MapMyRide User Interface
It took me a few months of using a Garmin 605 for Bicycle Touring to get to a point where I could take advantage of the On Line Support Sites for the Garmin 705/605 that overcome the weaknesses in Garmin’s software for the Mac. The following comments represent my current state of knowledge after 6 months as a Garmin 605 User on what works and does not work for me.
MapMyRide is a site I would like to like. It seems very popular but I can’t quite understand why.
The concept is great, plot your rides and share them with friends and other riders. But they aren’t the only site that does that. The ads that block the small work area for creating routes on MapMyRide just get in the way of making the experience a pleasant one.
MapMyRide also at this time still has one major limitation that rules it out for me, I can’t upload rides from my GPS, every route has to be hand plotted. Add the annoying ads that block the work area unless you have a paid subscription and I have wonder why anyone still uses this site.
Bike Route Toaster User Interface
Bike Route Toaster offers for free the same capabilities as MapMyRide, is easier to work with, has a cleaner and bigger work area and has no annoying ads in the middle of the work area. It will also create a route from a GPX file or directly create a route from one on a Garmin GPS.
I like BikeRoueToaster for creating routes for the Garmin 705/605. The capability to predict ride times using your typical riding speed is a nice feature. It is also based on open source code a real plus for me. I have not had much luck with uploaded routes but that may just be my misunderstanding of how this capability works. The integration with Google Earth is a very nice feature.
BikeRouteToaster has the best ride editing capabilities for routes that you create on the site. But only Garmin does a good job of route editing. On all of these site it is best to know where you want your route to go before you start creating a route.
The maps in Northern New England look a little old, some popular bicycling roads are missing, but the maps are updated with user input so your area may be much better. However, in my area the map errors just make the great tools unusable.
Bike Route Toaster would be a top choice if the maps were better.
RidewithGPS User Interface
RidewithGPS is free and has the same route creation capability MapMyRide, a slicker and easier to use interface, plus will map rides downloaded from your GPS. The ability to download files directly from Garmin GPS units is very handy.
The ride editing capabilities do not seem to be functional at this time but are promised for the next update.
The maps in MapMyRide at this point are better than the Garmin Maps for my area but that is just because of a problem Garmin has with 2010 maps.
I’d love the capability to create a cue sheet from a GPX file but no one has that yet.
RidewithGPS is my current choice. Please share your experiences. Google Maps Bicycle Routing is also an interesting routing tool that I will be watching closely.
#1 by Annoyed Reader on 09/18/2010 - 1:25 PM
very funny: your link to RidewithGPS actually goes to MapMyRide – which is crap.
#2 by Roland on 09/29/2010 - 10:32 AM
Thanks for pointing that out, I try to be accurate, but stuff happens
#3 by Jim Moyer on 01/08/2011 - 9:44 AM
Thanks for commenting on these three sites. I have used Mapmyride in the past but found it did not interface well (or at all) with my Garmin 605. I ended up building my routes for the Garmin via Garmin’s proprietary software, Mapsource. That worked adequately, but I couldn’t post routes online for others with all the features of Mapmyride. I’m hoping Ridewithgps will allow better interface with the GPS. It’s cold here in Kentucky now so I’m building some routes for spring riding.
#4 by Roland on 01/08/2011 - 1:15 PM
If you take a look at the link to my RidewithGps maps, you can see the route I am planning for cross country ride starting in March. I just learned how to add cue sheet notes, amazingly nice to use.
I’ll be loading the actual route after I get home in May. It should be fairly close to planned route. So far, I haven’t found any software that creates a cue sheets from gps data, but other than that RidewithGPS.com does what I need better than anything else I’ve found. I am content right now so not looking anymore. Let me know if something better comes along.
#5 by Herb on 03/12/2011 - 8:01 PM
Make sure you verify the cue sheets generated by MapMyRide. On a 50 mile loop we did today, there were two errors in the cue sheets generated from the map (right turns instead of lefts, left turns instead of rights). I had seen the same problem before with their older website and had (falsely) assumed they had corrected. Last time this happened, I sent a note to their tech support and didn’t get any answer.
In addition, the cue sheets are cluttered with superfluous data.
My recommendation (which I myself will heed in the future) is to make your own cue sheets off the maps, or to turn-by-turn vet the cue sheets the computer generates.
#6 by Roland on 03/19/2011 - 9:04 PM
Haven’t done anything with MapMyRide since first look, new features look good but waiting until I finish Coast to Coast ride to check out. RidewithGPS.com folks are talking about lots of new features also. I’ll compare both after I get home in May.