Picos, route planning.

DCB401

Registered user
Joined
Mar 12, 2018
Messages
17
Reaction score
0
Location
Cumbria
Hello, just looking for some input to help me with a little jolly around northern spain in July.
I have been using the Garmin basecamp to plot routes, but am a little wary of the times it gives for the lenght of the route.
If i go from Santander to Porto de Modina it rekons on about 1.5 hours, if i take a fairly direct route, is this believable or should i factor in a lot longer.
I dont want to spend hours making fantastic routes, using a combination of twistys and the faster roads, but only to find that once on the ground they are completely un-realistic and ive wasted my time.
So, how accurate is basecamp, and what if any other factors should i take into consideration when making routes in the Picos.
Many thanks Duncan.
 
Hello, just looking for some input to help me with a little jolly around northern spain in July.
I have been using the Garmin basecamp to plot routes, but am a little wary of the times it gives for the lenght of the route.
If i go from Santander to Porto de Modina it rekons on about 1.5 hours, if i take a fairly direct route, is this believable or should i factor in a lot longer.
I dont want to spend hours making fantastic routes, using a combination of twistys and the faster roads, but only to find that once on the ground they are completely un-realistic and ive wasted my time.
So, how accurate is basecamp, and what if any other factors should i take into consideration when making routes in the Picos.
Many thanks Duncan.

I personally do not use basecamp but it is a highly rated program, I would compare the route with googlemaps as a guide, this will provide some insight.
"myroute" is my preference, I put a route in googlemaps avoiding motorways, toll roads etc to give a rough estimate of time and if ok recreate in my route. I seem to recall that RIDE magazine have some routes on their website and I think on UKGSER, you might find these useful.
 
How fast do you ride? How often do you stop to take pictures, eat, drink coffee, press wild flowers?

How long do you think it will take you to ride the one and a half hours the software estimates? Really unsure? Double it. A real balls out hooner? Halve it. As 90 minutes is not a long time, you are never going to be too far out, surely?

PS I'm having trouble finding Porto de Modina on Google maps, is that the correct spelling? I guess it's on the coast, unless 'porto' means 'door' in which case it could be well inland....
 
Sorry , it should have been Medina de Pomar🙄. My Ferry docks at 17.30 and I didn’t want to have a long ride to my Hotel. So hopefully it seems a nice easy ride.
 
2 hours max...and that's the scenic route. It'll be light for hours after you dock and get off the ferry (perhaps about 6.15pm)
 
Sorry , it should have been Medina de Pomar��.

So much easier when you tell bods your destination, especially when you ask for “How long will it take me?” :beerjug:

Putting the route Santander to Medina de Pomar into the excellent Kurviger.de website’s routing engine gives:

Direct: 101 km in 1 hour 45 minutes, so near enough the same as Garmin’s estimation

Semi-twisty: 102 km in 2 hours 1 minute (very exact these Germans)

More twisty than semi-twisty: 118 km in 2 hours 33 minutes

So, it ain’t ever going to be all day or even all evening to do it. That’s for certain.

Putting the same two towns into viaMichelin’s routing app, throws up alternatives. The longest taking 2 hours 54 minutes, so not much longer than Kurviger’s sugggestion.... or quite a bit longer, depending on how you view it and whether the extra 21 minutes spells the difference between happiness and misery.
 
You need to find a route to occupy you for 4 hours as nowhere will be open for dinner until 10pm :)
 
Thanks for your help. I think a nice 2 hour ride is enough for my first time in Spain. Will be heading to Riano the following day and then Gijon and then don’t know where. Will look at the suggested sites from Mr Wapping.🍺.
 
Jolly good.

If you use the Kurviger’s.de’s (or indeed any other) website or route creation tool, do always zoom in on the suggested routes. They will, because their routing algorithms tells them to, sometimes take some pretty small roads for either a long way or just to miss a small town or village, when the possibly sensible thing would either be to go more directly (on ‘better’ roads, in other words) or to simply ride through the small town and out the other side.

Enjoy your holiday.
 
Excellent advice thanks. I was browsing a Michelin map of Spain and was wondering about the differences between the yellow roads and the white ones. I’m thinking the white roads are very small local roads which are not really best suited for motorcycles, but am ready to be educated 😎 otherwise.
 
Michelin maps are designed in the main for car drivers. Why? Because car drivers outnumber motorcyclists by many 100’s to 1.

The white ones are simply unclassified roads which, though sometimes narrow and not always in tip-top condition, are driveable by most family saloon cars. It follows that if Mr and Mrs Average Motorist can drive along them on holiday in their Peugeot, you can ride them on a motorcycle. If the outline (edge) of the road is broken, it means the road surface is broken, too. You can get a pretty good idea from Google Streetview, alternatively from Google Earth. In the latter you might not be able to zoom right in to see the manholes but here’s a trick.... Most of the satellite views have enough resolution to spot a car or a lorry, quite easily. If you can see a car or a lorry, it’s probably not a complete goat track. Similarly, road markings. If a local cash strapped council has gone to the trouble to paint lines on a road, it means that vehicles use it. Look particularly at road junctions; if the minor road has stop or give way lines, the council thinks it’s worthwhile telling vehicles on the minor road to give way. They don’t bother on goat tracks, as goats can’t read, at least not very well.

Maps hold all the answers. Wriggly like a coiled snake, tight bends, probably close together if several are compressed into a small area. A nice yellow road, but through lots of villages all close together, probably slow going if you observe the speed limits. Big gaps between places.... no habitation.... open roads, do as you like but you may well not find a place for a coffee stop when you most need one. Mountains or hills, it’s going to be steep at some point; following a river, it’s going to be flat. Green lined, means nothing more than Michelin has decided that Mr and Mrs Average Motorist (see above) might like to admire the scenery as they mooch along. Jolly nice but it might not always make a great motorcycling road, unless you want to maybe admire the scenery too and gawp at yet another pretty village at 15 mph.
 
Excellent, just what I needed. Thanks for your help. Duncan.
 
I used the Google Earth ‘Spot the car or lorry’ trick a lot in the former eastern Germany, where there is no street view. I had no idea what the small county roads looked like. I guessed that if I could see a vehicle or two, somebody must drive them. You can definitely spot if it’s a family saloon or a tractor or an articulated lorry and, to some degree or another how busy it is. If there is a village, the occupants must drive there and they can’t all be in 4x4’s as you can see the cars parked in their tidy drives. Good enough for Frau Strasse Burner in her Porsche? Good enough for me. I could then get an idea of what the non-Michelin map legend meant (designation, colouring and width of road) and go from there. My friend rode it on her 600 Kawasaki sports bike and me on my 1600, so we didn’t really want a ploughed field.
 
How about just going there, and exploring and finding out for yourself ?

Way too controversial and radical for too many folk nowadays it seems.

What's the point in a pre planned dot-to-dot holiday ?

Just go and do it, and enjoy yourself.
 
Of course that’s the best way - or at least it’s another way - and of course a journey with an estimated travel time of 90 minutes isn’t suddenly going to take 10 minutes or 10 hours, unless something very odd happens. I cut the fellow some slack as he’s new, on (as we now discover) his first jaunt, has at least bought a map (scale and detail unknown) is working to understand what the map’s legend means and above all, at least he’s trying. That’s all a cut well above the average bikermate, as you well know.

Post #2, could have just said: Feck me, it’s 90 fecking minutes fecking direct to some fecking place that doesn’t appear on any fecking map, just how fecking long do you fecking well expect it to fecking take? It did of course but in a nicer way or he might have cried.

:beerjug:
 
Doing the same sort of pre-trip planning myself, having booked a Biscay ferry for Sept/Oct. Google's Streetview works in Spain so I have had a look at a few roads that look interesting on a map just to get an idea of whether the Spanish fall into the Austro-Swiss model of road engineering, or the Italian model.
Apart from the last day or two being in Bilbao to do the tourist thing there, I have no definite routes planned. I arrive in Santander at 1030am on 17 Sept so have plenty of time to get somewhere on the first day. I guess the weather will dictate the direction of travel as there are so many prospects, as I'm not leaving Bilbao until 2 Oct.
 
If I may make a suggestion for your route from Riaño to Gijon (or Xixón as it's preferred locally). Return back the way you came on the N621 until you get to Portilla de la Reina.

There head north on the LE243 towards Posada de Valdeon. There are two mountain passes there called Puerto de Pandetrave & Panderruedas. Obviously, if it is very overcast then don't bother (dark and dank). Having said that, if it is a thin layer of low cloud (cloudy but very light) there is the possibility that you will come out on top with some great views of a cloud base with peaks sticking out above and bright sunshine to boot.

There is a band between 500m & 1000 m where there is a possibility of encountering a fair amount of cowshit on the road so take it easy! It's worth it, though.

That will take you onto the N625 (following the LE243 west) which you should also be careful of by virtue of the season you have chosen. There are parts of that N625 (beautiful in parts) which are very narrow, high walled on one side, and castellated on the other (not a huge drop but it would ruin your day anyway). Arsey and I have encountered full length ALSA busses along there and there is barely enough room for them; some of the corners (though not fast for sensible people) are completely blind and because the cliff at times leans out, they have to take bends wide. There is an adventure centre there called Hotel Puente Vidosa which is a great place for a coffee/snack/lunch.

Onward form there you will come to Cangas de Onis. Again, great place for a stop. Just beyond the bridge, on the left, you will see one of the hallmarks of Asturias which is a Roman bridge with the Asturian cross hanging beneath it. Just below the bridge on the left on the other side there is a large bar by the river. Bike parking is available just beyond (left) by or on a mini roundabout.

Onward, then towards Arriondas, where the N625 meets the N634 you need to take the AS260 to El Mirador del Fitu. That will join you to either the A8 to Xixon or the N632 which will also take you to Xixon but via Lastres. In Arriondas and environs you will see many adventure centres where you can kayak, canoe and even quad if you really want to.

Let me know if you want more ideas from Xixon onwards.......
 
The route above is utterly mindblowing. Posada de Valdeon is a magical spot in a staggering location. Words don't do it justice.
 
I know most of you use GPS's but in a bar (where there may or may not be good WIFI/connection etc) I usually find that a good map is much better for situational awareness; it gives you a better picture in your head and idea of scale.

ANAYA touring map ISBN 978-84-9935-664-8 is one of the the best maps you can buy. The scale is 1:340,000 ESPAÑA NORTE

MICHELIN No. 572 ISBN 978-2-06-718415-2 ESPAÑA NOROESTE, ASTURIAS/CANTABRIA. SCALE 1:250,000 (better scale but smaller area covered)

You can order both on the internet.
 


Back
Top Bottom