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    How To Plan A Great Cycling Route On Safe & Quiet Roads



    Planning an enjoyable cycling route can be challenging. It’s far too easy to ride your bike on roads you’re familiar with after having driven them in your car. But, roads that are great for driving are usually pretty rubbish for cycling. To get the most out of your bike riding, it’s best to stick to quieter lanes and back roads and avoid the fast moving traffic you find on busy highways. In this video, Si gives you his top tips to help you plan your next cycling route to make your bike ride safer and more enjoyable!

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    What are your top tips for planning a cycling route? Let us know in the comments below!

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    50 Comments

    1. Don Carlo di Vargas on

      This is good to hear, exactly my opinion, only, no one agree with me, anyhow, I have found basically 3 tours without car/heavy traffic, those are the ones I use to be safe when I am bicycling

    2. Felix Cat on

      As someone looking to take up cycle touring and camping on a small folding bicycle, this is excellent information.

      I had seen Google Streetview used for cycle route planning on the Brompton Tourer channel, but the system you mentioned looks to be of interest too.

      Thank you for the advice as I specifically want to be as far away as it's possible to get from cars, trucks and vans, etc, and quiet roads seem to tick all the boxes.

    3. Bambi cyclejerk on

      There is a really busy road near me that is the main road out into the good stuff but it's national speed limit and full of lorrys. I see tones of cyclist on this road and in my opinion it's dangerous. I recently Road it during lock down because it was dead and its not even a very good route. There is 2 roads not 500 metres away that run parallel that are really nice roads with very little traffic and I have never seen another cyclist on one of them.

    4. MarkOne on

      perfect timing when the decling $trava now forces you to pay for route planning. Please please introduce segments on Kommute, and replace that motorbike riders' app (in Vietnam, at least)

    7. Andrew De Witt on

      So, having watched the video I decided to try out Komoot today. Old Severn Bridge to Tetbury and Malmesbury in the Cotwolds. 57 miles. Fantastic routing on quiet roads – definitely ride of the year so far. And I was wearing good legs today. Based on this ride Komoot have a new customer. Thanks Si!

    8. Wendy Lee on

      It is like you have been eavesdropping on my conversations lately! Thanks for a very timely vid. I am excited to try to find some better roads in my area with your tips.

    11. george pechtol on

      I've been skeptical of route planning apps, but on Si's highly-valued recommendation, I tried it this weekend and it was a TOTAL GAMECHANGER! Komoot took from my front door along quieter and much more enjoyable and awesome paths out of the city and back than I ever would have found on my own! Thanks for this nudge – looking forward to many more great new excursions!

    17. FC on

      Easier said than done. Don't ride where you drive. You live in the city not much choice. Quite country roads can be a long way from where you live and more dangerous in some ways. Cars travel faster on country roads and roads are narrower.

    19. . Wookey on

      cyclestreets.net is one of the best cycle-route planners. Choose fast/balanced/quiet. Main catch is it doesn't have a good way of doing waypoints and loops, but especially for urban cycle-route planning it's unbeatable IMHO.

    20. ALA02 on

      Wide but somewhat busy roads downhill arent bad. I usually go for narrow and obscure country lanes uphill, busier, wider and faster roads downhill. Unfortunately in the South East London area quiet roads are annoyingly uncommon

    21. Colin Harper on

      Why would you want to write out a turn list by hand? Easy. It's the best way ever of learning a new route, taking care to work out what the junctions and turns might actually look like and you save £300 on a bike computer. I use ridewithgps, googlemaps and streetview when planning but the little list of turns in your back pocket or taped to the top tube is all the tech you need for on the move (take your phone too just in case… and record it – if it isn't on Strava it didn't happen).

    23. Fiona Hunt on

      Sorry, not impressed by Komoot. What's wrong with a good old fashioned map? I'm new in my current area but worked out a great ride between towns taking in back roads and bridleways. For the same start point and destination and using 'gravel ride' setting, Komoot's route included two frankly suicidal sections of the very busy A49!!

    27. Alan Stewart on

      I find Komoot very useful and easy to use, however it's not foolproof like the presenter suggests and has directed me down some very busy roads sometimes, but that happens rarely and it gets it right most of the time.

    32. soulassassin0g on

      I live by a riverbed that has a trail that follows it from point to point. At the North end it starts in the mountains and in the South end it starts in the beach. In other words I can chose to start in the mountains and end at the beach or vise versa. 15 miles, 30 round trip. Best trail ever imo.

    33. Cycling Boss on

      Look at the success of the American River Bike Trail in Northern California. The trail is paved, completely off the roadways, runs over 30 miles long, connects Granite Bay, Folsom, Rancho Cordova, and Sacramento. It is used for both regular work commuters and for those seeking increased fitness. To top it all of some of the views of the river are quite spectacular. For many this is your main planned route and only short offshoots are needed from there.

      https://youtu.be/2QWI4u_CAF0

    35. Steve H on

      As ever very informative. I had the Komoot app but didnt know the functionality of it nor the website for producing routes.

    37. KickAssets on

      Thanks for this. I am looking for the best app that I can plan a route
      for my bicycle rides….and record the ACTUAL route that I use for later
      use in a youtube video…and hopefully all off line for the case I am
      in areas without internet service. What is the best thing to get all
      this done? And hopefully for free lol. Is Strava the way? I don't
      care about stats etc. Just routes and history as I am very forgetful.

    38. Hanson Bracewell on

      Great session, thanks. Feedback on Komoot: A big draw back is is does not recalculate route if you take a detour. I took a different road on one section, and even after I was back on the planned route, it continued to ask me to do a u turn. It appears the only option is to restart the route from where you are. If this was fixed it would be great. Without it, it is not much use.

    43. Dtrain on

      Route 20 that goes through Morrisville NY where I went to high school has amazing roads with awesome climbing hills for miles!😃

    46. Eng Choon TAN on

      I will like to add in thigh size emphasis to your sharing

      Step 1 = MTB for less effort balancing (road conditions) and your sharing for less stress riding (traffic conditions)
      Step 2 = MTB with gear ratios that can hit 50kmh for accelerating at traffic lights and "duke.ing" with the traffic (bus, tram, … lane)

      Thighs build to balanced-optimal versus other parts of the body. For efficiency and health

    47. 1st Element Endurance on

      I live in Clevedon – I work in Bristol – the Komoot map shows two ofmy routes too and from work – another phrase that doesn't exist but should – is 'don't ride where you commute… by bike…'

    48. R. on

      I understand completely the point of riding next to fast moving traffic – here in Sussex, the A27 cycle path between Polegate and Lewes has recently been completed, but I simply would not cycle that road otherwise. It would have basically been suicide before the cycle path.

      Google Streetview is my saviour when planning cycle routes.

    49. Andy10r on

      I really really needed this !!!!! I've been so worried about setting out and using busy roads. Its really been putting me off so thank you so much.

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