How do you plan your day?

[onesea]

Tomorrow I have 4 or 5 hours to go play, the problem of living near the coast is it halves the directions you can ride.   Not helped in that if I go North east all roads lead to London.  I have ridden most of the "best routes" I am all but out of a roads and finding decent B roads is becoming challenging.

Tomorrow is challenging me, not keen on heading to London or south Downs direction, I will be joining the tourists on the bank holiday mass exodus to the SW.  Was thinking Cheddar George but that will be busy, there is always Salisbury plain (again).

How do you decide where to go?
 

[Stu]

2 minutes ago, onesea said:

How do you decide where to go?
 

 

I am getting to the point now where I am struggling of places to go to for a ride with that sort of timescale! 

 

You get to a point where you have ridden most of the roads and it get monotonous

[onesea]

1 minute ago, Stu said:

 

I am getting to the point now where I am struggling of places to go to for a ride with that sort of timescale! 

 

You get to a point where you have ridden most of the roads and it get monotonous

Glad I am not the only I was going to consider an hour on the motorway to find somewhere new.  However living at the end of the M27 that gives London or Portsmouth really not certain which is worse 

[Stu]

1 minute ago, onesea said:

Glad I am not the only I was going to consider an hour on the motorway to find somewhere new.  However living at the end of the M27 that gives London or Portsmouth really not certain which is worse 

 

Get a jetski! 

 

It takes me a good 30 mins to get to the other end of Hull to get to a motorway and is a pain in the arse so I tend to avoid that 

[onesea]

6 minutes ago, Stu said:

 

Get a jetski! 

 

It takes me a good 30 mins to get to the other end of Hull to get to a motorway and is a pain in the arse so I tend to avoid that 

I was out sailing today that's the best way to go south down here, I would go to the IOW by bike but the ferry prices are famous!

Going West I have the pleasure of Bournemouth and Poole oh and Dorset Police "Zero Tolerance" I believe they linked with North Wales Police and closely related to a certain German political party that shall not be named although to be fair they where more forgiving...
 

Edited May 27, 2021 by onesea

[Stu]

Just now, onesea said:

North Wales Police

 

See people say this about North Wales but I have been a fair amount of times and never had any issues at all 

[Tiggie]

@Stu Must be your Polite Jacket. They will think you are one of them 

[onesea]

7 minutes ago, Stu said:

 

See people say this about North Wales but I have been a fair amount of times and never had any issues at all 

A quick google:
https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2018/august/north-wales-motorcycle-police-investigation/
Last time I was up that way car drivers where very keen to flash there headlights for hazards they had passed, at least I could pass the hazard KNOWING I was at a safe speed.

[Ian_1986]

On 27/05/2021 at 22:37, Stu said:

 

See people say this about North Wales but I have been a fair amount of times and never had any issues at all 

Same this is where i ride 90% of the time and have had no problems at all, you are almost guaranteed to see them out and about each time i venture out especially in the hot spots. I guess it depends what roads you ride and how much attention you are willing to bring to yourself although i try to keep it "reasonable"

 

Saying this watch the next time i go out an end up with bonus points on the licence. 

[Copycat73]

we go :- Dales, Moors , Lakes ,Borders or a mixture ..

But  you cockneys have sh1t it for decent roads haven't you ....  

[Six30]

56 minutes ago, Copycat73 said:

we go :- Dales, Moors , Lakes ,Borders or a mixture ..

But  you cockneys have sh1t it for decent roads haven't you ....  

yup.... there are a few nice ones , but yeh pretty shit and to much traffic.

[onesea]

1 hour ago, Copycat73 said:

But  you cockneys have sh1t it for decent roads haven't you ....  

I ain't no cockney...  Problem I have is I live in an area they ride to...  I am looking for other places, to avoid them

[Paul-Kent]

I use the challenge 100 to get me out and about

so you ever go along the A272? That’s one of my all time favourite roads, some beautiful sights 

[bonio]

A272's a great road, except for the 50 limits  And the traffic  But still nice on a quiet summer evening.

 

 

[husoi]

A route I haven't been this year.

Last one was up to Stoneheaven, then the A93 all the way down to Perth.

I always check where the weather is going to be better and go around that region.

Mostly how long I'll be riding determine how far I'll be going.

[Stu]

Well I went for a ride today with a plan to head to roads I haven't ridden before! 

 

First stop was a ride to a cafe that I have never been to which was a cracking place then we kept off the main roads and found some brilliant roads to ride we also found some nice tight single track roads  

 

All in all a cracking day out 

[Pie man]

You can find plenty of roads in North Wales with very little traffic on them. Today was very busy on the Major roads, stick to the B roads and hardly any traffic. 

Edit B4407

 

Edited May 30, 2021 by Pie man

[Stu]

15 minutes ago, Pie man said:

You can find plenty of roads in North Wales with very little traffic on them. Today was very busy on the Major roads, stick to the B roads and hardly any traffic. 

Edit B4407

 

 

When we visit Wales we always go off the main roads 

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

Sometimes I plan the route very carefully making sure we keep to interesting roads and avoiding dual carriageways or busy A roads. At other times when I'm solo I use the Beeline on compass mode so it just points towards the destination and gives the distance to go. I can then just explore any road that looks interesting and I know if I'm heading in the right direction or not. 

 

Living near Oulton Park means we've got plenty of Cheshire lanes for short rides, N Wales is easy to access, but more fun if you use the back roads. Derbyshire is also easy to get to. 

 

In Derbyshire there are speed camera everywhere and lots of 50mph limits. N Wales there are fewer fixed cameras but you'll always come across a couple of speed vans on main routes. To be honest when we ride a group we just stick to the limits and chill.

[husoi]

I realised that whenever I plan either a touring or a shorter (200 miles) journey it will never stick to the plan.

I won't stop when planned, rarely will take the route I've planned.

The only planned event that I will follow is where I will be staying overnight if this was booked in advance.

I don't consider this as a problem. For me is more about having the freedom to change just because I can.

I call it anti-ocd

[Steve_M]

I once put my thoughts down in blog post... like most blogs it didn’t make it past the third entry, but this is what we do. Mostly.

 

Link: Plans are useless but planning is essential.

Edited June 9, 2021 by Steve_M

[bonio]

I overplan, using

* google maps (good for putting together whole routes and times)

* curvature (good for finding bendy roads and avoiding straight ones, and for checking for 40 and 50 limits)

* streetview (finding good scenery, checking road surfaces, road widths)

* bing maps, the OS maps layer (good for checking for rural areas that are built up, finding roads without hedges)

 

[husoi]

Next will plan:

1st right, 3rd left, straight for 20 miles, 2 rights, 3 lefts...

 

Then do anything but what was planned 

[rob m]

Plan?

[fullscreenaging]

I use MyRouteapp. 
 

I discovered it about 4 years ago and paid something like £50 for lifetime gold membership as an early adopter. 
I think new members are now offered an annual subscription. 
There is a free version which works ok , but obviously to get the most out of it you have to pay. 
The full version is very comprehensive allowing you to set waypoints and what kind of stops you will take, be it fuel or cafe, and also set how long the stop will be in 10 min intervals. This will then be calculated into the time of the route. 
There are webinars and instructional videos on how to get the most from the app. 

It has overlays depending on which navigation system you use so you can compare. The primary map is Openstreet, which is not quite as good as Google maps. The app initially used Google maps for years, and they were trying to get some sort of deal with Google, but Google pulled the plug. This is not a problem as I pull up Google maps onto another screen on my PC if I need to. 
 

Once I’ve sorted my route I can send it to my TomTom via my account and the next time I turn my unit on it’s ready and waiting for me. 
I think if you have a Garmin for instance you can drag and drop the file. 
 

Edited June 12, 2021 by fullscreenaging