App for mtb routes

The Hodge

Mystic Meg
Subscriber
Sep 9, 2020
3,955
8,436
North West Northumberland
Trailforks is the obvious one ..but there is a charge now for their premium service ..
I've used Viewranger for years now ..but since I went " premium " all of my recorded routes have been lost ..if its to record your own routes then this is still the app. that I would recommend
 

Teedyt

Member
Nov 27, 2019
26
12
Kendal
Trailforks is the obvious one ..but there is a charge now for their premium service ..
I've used Viewranger for years now ..but since I went " premium " all of my recorded routes have been lost ..if its to record your own routes then this is still the app. that I would recommend
I’ll look at that cheers
 

Tim1023

Well-known member
Aug 25, 2020
660
584
Hamburg, Germany
It depends on where you live. None of the MTB-specific apps are very good in Germany.
Komoot seems to be the best for me in North Germany, but you have to filter out a lot of flat rides ('cos it's pretty flat here!)
 

JoeBlow

Active member
Jul 7, 2019
729
448
South West, UK
I have Strava, Komoot,Viewranger and a subscription to OS maps but I find myself using TrailForks the most. They have differing strengths and weaknesses depending on what it is you want from them. Some seem to be more about social networking or performance training than navigation. Trail forks is reasonably good in the UK and I suspect that it will improve as people add more content.

Al
 

Carol2208

Member
Sep 8, 2020
16
56
Spain
I use wikiloc, as someone said, depends on where you live... Wikiloc is really good in Spain, in the US and the UK they had very little tracks... so what I ended it up doing was using trailforks, mtb project and single track to download the trails I wanted to ride, then I´d put together the route using Basecamp and upload it to Wikiloc or my GPS so I could follow it on the bike.
 

pavelmatic

Well-known member
Dec 3, 2019
62
101
Lörrach, Germany
It depends on where you live. None of the MTB-specific apps are very good in Germany.
Komoot seems to be the best for me in North Germany, but you have to filter out a lot of flat rides ('cos it's pretty flat here!)

Same here, and I’m in the Black Forest... not easy to almost impossible to find e-bike friendly routes :(
 

wepn

The Barking Owl ?
Jul 18, 2019
1,006
1,145
AU
Any recommendations for an iPhone app for mtb routes !!
Have a look at alltrails.com
They have an app but I would just discover trails using the website.

alltrails.jpg
 

MrSimmo

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Apr 24, 2020
1,096
1,047
The Trail.
For me (UK)

Finding/creating routes:
- Trailforks (website) for Downhill trails then I create a route of them connected which I export to gpx and then import to turn-by-turn nav device/app. Garmin allows you to just sync them to the nav device on newer devices. I ditched the iPhone app as they crippled it with Premium nagware. If I'm riding and want to find where the trail-head is, I open trailforks.com using Chrome on the phone and tell it to use the desktop website which stops it moaning about premium.

- OS Maps (website) for longer route planning, export to GPX and then into turn-by-turn nav..

- AllTrails.com (website), community content option, for longer XC style routes.

- MBR/MBUK magazines GPX files for 'epic rides' - Best of Singletrack, Killer Loops etc are good rides usually. Most are on their websites.


Following routes:
- OS Maps on iPhone (although battery dies quickly!)

- Garmin Edge 830 nav device (although I sold this recently)

- BLEvo (although I use this less now due to the interface and battery use)

- Komoot (I bought the world maps for £10, but they just did the old Trailforks style money grab and now also charge for mountain bike specific maps even though we already own the world maps - so thats gone in the bin too)


I don't bother logging where I've ridden or KOMs or anything like that but you could use the Strava app or Cyclemeter etc to record the ride whilst in progress.



There is definitely a gap in the market here!
 

PhilBaker

Well-known member
May 6, 2020
333
411
East London/Kent
Having review numerous options (I'm in the UK), like some of the others, I'd suggest:-

- If you want to know where those great mountain bike routes (mainly downhill runs of mixed levels) then Trailforks is really useful. You get that "shit! I didn't know that was there" experience. When I compare what Trailforks knows about the local area I know best, it pretty much has all the good ones.
Downside though is I don't find Trailforks that good for creating routes and linking great downhill sections together. I played with it for a bit (less than an hour) but found the routes it suggested I take to link downhill sections it knew about, where far from the optimal way you would really want to go on a mountain bike.
- I tried Komoot and really like the way it allows you to plan a route. I'd say it's better than Trailforks for selecting an offroad/path route vs roads as you get to tell it what type of riding you like.
Downside is it doesn't chose the optimal path first time, but simple drag and drop to give it a hint that you don't want the fasted route, and it creates some really nice offroad routes.
I don't pay any subscription to either service.
 

Swissrider

Well-known member
Nov 1, 2018
368
384
Switzerland
On the continent, thé web sites of the tourist offices in the resorts which have embraced MTB and EMTB often have tracks and GPX files you can download. In Switzerland biking spots is pretty good, Trailforks very thin in some areas. Strava can be quite good although it’s often only short segments
 

7869hodgy

Well-known member
Jul 15, 2020
395
628
Reading
My vote is BikeGPX. Download GPX files from Strava/whatever and it guides you. I am shit with directions so I love it.
 

MrSimmo

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Apr 24, 2020
1,096
1,047
The Trail.
Only paying customers can download from Strava?

You can bypass that sometimes - if you use someone elses ride/route; click 'create route' and then in your copy of the route the download gpx button works again.

I suspect they'll close the loophole soon but it works at the mo.
 

Cius

Member
Apr 17, 2020
2
3
Caifora.25
In Santa Cruz, Ca - I piece rides together using all trails, mtb project and Trailforks. When riding somewhere remote I’ll export a .gpx of the areas trails to Gaia GPS to make sure I won’t be impromptu camping.

Zooming in to the maps in specialized mission control while recording a ride though has proven to be the best for our local trail names. Though some of the other apps i mentioned might still a show a trail, they won’t always have trail names/info about the trails. That said, ymmv
 

E_S_Blofeld

Member
Sep 1, 2020
38
17
Surrey Hills.
I'm in the UK. I've been using a great iPhone / iPad app for planning routes called 'FOOTPATH'. Search the Apple App Store. It lets you draw a route on the screen and it snaps to the path automatically (a great feature). Really simple to use. Set the routing mode/activity to 'horseback riding' and it will only then snap your route to bridle paths or roads (a good way to avoid stiles with an ebike!). It will also log where you have ridden if you want it to. All planned and logged routes are stored in the cloud, so they simply sync between iPhone and iPad. I tend to use an iPad for plotting routes, and take my phone with me on the trail. It also works with Apple watch which can prompt you where / when to turn as you ride. Free trial for 7 days, and I think £20 for the year after that from memory. Hope that helps.
 

daju

Active member
Apr 21, 2019
134
86
manchester by the sea, ma
I'm in USA
I've tried Trailforks, AllTrails, and Gaia
I find that unauthorized rails (like "Gloucester spot") tend to be on Gaia but not the other two apps. But the other apps have a few trails and features that Gaia doesn't.
They all are pretty good IMHO
 

Jackware

Fat-tyred Freakazoid
Subscriber
Oct 30, 2018
2,083
2,294
Lancashire
I'm in the UK. I've been using a great iPhone / iPad app for planning routes called 'FOOTPATH'. Search the Apple App Store. It lets you draw a route on the screen and it snaps to the path automatically (a great feature). Really simple to use. Set the routing mode/activity to 'horseback riding' and it will only then snap your route to bridle paths or roads (a good way to avoid stiles with an ebike!). It will also log where you have ridden if you want it to. All planned and logged routes are stored in the cloud, so they simply sync between iPhone and iPad. I tend to use an iPad for plotting routes, and take my phone with me on the trail. It also works with Apple watch which can prompt you where / when to turn as you ride. Free trial for 7 days, and I think £20 for the year after that from memory. Hope that helps.
This looks interesting, can you snap existing gpx routes to paths and roads in the Elite mode?
 

E_S_Blofeld

Member
Sep 1, 2020
38
17
Surrey Hills.
This looks interesting, can you snap existing gpx routes to paths and roads in the Elite mode?

Do you mean import existing gpx routes and then almost 'correct' them by snapping them to the paths / roads? I'm not sure. I've not tried importing any existing gpx routes myself. If what you want to do doesn't work I think, given how easy and quick it is to draw routes, you could simply re-draw your existing routes in Footpaths really quickly. Open your existing route on one device, and open footpaths on another device and just copy it. It's really quick and easy. Perhaps the link below might help. You could always ping them your question? Sorry I couldn't be more help.

See website for more info - Footpath Route Planner
 

JoeBlow

Active member
Jul 7, 2019
729
448
South West, UK
I used Footpath for a while. It sucked the life out of my batteries. It would seem that it uses location/gps services even when not in use and simply present on the phone.
 
Last edited:

E_S_Blofeld

Member
Sep 1, 2020
38
17
Surrey Hills.
I used Footpath for a while. It sucked the life out of my batteries. I would seem that it uses location/gps services even when not in use and simply present on the phone.

Interesting. I've not noticed that to be honest. Perhaps they have done an update since you used it. You can also change the settings on your phone so it only uses location when you use the app.
 

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