This is how a route comes together in the TourKit Planner, from an empty map to a file on your bike computer. The video runs in real time, in under two minutes, and every step is written out below if you would rather read.
The ride in it starts in Settle, in the Yorkshire Dales.
1. Find your start
Type a town, a postcode or coordinates into the search at the top of the sidebar, then pick a result. Choose Route from here, and your ride starts there.
2. Add a finish
Drag the map to bring your ride into view, and scroll to zoom in or out. Then click the map where you want to finish. The route follows the roads: Settle to Kettlewell comes out at 26.9 km.
3. Shape the route
Hover the line, click to drop a point on it, and drag that point to the roads you want. Pulled north through Arncliffe, the same ride becomes 40.4 km.
Changed your mind? Undo and Redo are at the top of the map.
4. Choose how you ride
Routing sets your activity and the route style. Fastest takes the quickest roads. Quiet favours roads with less traffic, and the route redraws as you change it.
5. Read the route
Distance, ride time and climbing sit under the map, and every climb is marked on the profile. Hover the profile to find that point on the map, with its gradient and its surface.
6. Save it and take it with you
Save names the route and keeps it in your Routes. It stays private until you share it. Export gives you a GPX or FIT file for your bike computer.
7. No route in mind?
Set a start, choose Loop route, and give a distance and a direction. TourKit plans a loop that brings you back to your start: 50 km asked for, 50.0 km in the video. It aims at the distance you give, and a loop can come back a few kilometres long or short; ask again, or drag a point, until it fits.
Next
The second tutorial plans a 600 km brevet, splits it into two days and works out when you reach each control: Plan a 600 km brevet and pace it to its controls.
Try it free at tourk.it
Recorded in real time in the TourKit Planner, on a demo account. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Heights in England: © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2022, Open Government Licence v3.0; elsewhere Copernicus DEM GLO-30, © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018, provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA.