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

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

A new web-based bike route planner that prioritizes official cycling trails is earning praise for producing scenic, low-traffic routes that often outperform existing tools, especially for touring and bikepacking in Europe. Users highlight strengths like GPX export and thoughtful use of OpenStreetMap and GraphHopper, while also pointing out early-stage issues such as poor mobile usability, limited geographic coverage (initially Europe-only, later expanded to North America), and missing features like address search and better error handling. The project has also prompted broader comparisons with established services like cycle.travel, RideWithGPS, Komoot, and BRouter, raising recurring themes around pricing models, data quality, and how best to balance safety, surface quality, and flexibility in bike routing.

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.