Welcome to bikehike.co.uk

This website is intended for anyone wanting to create or view routes on either the Google maps or the Ordnance Survey maps. Since the Ordnance Survey maps are limited to the United Kingdom, this site is primarily intended for, and indeed optimised for, UK users. Non-UK users may also find it useful operating in single map mode.

The great advantage of the Ordnance Survey maps (particularly the Landranger series) is the huge amount of detail they contain. Therefore mountain bikers and hikers can now create routes along byways, bridleways and footpaths. Roadies may also find it useful to see the added level of detail contained on the OS maps.

Features:

• Simultaneous course creation on Google and Ordnance Survey maps.
• Upload and download of routes to and from GPS units (GPX, TCX and TRL formats).
• Upload & download directly to a Garmin GPS unit using the Garmin Communicator Plugin.
• Interactive elevation profile - click on the elevation graph to see corresponding route point.
• Toggle between elevation and gradient view on elevation graph.
• UK postcode and place name search.
• Auto routing on the Google map.
• Save your routes to the database to share with other users.
• Search the database for other user's routes.
• Add coursepoints to aid navigation.
• Add points of interest to add information to routes.
• Distance and elevation data continuously calculated for your route.
• Course editing facilities - including Google style route dragging .
• Printable courses on both Google and OS maps.

To start creating or viewing courses on the maps go to the course creator page by clicking the course creator link above.

Performance tip:  there's a lot of javascript code running on the course creator page - particularly as it has to maintain both the Google and OS maps as you create your route. You will find the performance of the site is much better on Firefox, Chrome, Opera or Safari - particularly if you are using computationally intensive features like Drag Edit. If you're still using Internet Explorer, then you really could do much better - for free.

Any issues, suggestions or other feedback, please contact me at:

Absolutely no obligation at all - but if you'd like to make a small donation towards the costs of running the site, all donations gratefully received.

History:

• June 2009:  Updates
  • Added the OpenStreetMap cycle map as an map type option on the google map. This is a topographical map that emphasises cycle routes particularly the National, Regional and Local cycle routes. Unfortunately the coverage can be a little patchy in places, although everyone is welcome to add to the map to improve coverage - see here.
  
  
• May 2009:  Updates
  • Added choice of portrait or landscape mode for the printscreen.
  • Finding routes has been revised so that clicking on the Find Routes button will give you the results of your previous search (if you have done one). If you want to start a new search, click Cancel in the results window and click Find Routes again.
  • Revised so coursepoints are now downloaded in GPX tracks and routes (as waypoints).
  
  
• April 2009:  Updates
  • Added GPXX download option for Garmin 705 users. This uses the Garmin proprietary GPXX extensions to allow you to use SatNav type navigation without the 100 waypoint limit. See help here.
  
  
• Jan 2009:  Updates
  • Revised to collect elevation data if an uploaded course does not include elevation.
  • Added trackpoint reduction facility (see options window). This will allow owners of GPS units with limited trackpoint memory (e.g. Gekos) to thin down routes to fit the available trackpoint memory.
  • Added coursepoints - both manual and automatic. Select between auto and manual mode in the options window. Note - coursepoints are hidden when zoomed out to prevent clutter.
  
  
• Dec 2008:  Updates
  • Enabled double click zoom on the Google map. Only enabled when there is no route plotted; as soon as you begin plotting a route the double click zoom is disabled.
  • Added an option to download your course as a GPX track (previously GPX courses were downloaded as GPX routes). Note - Garmin Edge & Forerunner users should still use TCX downloads if you want to do 'breadcrumb' navigation.
  
  
• Nov 2008:  Updates
  • Added Options dialogue box. At the moment this allows you to select the mode of the Google Follow Road routing algorithm, i.e. avoid highways, walking or driving modes.
  • Added print option. This opens a new window based on the current large map which can then be printed using the browser's print facility.
  
  
• Oct 2008:  Updates
  • Added facility to upload directly from a Garmin GPS device. As with the direct downloads this only works with Garmin GPS units and requires you to have installed the Garmin Communicator Plugin - see here.
  
  
• Sept 2008:  Updates
  • Revised to use local elevation data for the majority of the UK rather than the GeoNames server (which is often overloaded). This will make elevation data requests for the UK much quicker and more reliable. Local elevation data covers pretty much the land area covered by the OS maps.
  • Added facility to download directly to a Garmin GPS device. This requires you to install the Garmin Communicator Plugin - see here.
  
  
• Aug 2008:  Updates
  • Updated the Google Follow Road mode to avoid highways wherever possible.
  • Added Terrain view option on Google map
  • Improved timeout handling on elevation data requests. This should speed up the completion of elevation data requests when the GeoNames server is unavailable.
  • Revised downloaded GPX file to be compliant with the GPX 1.1 spec. This is necessary to be able to load the GPX file into Mapsource.
  
  
• July 2008:  Updates
  • Added Register and Log on facility. If you are logged on when you save a route to the database, it will become your route. You can subsequently search for your routes - and then edit them and resave them. However, there is no compulsion to register - you can still use the site as before without being logged on.
    
    If you have previously created routes that you now want to be the owner of, please drop me an email with your user name and the ids of your routes and I will set it up.
    
    
  • Corrected vector rendering issue that was preventing the OS route from displaying in Firefox 3 and Safari browsers.
  
  
• June 2008:  Updates
  • Added drag editing - including Google style route dragging. There's a couple of modes of operation and one potential pitfall - see help here.
  • Go to Start and Go to End buttons combined into a single button to make way for the Drag Edit Mode button.
  • Save to database revised such that multiple saves of the same route name in the same session will just update the route. Previously separate copies with the same name were saved.
  
  
• May 2008:  Updates
  • Added option to switch between elevation and gradient on the elevation graph.
  • Revised so that clicking on top of the path in the Google map now works as expected. Previously that click would be ignored.
  • Added a filter on the total ascent and descent calculations. These were previously over reporting.
  • Added elevation data repair script. This runs overnight and repairs any missing or corrupt elevation data - see FAQ item here.
  • Added route link to Find Route results window so you can retrieve the link for any route.
  • Added text file download option.
  
  
• April 2008:  Updates
  • Added support for uploading tracklog (trl) files. Only the XML tracklog files (v3) are supported - not the older binary format (v2). Note - while developing the tracklog importer I found an issue with tracklog files that are converted to GPX using GPSBabel - see FAQ item here.
  
  
• 19th April 2008:  Bikehike.co.uk launched.
  • Tested on IE6, IE7 and Firefox running on a Windows PC. There were initially problems running on the Safari browser - these should be corrected now.