ridewithgps.com - a great mapping tool (no GPS required)

[SadieKate]

Well I must be an idiot because I can't figure out how to even get it to start in Arlington VA instead of the Pacific NW, which is where it defaulted to.

Are you trying to draw a route? At the top right corner, type in your city and state in the blank box next to the box that says JUMP!. Enter the city and state, and click JUMP!

[ny biker]

I finally figured that part out. It took me a while to figure out that "Jump" means "Select Starting Point."

But as a I said, anything that excludes bike trails is no help to me, so it's moot.

[dakay]

If you know where the bike trail is on the map, just click on draw line instead of follow roads and draw the line on the bike trail. Then go back to follow road when you get back on the road.

Kathy

[maillotpois]

This is a very cool site!! I just did a quick and dirty route (an estimate of tomorrow's Gran Fondo) that it would have taken ages to work out in Topo.

[azfiddle]

I looked at this site and thought it was pretty cool too. Thanks for sharing it.

[jobob]

Some bike trails show up when you're mapping a route - just make sure when you're in the "draw a route page" to click on "cycling" instead of "driving" (you'll see those options on the right hand side of the route page).

Even though I'm surprised & pleased with how many trails do show up on RWG, some still simply don't show up. For instance, the Alameda Creek trail in Fremont CA, which I ride a lot, doesn't show up on google maps, and it doesn't show up on RWG either. Oh well. I've found that you can still see some trails, such as the ACT, if you view the map with the "satellite" or "hybrid" viewing option. But the follow paths option won't work and you'll have to map the route point-to-point. Oh well, them's the breaks.

[Chile Pepper]

Wow--that's amazing. I don't usually bother with these things, since they never apply to my area, but that came with my little town, with amazingly accurate detail. I just mapped one of my favorite routes, and it was within a kilometer on the distance calculator. I'm impressed.

[wildeny]

I generally use Firefox 3.5 and jumping to a location works fine if I hit enter when I'm in the field, or if I click on the button. I have not tried opera recently though. If you are just hitting enter, try clicking on the button, that might work. If it still doesn't work, please let me know what operating system you are using and the exact browser version (Help -> About on Windows, Firefox -> About Firefox on a Mac).

Zack, I just tried, and this time it did work. I really don't know what went wrong last time.

I'm going to play on this site a little and see whether it is better than the one I'm using now (Bikemap).

Update:

I notice that I cannot drag the point (e.g. the last point) to other place. If I want to change some part of the route, what should I do? Undo (how many undos are allowed)? Start over?

[GLC1968]

I haven't tried this with my GPS yet, but as a mapping tool, it ROCKS!

Thanks for alerting us Jo...and thanks for making the site, Zack!

[MtnBikerChk]

I was skeptical but HOLY COW! Slick and way better than mapmyride.com!

[withm]

Well at first I could not get it to run at all. I guess the website was too busy. Tried again, and yes, it makes the maps really fast, and appears to make a nice cue sheet. But... there are two problems.

1. The cue sheet skips turns. It looks like the total mileage is probably good, but it totally missed 3 turns on my sample, that are clearly depicted in the corresponding map.

2. I can't figure out any way to print the thing. The cue sheet gets all intermingled and scrambled with other stuff on the page. I could not find any options to get around that.

3. A work around - I copied and pasted the cue sheet into Excel, and printed that - which is when I discovered the problems of missing turns on the cue.

If you KNOW your route, then you can easily check the cue sheet, but if you are mapping out a new route - well - take the cue with a grain of salt. If you might be running into cold or darkness - you might want to drive the route first to make sure all the details are recorded properly.

[jobob]

Surprise, the very first item in the FAQ just happens to address that.

I'll post it here for everyone's edification ...

Help! Cuesheet entries are wrong!

You may notice a right turn should actually be a left, east should be west or other such inconsistencies. This is unfortunately a common problem, however the issue is not with our software. What is most likely happening is this: you are happily mapping along some road, and you are coming up on a turn and click on the intersection of the turn before clicking along the new street. What happens is Google misinterprets the click in the intersection and continues on, then thinks you need to turn around in order to make that turn. This also can happen when you are just traveling straight along a street: clicking near an intersection can cause Google to think you want to turn there, which will cause an extra unnecessary entry in the cuesheet as well as a little blip on the map. To keep this problem from happening, map with a higher zoom level. This will allow you to easily see when these 'blips' occur, letting you know to undo the last click and try again. Also, when mapping some turn, instead of clicking the intersection of the turn, click past the intersection in the direction you wish to turn.

Remember, always double check your cuesheet before saving a route -- we don't want you or someone who finds your route making erroneous turns! It only takes a minute or so to double check a cuesheet and remove any unnecessary entries. This problem is not unique to us, even Map My Ride announced it in a recent newsletter. Here is what they said:
When using "follow roads" and trying to map your route around or through an intersection, make sure that you click on points after the intersection rather than directly in the intersection. Setting points in this way guards against slight, unintentional detours around intersections and ensures accuracy in your maps.

And they address cue sheet printing in the FAQ too:

Cue sheet printing

We are aware our current cuesheet printing is sub-par, and are actively creating a high quality map and cuesheet PDF generator. You will be able to either save the PDF or print at your leisure. Keep checking back for this feature!

One of the many things I like about this site is that the developers are open to suggestions, are not hesitant to point out things that the site still lacks, and it looks like they're working on addressing those issues. It's still a work in progress but they're certainly getting there, IMHO.

[crazycanuck]

I think i'll have to wait a while before some more Western Australians find the site as so far there's only one route for Perth

[OakLeaf]

The elevation gain seems pretty darn close.

Haven't tried to export a route yet, though. Will see how that works.

Thanks!!

[pinkbikes]

This is great! Much better than Bikely or Map My Ride! Many thanks!

I have just created the Noosa triathlon leg that I have to ride in a few weeks (I was having a little worry about the climb and wanted to know how steep it was because I'd heard it was a bit ugly) and in no time I'd whipped through and exported it as a GPX. Now I just have to try to load it onto my Garmin and work out what I'd actually do with it once I got it there? I tend to use the Garmin to get information out rather than to put stuff into it!