Roger20, I have been mucking around with a RiDE magazine’s route in Spain.
Here is what I found and what I did with it. In this mucking around, I used MyRoute on nothing more than my iPad. I could have used my XT device but the iPad’s large screen and very fast app makes this easier.
Findings
1. The RiDE GPX does download as a route, not a track.
2. The route also has several via points (points which your XT device will take you through no matter what) which display as ‘hands’ in MyRoute.
3. The route is circular, ie. its start and end points are identical. Modern GPS devices, like the XT, are fully capable of running circular routes. But, they can confuse some owners who are not familiar with how the XT works.
You can see that the start and end points are identical in this screenshot; the ‘hand’ for point 1 (the start) is the same as point 9, the end.
In my world at least, I still break a fully circular route, separating the start and end points by a few yards.
4. Each of the ‘hand’ via points will appear as a destination when you fire up the route in your XT. This is really good BUT it can confuse some new owners of the device. It can also, under some circumstances, confuse the XT too, as it will only ever do what its owner tells it to do.
Mucking around
1. You want to change the via points (the hands) into shaping points. But you want to ensure that the route between the points does not alter. You can do this within the XT but it is probably easier (and maybe even more reliable) doing it in MyRoute.
2. Here I have done it. You can see that all the intermediate ‘hands’ are now teardrop shaping points. In making this change, the black line of the route between the shaping points did not recalculate or alter.
2. You might also notice that I changed the name and colour of the second via point to LEAVE. I’ll now tell you why.
3. If I was staying at the hotel (point 1) and wanted to ride the circular route in the same clockwise direction, I would want to be sure to pass through point 2. I therefore left it as a via point ‘hand’ and renamed it LEAVE. That way, when I am standing at the hotel and fire up the route, the LEAVE point will appear as a choice of destinations on my XT. I would select it. The XT will then guide me to that point AND then continue to run the rest of the route thereafter.
Similarly, had I been standing outside my house in London E1 and selected LEAVE, my XT would create me a route (according to my preferred settings) from my front door, to the LEAVE point and then run the route thereafter. In short, it can, depending on circumstances, be really useful to create and use LEAVE points.
4. I then broke the fully circular route, separating point 1 (the hotel) and the end point 9, back at the hotel.
I gave this point the name END.
In other words, from this:
Into this:
Why, if the XT is fully capable of running circular routes, did I do this?
1. Modern GPS devices like the XT are sort of like personal computers, with the emphasis on the word ‘personal’. What makes sense to me, I do. That it makes no sense to someone else to do it that way is fine; I am not them.
2. When I summon up the route on my XT I will be presented with three choices of destination: The start, the leave point and the end. I will chose ‘leave’. The device will guide me to that point and, without me doing anything more, run the route thereafter, right to the end.
There are lots of other things the XT (and indeed MyRoute) can do. They are both very powerful and very dumb simultaneously. That sounds odd but, when the chips are down, they will only ever do what the owner tells them to do; they really are that dumb. BUT, as we see on lots of posts in this section, if the owner expects a powerful XT to ‘Just work’, they might be in for a disappointment and a frustrating time.
That is why I strongly suggested you spend some part of the next three weeks using your XT at home on a couple of rides, instead of just turning it on for the first time when you arrive in Spain.
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PS In passing, I noticed that the RiDE route I downloaded and played around with, as suggested in your opening post, did indeed include a cafe stop at point 4.
I agree that, as it’s roughly halfway around the route, it might indeed be a good place to stop, so I might well change the shaping point ‘teardrop’ into a hand, via point. I might also add a coffee cup marker to it:
But….. this little bit of mucking about activity did highlight why you MUST check any route you download from anywhere.
The route from RiDE contains an error. It is not life threatening but it’s just untidy. What do we know about untidy routes? They lead to frustration and, more often than not, angry bikermates cursing their innocent dumb piece of Garmin shite GPS, which is doing nothing more than exactly what their oh-so-clever owner told it to do.
You will notice point 3, the shaping point. Whoever created the route at RiDE knew they wanted to go to that town and to that cafe. They probably marked the town first and then the cafe. Had you innocently just ridden the route, your XT (being a dumb device and only ever doing what its owner tells it to do) would guide you to point 3 and then tell you to make a U-turn, to go to the cafe.
This is fine, until:
A. You are hot or it is pissing with rain or you can’t make a U-turn at that point.
B. The gaggle of bikes behind you, all think you are a knob. Of course THEY would not have made that mistake….. that of course is probably untrue, they would have done. It just makes them feel better thinking it.
So…..
Let ‘Check, check again and (if necessary) mend, BEFORE you set off’ be your motto and patient guide.
As you can see from this screenshot, it is probably now not possible to make a U-turn at point 3, it routes along and around. That might not have been the case when RiDE first created the route (whenever that was) or they might just have ignored the no U-turn instruction.
I deleted point 3 as it serves no purpose. MyRoute automatically re numbers the viapoint ‘hand’ of the cafe and recreates the route. You’ll notice that you no longer have a U-turn at what was point 3:
Now the maybe interesting bit.
A quick look in MyRoute’s ability to show Google street view, answers that question:
It’s an unbroken white line which, in Spain, means do not cross. Me? I don’t give a monkey’s if you do or don’t but the locals and the local plod might.
More importantly, and as predicted in my earlier post, the ‘Must do’ cafe now appears to have gone. Such is progress.
Your mates, had you blindly followed RiDE’s route to the ‘Must do’ cafe, might by now think you a complete knob, as they have been fined for crossing a white line, it’s hot (or pissing with rain) and you have taken them to some scrotty new development.
The same screenshot, also shows a petrol station just up the road. This also re-emphasises the point I made earlier. Why didn’t RiDE mark that one, as it would make sense to maybe fuel at a coffee stop? The answer is easy:
Maybe THEY didn’t want fuel at that point or maybe the fuel station wasn’t even there when RiDE created the route? Maybe it’s not even there now? Maybe though, it would have made a great place to turn around? Who knows?
Enjoy your holiday!