Easy Route Maps

From Motorsport (Rallying) to Cycling !

We've adapted these route maps from our days of rallying, to use on our leisure rides.

You could use them on Audax, Sportives, MTB Routes, Leisure Tours etc. Whatever makes the cycling route easier to follow, wherever you are.

There's also the bonus of having quite a small map holder.

Simple Diagrams for your route plan

This shows a page from one of our recent route maps.

Its pretty simple really. The dot is where you've come from and the arrow is where you are going. The number next to a junction is the distance from the last junction to that one. (The circled numbers are just so you can see which junction we are talking about below.)

To understand it fully, you'll need to use the link included to the Google map page we used and then use Google streetview (the little orange man) to see the junctions. (See lower down this page).

At the bottom of the page, you can also see our map holder attached to the bike.

A finished route map page

The numbers on the left are mileages / yards (sorry we're stuck in the past). Each mileage is the distance from the previous junction.

So if you are shouting at other riders it will be "quarter mile, turn right at the T-junction".

At (1) the route meets a main road.

(2) turns off the main road left, after 200yds

(3) is a right turn at a T-junction, after 1/4 mile

Now an important and useful bit !

(4)(5)(6)(7) are junctions within the 2 mile leg, but no instruction is necessary, because on Google street view, you can see that all the roads we don't want to go down, have white lines across them. So we just label our route map 'Stay Main' for the whole of the 2 miles.

That makes everything much simpler and you don't have to think (much) for the 2 miles.
...and yes, the Royal Oak does a good pint !

Junction (8) on the other hand was a bit unclear on Google streetview, so we put a direction arrow in, just in case.

...and so on.

Google Map of route

If you go to Google Maps, you can see how the streetview helps to sort out the junctions, particularly junctions 4,5,6 and 7 where no directions are needed. This route is around Church Stretton in Shropshire.
Go to Google Maps of route

Click on map to enlarge

Small mapholder for your bike

There's a small plastic sheet fixed by cable ties around the stem and the bar.
(We chopped up a chopping board - don't use perspex, its difficult to cut without cracking)

We used to put each route sheet into a poly-pocket and seal it, but now we are going to use almost indestructible fibre-based paper. You can write on it with a thin point permanent marker. You can buy reuseable cable ties as well as 'standard' ones.

Check these Amazon links for paper and ties. Don't 'borrow' the kitchen chopping board !
Fibre Paper

Releasable Cable Ties

Permanent Markers