ADAC Motorcycle touring maps - Free download PDF's into iBook

That was a happy hour downloading that lot

Be good to go and do em all .... In one trip
 
UPDATE, July 2016

For some unknown reason, after many years the FIM-Europe appear to have dropped the downloadable maps from the website, replacing them with just a list of suggested hotels. I have no idea why, though I sent them a mail to try to find out.

You can still buy the maps at Mapsman, at least for now:

http://www.mapsman.com/store/category.php?id=41
 
Update October 2016

Good news day! I have found them, hidden away:

https://www.adac.de/reise_freizeit/motorrad/

Scroll down and click on Tourenkarten, mehr. Then click on the PDF links.

I'm not sure whether these are the same maps, different, updated or what. But download them quick before they vanish again! They look a little different (in style at least) but look good either way. Worry not that they have a picture of a car on the front; they are free! * edit

There are 13 PDF's in all, numbered oddly 1 to 14. Whether one is missing or (because of superstition) ADAC missed out 13 or if they simply misnumbered one along the way I have no idea and I'm in no great hurry to find out. As before, the PDF's download really well into iBook and display well on a big iPad.

Have fun, you can't break it.

Richard

Sample PDF map, converted into a jpeg:

9ae0d1eeab8d1af832c3e280a87fa46c.jpg


=================

Edit:

* I have now looked at the Swiss and the Trentino maps, just as as a sample. They look much the same routes as the original version. Use with confidence.
 
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For what it's worth, the PDF maps open up well in app's like PDF Expert, where you can scribble on them, cut them up or whatever, to your heart's content.

You can also save the PDF's very easily as jpeg pictures, using an app such as PDF to Image.

All really easy on an iPad, too.
 
a much easier scale to work with than the German ones of the Deutsche Alleenstrasse
 
a much easier scale to work with than the German ones of the Deutsche Alleenstrasse

That's true, up to a point.

I have used the maps several times in the Ardennes and Switzerland, transferring their suggested routes into BaseCamp and / or Mapsource. I did sometimes have to take a bit of an educated guess as to where the route went, looking at it in Google maps or on a decent paper map. That said, don't let it put anyone off, please. A little bit of patience and a bit of imagination will see you right.

:beerjug:
 
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Sorry to be thick, how does one save the PDF to open in iBooks?
I've managed to find them in a google window on the iPad

Edit, got it. Ain't the help files......well, helpful?
 
Are the ADAC maps still available to download? I will be travelling through the Pyrenees in June and would like to purchase a paper map to go along with my GPS. I am located in Canada and would like to roughly plan a route before I go. I will follow my nose for the most part with no set agenda but it would be nice to have a few roads in mind. I will take the ferry from Roscoff, Ireland to Cherbourg, France and travel south to the France/Spain border. I think I will spend a few days in the Picos de Europa beore working my way east through the Pyrenees and back to Cherbourg to catch the ferry back to Roscoff. Will be travelling about 2 1/2 weeks.
 
Are the ADAC maps still available to download? I will be travelling through the Pyrenees in June and would like to purchase a paper map to go along with my GPS. I am located in Canada and would like to roughly plan a route before I go. I will follow my nose for the most part with no set agenda but it would be nice to have a few roads in mind. I will take the ferry from Roscoff, Ireland to Cherbourg, France and travel south to the France/Spain border. I think I will spend a few days in the Picos de Europa beore working my way east through the Pyrenees and back to Cherbourg to catch the ferry back to Roscoff. Will be travelling about 2 1/2 weeks.

I just had a quick look at ADAC’s website, without logging in ( I am a member) and it looks like there are only PDF m/c route downloads for GERMANY. Austria Croatia and Italy now.
 
Are the ADAC maps still available to download? I will be travelling through the Pyrenees in June and would like to purchase a paper map to go along with my GPS.....

I just had a quick look at ADAC’s website, without logging in ( I am a member) and it looks like there are only PDF m/c route downloads for GERMANY. Austria Croatia and Italy now.

I noticed that too, Gadget.

ADAC has changed in that they now seem to have less regional maps but have included GPS downloads of specific routes. Whether the missing full regional routes will come back, who can say?

ktompkins, you are perhaps in a bit of luck as I created a GPS file of the ADAC Pyrenees route, which you can find here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ypzz1bgyz043el9/Pyrenees ADAC 2016 2.GPX?dl=0 The file still works as I looked at it last night, using it for something else.

As regards paper maps, any conventional Michelin (or similar) map of a suitable scale will do you. However, if you want the specific ADAC Pyrenees map, which has their suggested routes marked out on paper, you can get a copy here: http://www.mapsman.com/store/product.php?id=495

I would still buy a decent Michelin regional map, too.


PS By clicking on the thumbnails in the Mapsman shop, you can zoom in on a reasonable picture of the ADAC route, probably good enough to highlight it onto a conventional map. But if you have the GPS version, you can do that anyway.


PPS The changing of the content of ADAC’s website (the regional maps had been a feature for a long time) is a reminder that there is no guarantee that things stay as they are forever. I now save any interesting PDF’s to iBooks or take screen shots to save anything I think might be useful in the future. For example, I have the full set of ADAC maps as PDF’s, which I can print in A3 format at work or larger if I spent a couple of quid in a local print shop. They display really well on something as simple as an iPad or, at a push, one of the larger iPhones.
 
... I will take the ferry from Roscoff, Ireland to Cherbourg, France and travel south ...
... and back to Cherbourg to catch the ferry back to Roscoff. Will be travelling about 2 1/2 weeks.

Presumably you mean Rosslare, Ireland - not Roscoff (France), as that would be a very short ferry trip. :augie

Enjoy. :thumb2
 
Are the ADAC maps still available to download? I will be travelling through the Pyrenees in June and would like to purchase a paper map to go along with my GPS. I am located in Canada and would like to roughly plan a route before I go. I will follow my nose for the most part with no set agenda but it would be nice to have a few roads in mind.....



Mild panic over, ktompkins, I have found the ADAC Pyrenees map for you:

https://www.adac.de/_mmm/pdf/TK_13_Pyrenaen_2018-04_210812.pdf


It is odd that the restyled ADAC site does not list it, they having apparently limited the maps and information to four areas: Germany, Austria, Italy and Croatia. Maybe Luxembourg and the Pyrenees (which to name but two used to be there) will make a come back?

I found the Pyrenees map by Googling: ADAC Pyrenees oldtimer Motorrad

You can see that the Pyrenees map is the ‘old style’. By the look of it they have revamped the style for Germany, Italy etc making them all a bit more glossy. Hopefully Luxembourg, the Pyrenees etc will follow.


PS If anyone ever passes by an ADAC shop, they are sometimes worth dropping in to. Lots of the simple maps are free or just a couple of euro. They also sometimes have foreign guides which, though they are in ‘foreign’ often have good enough maps and pictures for bods to get a gist of.
 
Well done Sir! How about the other dozen or so
Lucky I have a set in paper format and not at £3.50 each, free from an ADAC office!
 
Indeed, I got mine free from an ADAC shop, too. Or I emailed them, I really can’t remember; it was a long’ish time ago. I have found the route suggestions they offer up pretty reliable. A good compromise between missing out ‘dull roads’ but avoiding outright goat tracks. I have ridden them on anything from a FiireBlade, to a GS, to a 1600 GT.... and driven them, too. Can you do the same using a decent conventional map and a bit of imagination, yes of course.

Having the PDF’s on my iBooks account is helpful. That they were free too, was a bargain.

The other PDF’s I downloaded are the excellent Kurvenkoenig set and those from Biker Betten. It takes a little bit of patience (I used my iPad) to download them into iBooks but once done, it’s done.

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Thank you Wapping! I would pick up the paper version and others but shipping to Canada is expensive. I believe the ADAC shop is in Germany only? I will be in Cork, Ireland before leaving for my Pyrenees trip. Where is a good place to get paper maps?
 
I think there are around 20 regional ADAC offices, but not surprisingly they are all in Germany.
 
Thank you Wapping! I would pick up the paper version and others but shipping to Canada is expensive. I believe the ADAC shop is in Germany only? I will be in Cork, Ireland before leaving for my Pyrenees trip. Where is a good place to get paper maps?

Yes, ADAC is German, so a long way from you and Spain!

You can buy good quality Michelin maps in Ireland and, of course, in France / Spain. As to where specifically in Cork? Not a clue but one of the Irish bods on the site will know, that's for sure. Then it's just a matter of deciding how much detail and at what scale you want the maps to be. Maps are personal things, what suits one person will not suit another. I have a bias towards Michelin maps, simply as they suit me and I like the various formats and scales they offer up.

The biggest map seller in the UK from one store, is the excellent https://www.stanfords.co.uk They will post near enough worldwide.

The Michelin website is: https://travel.michelin.co.uk Michelin too will post worldwide. If they think you are French Canadian, they will gold plate them I'm sure.

I'd suggest finding a map or two that you think you like the look of and order them via a decent Canadian book shop. You'll not be the first bloke to have gone to the Pyrenees from Canada and won't be the last.
You can always buy a map or two when you arrive, easily. Trust me.
 


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