Creating a GPS cycle route on Google Earth
You can plan any type of route on Google Earth – not just a cycle route – but in my case I'd like to plan the route for a cycle tour in Denmark next May. Denmark has a network of cycle routes, some of which run alongside roads, but some follow country tracks that aren't all marked on Google Maps or other online mapping systems like OpenStreetMap. The advantage of Google Earth is that you can actually see the cycle routes and the sort of terrain they pass through. The way I'm doing it is to draw a 'path' by clicking a succession of points along where we'd like to cycle.
Drawing a path on Google Earth
You draw a path on Google Earth by clicking the 'Draw Path' button on the toolbar above the map – see the pink oval at the top of the image above. This opens a dialog box into which you can type the name of your route and select a colour and line thickness. It also converts the hand symbol to a square cursor. You can drag this cursor along the map, laying down a track of points, but it's probably better to create the route by clicking, otherwise there will be too many needless points when the route is stored on a GPS. In fact, on the GPS unit (mine is a Garmin eTrex Legend HCx), the route will be stored as a track, not a route, because more trackpoints can be stored than routepoints. My route is the blue line on the map (example only). Once you've finished drawing your Google Earth path, you close the New Path dialog box, save the path, then email it to yourself before you close the program. This process is illustrated in the second image (inset), which shows the Google Earth sidebar menu. You will receive a .kmz file in your email inbox, in my case called Cycle path.kmz.
As an alternative to emailing the path to yourself you can save it from Google Earth to your hard drive with File / Save / Save Place As (illustrated).
Either way, the .kmz file then has to be converted to a .gpx file suitable for a GPS. Use RouteConverter. It works well, and gives you the option to convert with 'save as route, track, and waypoint list' as well as providing several map options in the map window. RouteConverter actually allows you to plan a route in Google Earth view too, but doesn't display all your position markers at once, as Google Earth does (the little red or blue squares on the map above). Converting .kmz files to GPS-friendly .gpx format can also be done online at GPSies.
Following the route with a GPS
The Garmin eTrex Legend HCx allows a maximum of 250 routepoints in a 'route' you can navigate, and 500 trackpoints on a 'track' you can follow. 'Navigate' is when you set the GPS to guide you along a thick purple line with directions. You can also navigate a track using 'tracback' – a bit fiddly in my experience, but in any case I don't want to navigate as such. On a cycle tour you want to conserve your GPS batteries as the unit will be switched on for most of the day and there isn't always somewhere to recharge the batteries. 'Following' a track uses less power. All you do is select your track and follow the trackline on the GPS map (see example, right).
Preparing the track in Google Earth
For a multi-day cycle tour you'll probably prepare a separate track for each day. That means 500 trackpoints maximum per day. The eTrex Legend HCx can store 10,000 trackpoints internally – enough for 20 days.
Following the track essentially means following the path you created in Google Earth. It will be a series of straight lines between the places you clicked on, so it won't necessarily be directly on the actual road or cycle route at all times, as you will be. So you need to make sure that when you create your path, it will be close enough to indicate that you're going the right way when you compare your position on the GPS map with the trackline. The 500 trackpoints your have at your disposal per day are normally enough for a whole day's cycling.
To 'fly the route' in Google Earth, there's a Play Tour icon button at the bottom right of the Places box in the sidebar. View a 'fly by' example here (the Nyborg to Odense leg of our forthcoming cycle tour in Denmark – requires Google Earth installed on your desktop). Alternatively, use the Navigation Controls to zoom down and tilt the view, then drag and let go the hand symbol with your mouse in the opposite direction to the 'flight', keeping to the path by rotating the North point as required.
See also route planning in Google Earth »
Hi Patrick, thanks for putting this info onto Cycleseven. I shall have a go later today with this for my route that I am currently planning on the island. I have a SATMAP GPS system. Fabulous, except I also complicate things further with an Apple Mac. I down loaded Micks system that he advised, and sadly it does not operate with SATMAP. Anyway, will certainly try Google Earth. I was a big fan of Bikehike, but now of course you cannot save store or post others the routes and I miss that for sorting out elevation points.
February 18th, 2010 at 8:33 am
Mary, as an alternative to Bikehike you could try the GPSies track creator. It does allow you to store your routes. In my experience, an advantage that Google Earth has over these online route planning websites is that the display tends to be faster. It's also nice to see the photos that people have put on Google Earth.
February 18th, 2010 at 8:47 am
Not that I want to muddy the water, but here's another plug for mapmyride.com. I wonder if the screenshot below shows the options you could find useful.
My only objection to this site is that you have to pay to save and print your maps. Otherwise, I find it useful.
February 18th, 2010 at 8:24 pm
The route planner on mapmyride seems to work well, but you have to be a registered user to export a route. True, that's the same with Bikehike, but mapmyride is so obviously a money-making website and cluttered with adverts. I'm a big fan of Google Earth. I love the way you can zoom down to almost ground level and 'fly' along your route in virtual 3D, viewing other people's photos as you go along. I've registered to add my own photos to Google Earth but haven't added any yet.
February 19th, 2010 at 9:46 am
After a short ride out to the foot of the Wolds yesterday, and seeing Garry's fine photographs, I fancied my first ride to the coast on my new bike. (We take the dog to Mappleton, a place which is slowly disappearing because of coastal erosion.) I got up at seven this morning, put my Brooks saddle back on after lending the Kinesis to a friend for yesterday's ride, remembered where I'd left my fig rolls... then, right on cue: snow. And it's still coming down. So I've had to console myself by following some good advice and 'flying' the intended route on Google Earth. However, it doesn't seem to allow me to view other people's photographs. It is also a little difficult to be sure where you are so I have tried to compare with the street view version open in another window in an attempt to find some checkpoints.
The adverts on this site hadn't really bothered me before – in the version above I just dragged the fellow selling premium membership in to the North Sea.
The route – any route that goes out to the east – is flat. The elevation view below claims there is a maximum difference in height of 20 metres. Frankly I'm surprised it's that much.
So I'll have to wait until next weekend at the earliest before I can do this route. Part of the reason for doing it is that it's likely to be the final stretch of a planned coast to coast route early in the summer holidays. Another likely participant reckons that Morecambe to Mappleton has a nice ring to it. I think so, too.
February 21st, 2010 at 10:09 am
Chris, re:
Are you actually in Google Earth from your desktop, or viewing in satellite mode on the mapmyride website? There's a big difference. To view other people's photos in Google Earth itself you need to enable a Layer called Geographic Web in the sidebar, then the photos show up as a little blue square that you click on to view.
February 21st, 2010 at 10:47 am
Thanks, Patrick. I've only just downloaded Google Earth (it's not my own computer so I'm a bit squeamish about putting software on it). I'm sure you're right. I have a play a bit later, ta.
February 21st, 2010 at 11:12 am
Hi Patrick, thanks for this very useful post. I'm also a big fan of GE and would like to use it for as many mappings tasks as I can. Above in Chris' post (February 21st, 2010 at 10:09 am), there is a cross-sectional view of his ride (in yellow). Given that I have already drawn a path in GE, is there any way to create this type of cross-sectional map?
Thanks
September 15th, 2011 at 2:32 pm
Hi Scott, and hmmm... Google Earth paths contain no elevational data (yet). You'd need a track containing that. I've done this before: upload your .gpx track (created in GE then run through RouteConverter to make a .gpx) to a mapping website like BikeRouteToaster. That adds the elevational data (as I remember). Then download and save it. A cross-sectional view should then be available in Garmin MapSource. I think that works. BRT might show cross sections too – I don't remember – but I'd assume you could also use MapMyRide. A bit long-winded but there are ways it can be done.
September 15th, 2011 at 3:01 pm