Happy Australia Day Ride!

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
As much as I'd love to....but with that forecast I'm out

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You'll most probably know them all, but here are a few "sweeteners" to that loop. All easy riding, much of it under a tree canopy (shade!).
And certainly off the main routes.

Assuming a clockwise-run:

1) from Sylvan Dam to Yellingbo https://tinyurl.com/28rq4svw (great views, used to be no-through)
2) Yellinbo to Old Beenak and Kurth Kiln https://tinyurl.com/266826hf (takes Old Beenak Rd., still signed no-thru on one end, instead of main road)
3) Kurth Kiln to Gembrook https://tinyurl.com/25wefv2p (Boundary Rd. can sometimes be a little rutted/ rocky.....still easy enough on a road bike)
4) Gembrook to Cardinia Dam https://tinyurl.com/266h49yh (take Mt. Eirene Rd. rather than busy Bessie Creek....take Seymour Rd. in the south rather than main Princess Hwy....take Lewis/ Red Hill Rd. along the Golf Course to back-entrance of Cardinia Dam Park!!...follow through Park to Wellington Rd.)


All up around the same distance, better views, far less traffic, staying off main rds. , fuel 24/7 at southern end of Bessie Creek Rd. if needed, more shade/ tree canopy


Enjoy :)
 

glipschitz

Long Timer
Assuming a clockwise-run:

1) from Sylvan Dam to Yellingbo https://tinyurl.com/28rq4svw (great views, used to be no-through)
2) Yellinbo to Old Beenak and Kurth Kiln https://tinyurl.com/266826hf (takes Old Beenak Rd., still signed no-thru on one end, instead of main road)
3) Kurth Kiln to Gembrook https://tinyurl.com/25wefv2p (Boundary Rd. can sometimes be a little rutted/ rocky.....still easy enough on a road bike)
4) Gembrook to Cardinia Dam https://tinyurl.com/266h49yh (take Mt. Eirene Rd. rather than busy Bessie Creek....take Seymour Rd. in the south rather than main Princess Hwy....take Lewis/ Red Hill Rd. along the Golf Course to back-entrance of Cardinia Dam Park!!...follow through Park to Wellington Rd.)
Thanks - I've used https://mapstogpx.com/ to export them to GPX and then in to Gaia GPS




 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
could you work those stretches into your original file for a new gpx?
 

glipschitz

Long Timer
@glitch I'll have to show you how to use Gaia.
You'll have a bloody field day with it. So much easier than Google Maps.

You can take others routes, clone them, stitch them together and all sorts of other stuff, even on the free plan it's good.
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Sounds good, happy to have a look.

I feel we go at it from different ends though.

One is a routing tool, the other a trip-planning tool.
Entirely different in aim and use.


GPS users in general rather seem to build a route to go from A to B via their preferred type of road/ track and then follow that pre-fab route while on-the-bike and on-the-road.
Sure, they can break away at any point while riding, the software/app always trying to re-calculate on the fly to get them back to the pre-fab route (acting as a mental fail-safe, too).
Route completed, job finished, end of ride/ drive, end of day.


Gmaps offers quite different tools (terrain map/satellite view, street view/ myriad extra info re: places and POI's along the routes/roads/tracks on accom/fuel/ATM's/memorials and a 100 other things) all of which I can click to get more info/ pics/descriptions/links/homepages/phone numbers/see opening times on the actual shop-doors etc etc.

Gmaps does NOT build-a-route-to-follow...far from it.

But it allows me to virtually ride/ drive all/most of an entire holiday in Nevada/Italian Dolomites/ Fleurieu Peninsula, the Swiss Alps, Yarra Ranges or where ever ...by stringing together all those
places I just discovered through streetview and satellite view on a Saturday afternoon.
Add a bit of Googling and I'm able to travel most/ all of my trip via endless POI's, accom stays, fuel stops, lookouts etc etc....with all and any background info I want or need to make use of the offerings.

I'm "discovering" places and attractions and all their detail (that suit my interests) while stitching together a route.....then drag the route from, POI #1 to POI#NEXT via the most twisty/ unsealed/interesting option show on the maps....check streetview for a virtual ride/ drive again....and I'm given segment+total distance and timing to think about fuel and end-of-day-locations (pre-booking accom etc).

Routing tool...or...planning tool.

While loving most Topo maps as a map-base, I despise OSM-crap as they are shitty and obscure with bad labelling, extremely poor accentuation and detail.
More a kids' colouring book than an actual map to travel by.
 

glipschitz

Long Timer
I think it's always about using the right tool for the job.
Gaia is a good mix of planning and routing.

You can create a segment of track and save it.
You can create waypoints and use it that way.

With the premium version (about $90 a year) you get access to the full VicMaps toppo as well which is excellent.

You don't get all of the extra stuff like Google Maps of the accomodation, petrol, points of major interest, but as I say, right tool for the job.
It would be like using a Melways to do topo work or trying to find a petrol station on a toppo map.

The beauty is, you can take a GPX and import or export making it really useful.

Using one of your routes as an example, this is the standard view which is quite good.

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Same thing with VicMap turned on

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One overlayed against the other

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Satellite View

1738052426996.png

Toppo with Satellite

1738052498537.png

Then you can turn things on and off

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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
I think it's always about using the right tool for the job.


That's true!

As well as the basic aim/purpose in the first place.

There's the "how-to-best-get-there-and-back" ("The Ride")
....versus the "what's there to see and do that prods my curiosity". ("The Travel")
Different base premises leading to different tools.

Many of my rides started with " I saw that movie clip/ Youtube/ story/ RR last night about that route/ road/ area/xxxx....shyte, I'd love to ride this....which part of Oz or country was it again? Did you record that thing, saved the link? I'd need a few names to start digging...."
An hour later a kids' drawing skeleton of a route/area map is up.

Then the real digging starts (via google+ Gmaps)...actual routing at the very end to string all the must-do/must-see together.

Something like the 3week/9 country/6000km Balkans trip took around 8 weeks for the basic skeleton framework, before another 10 months of endless polishing/ fine-tuning and actual prepping/ making contacts/bookings/ logistics/local peculiarities/legals etc.

The "mapping/ routing" was just connecting a string of wishful , high-value POIs and perks via some highlighted routes on papermaps....parallel alternatives in dotted lines....additional, possible perks in other colours if time allowed....knowing that barely 1/2 of the routes would come good in the end, at best.
Reality on the road turned out pretty much as expected. :)
These are things a GPS-based tool can't put together, maybe the AI based stuff will in the future.

In hindsight, many of the routes ridden and places seen even had the locals stumped....and have lateron re-emerged as TET/TAT/ACT track sections ( in GPS formats of course).

As you said, tools for the job.
 
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