If the map has long been the iniquitous tool for preparing your trip, this is no longer the case today, faced with the multitude of more or less connected solutions that we are offered.
The ideal is to combine everything to prepare a trip with small onions, both in terms of tourist attraction and driving.
Prepare your itinerary: à la carte advantage
A GPS allows us to go from point A to point B. Even if some motorcycle specialists offer specific features such as “winding roads”, this is not necessarily ideal when the road network is quite dense and that the points of interest are really away.
The simplest and most effective is to prepare in advance on a map on your computer or tablet, or with the help of a paper map. For the latter, there are two schools between IGN and Michelin.
1/200000 scalee is correct, because it allows to have a certain number of details on the environment (gradients, forest, rivers, size of the road, etc.) and a sufficient extent not to need ten maps . It is obviously necessary to avoid maps at 1/25000efar too precise for motorcycle use.
With a map, you can easily choose a route in the undergrowth, on local roads or on the contrary in the plain on beautiful departmental roads to connect the same two points. You can obviously favor mapping on a computer or tablet, which then allows you to transfer your route to a GPS via a GPX file.
Garmin offers one with BaseCamp for those who are very picky about choosing routes. You can obviously go through Google Maps without buying any application or GPS.
The limit of the applications is that there is often a limit of ten points to trace your route, which means that you are constrained in the length of the stage. The solution is to split it into small pieces.
GPS and apps: ideal on the road
We know TomTom or Garmin, which offer motorcycle GPS, that is to say with features specific to motorcycling such as the choice of winding roads. Some also allow you to take unpaved tracks, which can be useful if you ride a trail. Make sure it’s possible if it’s your desire, otherwise you’ll stay on the bitumen.
The essential is also to accept GPX formats, which is the most common format for transferring routes from a computer or other device.
To be guided but totally free, including through the desert, we can choose a system like Tripy, which is inspired by roadbooks to orient us. There is no cartography but a guide which can suffice with a little practice. You will not be lost if you are used to paper roadbooks.
The ideal scheme is to roughen with paper maps for a very broad view, to refine on your computer then to transfer the track to your GPS for the route.
There are also a whole bunch of offers to use ready-to-use roadbooks but if this is effective, it takes away the joy of preparing your itinerary before leaving. It’s another way to travel.
Anyway, as a precaution, double the GPS with a paper map if you don’t have enough to load it on the way. If the stage drags on, you’ll be happy to have a paper map to save you at the end of the day… if it’s not raining heavily.