Route finding websites from members

[traveler]

http://s2.images.proboards.com/grin.gif I thought all might like this site. http:// www. motorcycleroads.com
lots of point to point information on road trips in the lower 48.


This thread was started by Traveler, and I thought it was a good idea to have one thread with favorite links to route finding websites.

If you have a favorite place on the web that you go to for help choosing a route, add it here for others to find. Dan

[fish]

Its under nomad links

http://www.motorcycleroads.us/

[fish]

Sorry, com is a different site

[ringadingh]

Heres one Ive looked at also.
http://www.backroadsusa.com/home.html/home.html

[rickyboy]

Hi to you all,
If it's planning a route and knowing the mileage between stops and how long it'll take to get you there. {roughly} along with a turn by turn explanation,...... then try "the ride planner" @
http://www.harley-davidson.com/wcm/Content/Pages/Experience/experience.jsp?HDCWPSession=bTcnH0vGLvrxrbC7z11vQh S2LfT5ZmV4WYjd9byF1gvJNv7GvG7T!-1750317045!-1175664364&locale=en_US
I know ....I know,...it's a Harley site but what the heck this might be the best thing they have done. I found it quite useful planning my ride last summer through Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon and Washington.

[bosko]

Hey rickyboy, that is a great site. I used it to plan my trip this summer too. Mind you I didn't even come close to riding the planned route, but it was fun plannig in anticipation of the road trip.

Your avatar looks exactly like a guy I worked with up here.
But he's a Harley guy. He tells me he keeps gettin flashed by women whenever he rides his hog. Must be a Harley thing cause I've been riding rice for 25 plus years and have not yet gottin
the mammary salute.

[phenrichs]

Maybe we can put them all together and Trip can add a section to the links page. I just received an excellent book, The Essential Guide to Motorcycle Touring, lists a lot of good sites for trip planning.

[nomad561]

Great sites guys.Thanks

[rickyboy]

Bosko,
Yes it is a good site, and like you I didn't stay on the planned route either. The GPS kind'a took me in other directions.

[unwind2]

Good idea...thanks all for sharing.

[Netnorske]

Here is a great site specific to Washington/Oregon. This guy is a Gold Winger, but has an incredible website including videos of each ride, stops, maps....you name it!

http://www.robsnet.com

[watchman]

After you decide on a route, go to www.motelguide.com (http://www.motelguide.com) for a listing of MOM and POP motels across the country listed by states. We have used it several times and not been disappointed.

[dantama]

Zoom45 put this link in the main forum.

Here's a link where you can ride coast to tcaost and plan your gas stops:
http://roadtrip.apehangers.org/maps/c2c.php

Zoom45

[cheriann]

What great links!
Thank you for sharing!!!

[rflnomad]

www.michel&marciasmotorcycletrips.com
This is great.Lots of riding in real Florida ( north of I-4 ) with neat stops and little towns. LOTS of videos.
One of these days we will be able to ride these roads....

[elvis]

Bookmarked it, thanks for sharing.

Here is a great site specific to Washington/Oregon. This guy is a Gold Winger, but has an incredible website including videos of each ride, stops, maps....you name it!

http://www.robsnet.com

[bundyrumandcoke]

This works worldwide- using Google Earth.

Open Google Earth

Up at top left, click on Directions, enter your start and end points in the appropriate boxes. Click the Begin Search tab beside the end box.

You will then have turn by turn directions listed, as well as intermediate distances, and a total distance and approx total travel time listed at the bottom. Of course, your route will also show on the Google Earth page beside it.

[ringadingh]

Heres one from the Ontario Tourism, it tells you all the scenic routes of ontario for motorcycles and calculates the distance for you.

http://www.gorideontario.com/motorcycle/index.html

[ccmjr77]

This is not a ride planning site, but a great site that has maps and rating that a guy out here in Arizona does.
www.cyclerides.com (http://www.cyclerides.com)

[bfancett]

I agree, the Harely "Ride Planner" is sweet. You can tell it to avoid highways, so you take backroads as much as possible, it will show you where the gas stations are, and even though it's HD event, it shows you where bike events are along the way.

Most importantly, you can download your trip directly to your GPS, you can't beat that.

Brian

[n9151]

WOW: I wished I knew who to send mail to on Mom- Pop motel site. I checked the North Platte Ne listings and some I would not board a pet in, let alone good people !!

[dhomoney]

This works worldwide- using Google Earth.

Open Google Earth

Up at top left, click on Directions, enter your start and end points in the appropriate boxes. Click the Begin Search tab beside the end box.

You will then have turn by turn directions listed, as well as intermediate distances, and a total distance and approx total travel time listed at the bottom. Of course, your route will also show on the Google Earth page beside it.

Better yet you can tell it in the options to avoid highways and tolls. You can also setup multiple waypoints. Pretty awesome tool.

[AlabamaNomadRider]

Looks like some good sites. Thanks for the links.

[BudMan]

There is some good info on riding in the Ozarks here.

http://www.cruisetheozarks.com

[vorlon]

Some nice rides links. Thanks!

[kpmhspirit]

http://www.pashnit.com/motoroads.htm

http://www.amvtwin.com/great_florida_rides.html

http://www.motorcycleroads.com/

http://www.bikerroads.com/rides/index.htm

http://www.openroadjourney.com/search.asp

http://www.byways.org/

Pete

[Top Cat]

http://www.pashnit.com/motoroads.htm

http://www.amvtwin.com/great_florida_rides.html

http://www.motorcycleroads.com/

http://www.bikerroads.com/rides/index.htm

http://www.openroadjourney.com/search.asp

http://www.byways.org/

Pete

Pete, I didn't click on any of these sites as I have dial-up and ...........
Which, if any are downloadable to garmin? Thanks

[kpmhspirit]

Pete, I didn't click on any of these sites as I have dial-up and ...........
Which, if any are downloadable to garmin? Thanks


The openroadsjourney site is the only one that has downloadable gpx files of the routes, I think. You have to sign up for an account though.

The rest of the sites just have maps which you could copy, print and then manually input into mapsource, I guess.

Pete

[glwilson]

A lot of good ideas here. I have used some of them.

Since I map a lot of routes, I am most interested in mapping software... and have mostly used HD's planner.

However, my new favorite is Microsoft's Bing Maps.

Their 2D maps have far better resolution and detail, to include some topographical indications.

But... my favorite is their 3D mode -- especially with satellite pictures. In this mode I can zoom-in to check out the terrain from a more accurate "life-like" view to see if the road is something I want to include in my routing.

Just "google" "Bing" and then check out its mapping.

Hope you guys like also.

[gsanborn]

Lots of good information here, thanks for the websites

[oledawg]

http://s2.images.proboards.com/cool.gif How To Better
"See Pennsylvania" http://s2.images.proboards.com/cool.gif

http://www.pa-mag.com/motorcycle-touring/

[elvis]

Your avatar looks exactly like a guy I worked with up here.
But he's a Harley guy. He tells me he keeps gettin flashed by women whenever he rides his hog. Must be a Harley thing cause I've been riding rice for 25 plus years and have not yet gottin
the mammary salute.

I've had my Nomad just over a year, it's lady's magnet!

[usapassports]

Great web site link supports. Thanks for sharing.

http://www.expresspassport.com/

[blowndodge]

I'm kind of curious with a GPS why you would need to download a route? I got a pm from Henryk asking me if my Garmin could download from google, mapquest etc... I gave this answer:

Yes you can Henryk. I don't find that necessary as you can plug in "wayword" points along the main route and Garmin will take you out of the way to go there then once you get to your "out of the way spot" hit resume and it will take you back to your original location no matter where you are.

The more I thought about planning routes the more I realized that I may want to just deviate from them and take another road. Garmin will always "recalculate" your deviation from anywhere and get you back on the right track. Your final destination can also be off the main interstate if you ask it to do that.

I find this more fun and easier. I just get off the main highway and zoom out a little and say to myself, "lets see where this road goes?" Garmin will always redirect me back to ontrack.

To me downloading "drawn out route maps" is kind of a waste of time although some like to do that. But yes you can track a route from mapquest, google or other site and download it to your Garmin.

[waterman]

Brad,

I don't download maps to my Garmin. I do an overall trip map and print it just in case. I also do that for food, potential fuel stops and lodging unless I have been on the road and know it.

[petenomad]

Most people plan routes to force the unit to select certain roads. You can easily see the routes on a large computer screen and add waypoints as needed to shape a certain route. For example, at the SC rally, we rode to a ferry that ran accross Bull Shoals lake. If you let the GPS select a route from Springfield, MO to Eureka Springs, AR, it would not have chosen this highway. You could add a waypoint there, but it might still stick to larger roads until getting close to the waypoint, then go on a different road to that point and then back to the larger highway. Additional waypoints also help to make sure that if a recalc occurs that the unit will not calculate a totally different path to the destination since it will need to continue to the additional waypoints. Also, if you pre-plan and you don't like an on-unit recalculation you can simply stop the route and restart from the original planned route without having to re-enter any additional waypoints.

[blowndodge]

Pete you can do that too! My garmin has so many "points of interest" that I can use for wayward detours that I get essentially the same results. I want to ride to a point that I have to stop and hit the "where in the f*ck am I" button! then zoom out and see how far off the beaten path I got then I can just tap the screen on the nearest interstate and have it "take me here". Like I said it does just about anything I want it to do.

I've only had it a few weeks but I can't ever see not having one again. http://s2.images.proboards.com/grin.gif I even have a Nomad motorcycle as the pointer instead of a blue box car!!

[elvis]

I found the following site in a bike mag and checked some of their write-ups on the roads that I've ridden. The site seems to be a good one:

http://www.bestroadsbyhonda.com/roads/

[moloprintz]

Elvis,
Great web site!
Thanks!
Mike

[AlabamaNomadRider]

Thanks guys for all the great links. There have been a lot posted since I was last here.

[elvis]

Elvis,
Great web site!
Thanks!
Mike

Mike, you're welcome.

I've gotta ask something: Is it you or your Nomad attracting those ladies?

[moloprintz]

They can't resist my continental body!

Mike

[elvis]

More road trip ideas:

http://www.eaglerider.com/motorcycle-tours/self-drive-motorcycle-tours.aspx

[elvis]

Received my free map in the mail today from http://byways.org/map_request.html

The map gives a good overview of many byways in the U.S. Great starting point to planning and visualizing a road trip.

[elvis]

http://www.blackhillsbadlands.com/home/planyourtrip is a great website for those who will ride to Sturgis.

[elvis]

Some ideas from HD Authorized Tours (http://authorizedtours.harley-davidson.com/tours/tour/tourId/135).

[elvis]

2013 season is around the corner and I was de-cluttering mags, maps and other publications to make room for new stuff. And somehow I ended up surfing the Net and found Rider magazine online.

Chose a region and read many road trip articles:

http://www.ridermagazine.com/rider-magazines-great-roads/

[scornay]

Try

http://www.newenglandriders.org

http://www.roadrunner.travel/find/tours

[MAS Tequila]

http://motorcycleroads.com/

If you can't find a road worth riding here...

MT

[manban9888]

Mad Maps makes great maps but I really prefer their app. I paid 6.99 and I have great mc roads all over the country w tons of info about each route. It also interfaces w my phones gps apps. I have never found anything better for mc roads

[a340driver]

Thanks all ... great sites, and info to consider!!