Help wanted with Black Forest

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Arsey

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Wapping,

This (guide to Germany thread) is a great thread and has lots of good info,but I'm going around in circles.
I've spent hours looking at various maps/websites such as those above.
We want to tour the Black Forest this summer with about 7 nights in total away from UK so probably 4/5 in Germany.
But virtually all the websites just give tours which are loops beginning and ending in the same place and then the next 'tour' begins and end a good distance away from the last.This doesn't make it easy if you want to tour the area and not be based in one place.
Have you come across any sites that have tours that move on each day so you cover the ground but on the 'right' roads ?

Duck !
 
Motoloco is software. Just like BaseCamp or Mapsource it is useful for:

1. Plotting a route

2. Displaying a route

3. Transfering a route to a GPS device

What it (and any similar softeware) will NOT do is tell you where to ride, nor down which roads. In short, it will not plan your holiday for you. For that you need to revert to the age old method of employing some imagination, based on your own wants, needs, desires and not least abilities.

What you could do is join one of the many guided (and unguided) tours that operate through the region. But hey, that's not what an independent soul would do. So, step back from the PC screen and start with a map....

Failing that and assuming you want somebody to plot your whole holiday, start by providing the basic information. Let's go:

When are you going?

What sort of roads do you want to ride? Many bods are happy to just ride the B500. Others will tell you it's shite. It's not of course, it just makes them feel their bollocks are bigger. Others will tell you bikers are banned or that every inch is crawling with police. That's crap, though there might be some restrictions and / or increased police presence. It all depends.

Do you want to hoon, cruise, bimble? Over what daily distances? Where do you want to end up? It's a waste of time taking you all the way down to near enough Switzerland if you really need to be exiting the Black Forest at Baden-Baden at sparrows'.
 
Motoloco is software. Just like BaseCamp or Mapsource it is useful for:

1. Plotting a route

2. Displaying a route

3. Transfering a route to a GPS device

What it (and any similar softeware) will NOT do is tell you where to ride, nor down which roads. In short, it will not plan your holiday for you.
.

Not strictly true,as ALL Ride mag routes are available to view/export on Motogoloco,but thanks for the usual condescending tone.:rolleyes:

I do know what Motogoloco is as I used it all summer for planning routes for the 12000 miles I did all over Europe.

Anyway,change of plan.Don't think I can be arsed as there are too many of us going and I think I'll bimble off to Spain again ( as I did in September when I managed to use my imagination and do a 3300 mile trip.Fuck,I even bought a map !! )

I'm going to close the thread as I don't need the info now and to be honest,your continued higher than mighty attitude is a bit pathetic,Richard.

Feel free to re-open it as a Mod,so you can have the last word.:rolleyes:
 
OK, since you have given me an invitation, let's go:

You have looked at all the links and seen that they are often circular, by which I suppose you mean that there is not one single neatly set out, pre-planned holiday to suit you and your however many it is mates (how many by the way and what are they doing to help?) which has stimied you. So, the obvious thing is to join some up. How? Well just about any way you like to give you your four to five days in Germany / the Black Forest.

Now comes the tricky bit. What do you want to do? Go north to south and up again? Go north to the middle over one day, then use the middle as a base and ride out from the base for two days, once in one direction, the next in another and then ride up again? Or do you just want to be given the best four or five days' worth of roads to do it on, in a neat file that will be MotoGoLoco friendly so that you and your mates can download it and ride off, sure in your minds that there is nothing better?

What you have seen is that MotoGoLoco and all the other similar software (up to and including Garmin's offererings) is pretty dumb stuff. Yes, it will display a route and it's certainly great at displaying the RiDE routes, which I quite like. But then it just sits there (just like all the other suggested routes do) awaiting some other input *. The routes - and there might be many multiples of them - will not join themselves up into tidy four or five day jaunts all on their own; they need additional input. What that input is will vary from person to person. Don't want to give the input? Fine; ask others to do it but give them some sort of clue as to what you want to achieve, please. You can ride the length of the B500 in a day or take two or three days doing it. You can spend four days in the Black Forest and not touch it other than in passing. It really is that broad.

There is a whole load of ADAC inspired routes here on UKGSer, along with a fresh link on how to get the free map downloads. ADAC have gone to some trouble creating the maps and routes but they then demand some input from their end user. Great, unless the end user just wants to sit back and be told what to do, exactly what 'great' roads to ride, how long it (might) take and just about everything else.

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showth...to-iBook?p=4520476&highlight=ADAC#post4520476 See post 23 onwards

Here's ADAC's map of the Black Forest:

c5fb2f7745f1ad485168455b6e0279e7.jpg


As you can see, it has (not surprisingly perhaps) the iconic B500 but also some parallel roads, all near enough in a north to south direction. It also has the suggested roads running west to east and / or in any combination bods might like to use them in. Look at the map, turn on MotoGoLoco and create a route that suits you. It really is that easy.

It might not be very clear as it's a snap shot of the original PDF, all done on an iPad. The original is fine: https://www.adac.de/_mmm/pdf/TK_09_Elsass_Schwarzwald_SchwäbAlb_final_226424.pdf

Here's Biker Betten's PDF of the same area, with even more suggestions:

feb1c07ea0e678350d407af5fabe404a.jpg


Again, it's a snap shot, so the original is much clearer: http://wp.bikerbetten.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Karte-Schwarzwald.pdf As you will see, the Biker Betten routes are often circular but can be ridden A to B to C to D in what could be straight lines, which is maybe what you want? How you cut the suggestions into MotoGoLoco is again, up to you and your travelling companions. That's the input the software requires, it won't do it on its own. The great thing is that there really is no right, wrong or best way to do it or to plan your holiday. Just do it for yourself and see how it goes.

Fancy some other routes and / or want some ready made ones, look here:

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showth...ack-Forest-Alsace-and-Vosges-and-some-extra-s

Again, you'll have to mix and match. But hey, it's half the fun. Do it in those dull hours over to New Zealand.



* Garmin and I think TomTom have responded to this bikers' need by building windy roads algorithms into their software, producing (depending on other settings and variables) what it perceives to be ready made routes down 'great' roads. BaseCamp will also provide estimated times and / or will all but build tours of three, four and five days, all from within the software that came free with the device. Give it a go. It's free, you can't break it and, not least, they can't touch you for it.

:beerjug:
 
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