ViewRanger and the 20mile radius

Proper cycle touring has always relied heavily on Ordnance Survey maps. It is super fun to read a detailed map while out cycling. Now, the availability of GPS technology on mobile phones has added a whole new dimension to this.As a natural progression from what we had been doing all along, we have decided to make one of our objectives to cycle every road within a 20 mile radius of Moy.

This includes all roads on the 1:50000 OS maps including reasonable 'minor untarred roads', which means really everything but excluding some dead ends and private roads. In addition we occasionally go offroad on to forest tracks and other paths.

We have estimated that it will take two and a half years based on 20 miles of new road every Sunday to cover the estimated 2760 miles of road within our area!

Having started in October 2011, we have already made good progress, and most the routes we have cycled are viewable from the Routes link to the left.

Click here for the cycling radius map. You can zoom in and change to google or OS maps from the drop down menu

We use the Viewranger app as it is the only one which uses OS maps, and all the routes can be viewed at once on a smartphone which when used with a bike mount shows instantly which roads have been cycled and which haven't.

So for the benefit of route leaders or anyone wanting to follow our progress here's the procedure for getting the set up;

. Register and log in to the Viewranger website

. Download the app to whichever smartphone (for iphone its £15 which includes 1000 credits, for other phones its free but you need to purchase credits)

. Download the 20 miles radius

. Download the digital tiles from the 1:50000 OSNI maps to fill the circle, about 12 will do it

. Download the routes listed below.

The result on the smartphone is simply brilliant. All the routes are shown at once and can be set to different colours in 'properties', but also be sure to 'lock' each route to prevent accidental adjustment. It takes a while to become familiar with this app but well worth persevering with it.

Having this information in front of you while cycling along is magic, and there's the added benefit of being able to take hands free calls, keep and eye on emails and even the bidding on ebay!