between a waypoint and the next bit of the route. This causes my Garmin to have a fit, and it tries to get me to do a u turn ( normally ). It’s not such a big issue if it’s somewhere I’m familiar with, but can be a massive ball ache if I’m off my ‘patch’. I had such an issue on a ride I was plotting / checking last week, so I thought I’d better check a few of the longer plots, in unfamiliar territory out, before doing the reccy rides. They all had gaps on the traces, it’s a good job I checked. I just thought I’d give anyone who does this sort of thing with Strava a heads up ( if they didn’t know).

[lufbramatt]

IIRC the strava routing app is still in beta stage?

Have a look at Komoot. I use it to generate gpx route files and never had any issues. Have to pay for the map areas you want to use (although think I got the whole world for £25 or something so it's not too much) but it's designed specifically for cycling and walking so has annotations on good roads to use etc. And loads of user generated routes you can search for by location, edit to suit your needs and and download.

[IJWS15]

Have you tried the Garmin routing?

[GOATever]

IJWS15 said:

Have you tried the Garmin routing?

Yes, I found it kept second guessing everything I plotted, and kept ending up on A roads, which my routes had actually avoided.

[S100HP]

Wouldn't you be better plotting on mapmyride then uploading the GPX file to the Garmin? This is what I've done in the past and you can add as many or as few waypoints as you wish.

[okgo]

Ridewithgps/Plotaroute

[okgo]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

The main problem with strava is that if you allow it to use popularity, it can't define mountainbike/gravel/cx rides vs road. So if a particular path is well used by anyone on those bikes it can appear on your road ride. I do think its an error of Strava, but not easy to fix it without asking someone to categorise every ride they do.

[GOATever]

S100HP said:

Wouldn't you be better plotting on mapmyride then uploading the GPX file to the Garmin? This is what I've done in the past and you can add as many or as few waypoints as you wish.

Mapmyride is clumsy IME. The Strava thing is getting better of late, but I just have to check for subtleties like it moving the route line to a cycle path or similar, adjacent to the road I actually want, or accidentally routing it the wrong way up a one way road ( which I managed to do through a town in Surrey recently ). Also have to check for gaps in the plot line by zooming right in on any bits through unfamiliar areas. Once it’s ridden, I can just upload the route I actually rode, trim any balls ups out, set that as the route, delete the old one, and GPX the actual one. Job jobbed. It’s part of the fun of riding for me as well.