Someone sent me a PM, asking which magazines I subscribe to and how. The answer might be helpful to others, too.
Alpentourer, Motorrad & Reisen and Motorrad Freizeit, all three through the Readly app.
Touren Fahrer, via the United Kiosk app.
I still can’t speak or read German, but a map’s a map and a GPS download is a GPS download. I have though got used to the German words for: Distance, hotel, eating and drinking, days and hours, along with a few others. Similarly, if something looks like the name of a town or hotel, then it probably is. If I am particularly interested in anything, I try to use Google Translate or just tap on the hot links to other websites, references to which are often included in the articles.
Between the four of them and their associated websites, where you will find the GPS download pages, there is usually something of interest by way of an idea for a possible tour or just something different to the usual ‘Do the Black Forest’. Are all the routes suggested perfect? No, of course not, not least as sometimes the author lives in Dortmund (so starts his route there) whilst you live in say, Biggleswade. That is when you have to use a little imagination as to how you might use the route but by avoiding going to Dortmund. Similarly, there are always complaints that the route, “Misses the L1572, which is a peach, mate”. Yes, it probably does and the road probably is, but nobody can put in every ‘peach’ road in every huge country. Comfort yourself that the same complaining bod has probably not been to the Baltic coast or created an interesting route through the Ruhr, ideas on which you’ll probably find in the same magazines. More interesting perhaps would be if the same bod, instead of complaining, took 10 minutes out of their busy life to put together an amended version of the route, to include the L1572, for members here to enjoy.
The odd thing perhaps is that we don’t have a similar magazine here in the UK. RiDE had a go at it for a while (Simon Weir, in particular, doing some good pieces) but a change of editorial direction sent them backwards. Adventure Bike Rider magazine sometimes tries but their maps are often poor, the GPS downloads weak or nonexistent. Either that or the magazine concentrates too hard on finding every small goat track to ride along. It is odd that Germany can support four of the magazines, when the UK cannot support even one. Maybe German bike riders are just a bit more interested in stuff like this?
Alpentourer, Motorrad & Reisen and Motorrad Freizeit, all three through the Readly app.
Touren Fahrer, via the United Kiosk app.
I still can’t speak or read German, but a map’s a map and a GPS download is a GPS download. I have though got used to the German words for: Distance, hotel, eating and drinking, days and hours, along with a few others. Similarly, if something looks like the name of a town or hotel, then it probably is. If I am particularly interested in anything, I try to use Google Translate or just tap on the hot links to other websites, references to which are often included in the articles.
Between the four of them and their associated websites, where you will find the GPS download pages, there is usually something of interest by way of an idea for a possible tour or just something different to the usual ‘Do the Black Forest’. Are all the routes suggested perfect? No, of course not, not least as sometimes the author lives in Dortmund (so starts his route there) whilst you live in say, Biggleswade. That is when you have to use a little imagination as to how you might use the route but by avoiding going to Dortmund. Similarly, there are always complaints that the route, “Misses the L1572, which is a peach, mate”. Yes, it probably does and the road probably is, but nobody can put in every ‘peach’ road in every huge country. Comfort yourself that the same complaining bod has probably not been to the Baltic coast or created an interesting route through the Ruhr, ideas on which you’ll probably find in the same magazines. More interesting perhaps would be if the same bod, instead of complaining, took 10 minutes out of their busy life to put together an amended version of the route, to include the L1572, for members here to enjoy.
The odd thing perhaps is that we don’t have a similar magazine here in the UK. RiDE had a go at it for a while (Simon Weir, in particular, doing some good pieces) but a change of editorial direction sent them backwards. Adventure Bike Rider magazine sometimes tries but their maps are often poor, the GPS downloads weak or nonexistent. Either that or the magazine concentrates too hard on finding every small goat track to ride along. It is odd that Germany can support four of the magazines, when the UK cannot support even one. Maybe German bike riders are just a bit more interested in stuff like this?
