Show HN: Bike route planner that follows almost only official bike trails

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall reception & use cases

  • Many cyclists are enthusiastic; several report that routes closely match their own carefully chosen commuting, touring, or bikepacking routes.
  • Especially appreciated for long-distance touring and for regions with dense, high-quality European cycling networks.
  • Some note it’s a good complement to generalists like Komoot, RideWithGPS, or Google Maps, which often ignore official trails or suggest unsafe roads.

Routing approach & comparisons

  • Core differentiator: strong preference for official/waymarked bike routes.
  • Some say this outperforms BRouter or other tools on specific European routes (e.g., Italian and Swedish examples).
  • Others warn that “official” routes can be poor, especially in parts of North America; they prefer quiet roads or gravel over signed but dangerous highways.
  • Discussion of alternative planners: cycle.travel, BRouter, RideWithGPS, Strava heatmaps, Cyclestreets, etc., each with different strengths (quiet roads, unpaved highlighting, heatmaps).

UI/UX and mobile experience

  • Desktop experience is generally positive; GPX export for bike computers is appreciated.
  • Mobile web is widely described as “broken” or very awkward: full-screen menu, unclear close controls, hard to add points, severe zoom issues.
  • Debate over planning on desktop vs phone; many tourers and everyday riders insist mobile planning and mid-ride rerouting are essential.

Coverage & data limitations

  • Initially Europe-only; US/Canada produced errors with no clear feedback. Later the author added better messaging and then announced North America support.
  • Some confusion and frustration around silent failures when routing outside supported regions.

Feature requests & behavior

  • Frequent asks: address search for start/destination, more flexible waypoint editing (dragging, forcing specific paths), surface/elevation visualization, color-coded way types, route length constraints, circular-route suggestions, printing/print CSS, user ratings for segments.
  • Desire for options such as “prefer off-road,” risk tolerance for busy roads, and better indication of minor back roads at low zoom levels.

Technical & ecosystem notes

  • Built on Graphhopper; thread dives into memory use, CH/LM profiles, OSM relation handling, and vector-tile hosting.
  • Some interest in open-sourcing and third-party API use, but backend is currently just Graphhopper with customizations.
  • Tangential but detailed discussion of costs and subscription pricing for a large-scale service like RideWithGPS, illustrating infrastructure and map-licensing burdens.