Free bike GPS route planner: how to plan a ride in 5 minutes
A good bike GPS route planner needs no software, no account and no half hour of settings. In the VéloCore web planner, a complete route takes five minutes: start and finish, a profile suited to your bike, a glance at the elevation, then the GPX export to your bike computer or the app. Here is the method, stopwatch in hand.
Bike GPS route planner: what it has to do well
Any online map can join two points. A planner built for cycling picks the passages that suit the way you ride, shows what lies ahead and puts the route back where you ride it. Five criteria make the difference.
- A route per profile: the same trip is a different ride on a road bike, a gravel bike or an e-bike. Ten profiles: Safe, Fast, Touring, Flat, Sporty, Gravel, Forest & trails, E-bike optimised, Cycle routes and Max climb.
- A route you correct by hand: drag the line to force a passage, move a point, undo, reverse the direction.
- The climbing before you leave: interactive elevation profile, distance, estimated time, ascent and descent, share of cycle paths, quiet roads, tracks and main roads.
- The useful services: drinking water, cafés, toilets, repair shops, e-bike charging points, viewpoints, a dozen categories of points of interest around the visible area.
- A ride that travels: one-click GPX export to your GPS, and the same route in the cockpit of the iPhone and Android app, with turn-by-turn navigation.
The VéloCore planner ticks those five boxes in the browser, with nothing to install, and everything used for plotting and exporting is free.
Plan a bike GPS route in 5 minutes: the method, stopwatch in hand
Open the planner, place your starting point and follow the steps. The timings below are for a classic 40 to 60 km ride.
Minute 1: start and finish. Type a town or an address in the A and B fields, or double-click on the map. The route appears within seconds, with distance and estimated time.
Minute 2: the profile. Click the profile that matches the bike and the mood of the day. Safe favours cycle paths and quiet streets; Fast takes the most direct line; Gravel and Forest & trails look for tracks; Flat avoids the hills, Max climb collects them.
Minute 3: the adjustments. A climb to avoid, a café not to miss: drag the line onto the passage you want, and it becomes a route point. The last move can be undone, and “Reverse direction” tests the loop the other way round.
Minute 4: the check. Hover over the elevation profile: the matching point lights up on the map, so you know where the hill hides. The summary gives distance, time, ascent and descent, and “Route character” the share of cycle paths, quiet streets, tracks and main roads. Tick “Drinking water” for the breaks.
Minute 5: the export. “Export as GPX” downloads the file, with start, finish, stages and elevation, ready for most bike computers and GPS apps. With an account, “Save” keeps the route in My routes and “Start this ride” sends it to the app's cockpit.
- Start and finish by address or double-click, a profile suited to the bike, route recalculated at once.
- Drag the line to force a passage; undo, move, reverse.
- Elevation profile, summary, route character, water points, then GPX export.
Bike GPS and ride planning: three shortcuts to leave even faster
No destination in mind, or no wish to place points? The planner offers other ways to get a route in under a minute.
- The loop generator: set the start zone, a distance from 5 to 180 km and a surface (road, mixed, gravel, trails, greenways, safe). VéloCore draws several real loops, with no out-and-back, each with distance, climb and time.
- Drawing with the mouse: turn on “Draw with the mouse” and sketch your ride in one stroke, or several. The planner snaps the stroke to the roads of the chosen profile.
- The official routes: the panel shows EuroVelo cycle routes, greenways and RAVeL, node networks and GR trails, from OpenStreetMap. Zoom in, click a route: it becomes your itinerary.
- Describing the ride in one sentence: “40 easy km towards Namur, as a loop” is enough to get suggestions. This AI planning is part of VéloCore Premium (14-day trial via the app); without it, a local keyword mode takes over.
From the planner to the bike GPS: take the route everywhere
The GPX file is the common language of bike GPS units. The planner's file holds the full track with elevation, plus waypoints for the start, the finish and each stage. Copy it to your bike computer or import it into your usual app; details in our article on GPX files for cycling.
With a free VéloCore account, a route saved on the web appears in the iPhone and Android app: the cockpit loads it, guides you turn by turn and brings you back on track if you stray. “Start this ride” even sends it to the phone's cockpit in real time. The free plan keeps five routes; Premium makes them unlimited and adds offline maps. Details on the features page.
The mistakes that cost time with a bike route planner
- Placing too many points: three or four forced passages are enough. Beyond that, the route loses the logic of the profile. Let the engine choose, correct only where it is wrong.
- Choosing the profile after the route: every profile change recalculates everything. Decide the type of ride first, then adjust.
- Ignoring the route character: a Fast profile may use a main road, a Gravel profile a waterlogged track. The four bars of “Route character” tell you at a glance what you will ride.
- Forgetting the direction: a loop is nicer one way than the other, for instance the steep hill going up rather than down on gravel. “Reverse direction” costs one click.
Frequently asked questions about the bike route planner
Is the VéloCore bike GPS route planner really free?
Yes. Routing from A to B, the ten profiles, the loop generator, drawing with the mouse, points of interest, the elevation profile and the GPX export are free, in the browser, without an account. A free account adds five saved routes; Premium brings unlimited routes, AI planning and offline maps.
Do I need an account to plan and export a bike GPS route?
No. You can open the planner, plot, adjust and download the GPX file without signing in. The free account is there to save the route in “My routes”, find it again in the iPhone or Android app and send it to the cockpit with “Start this ride”.
How do I send the route to my bike GPS or my phone?
For a bike computer, click “Export as GPX” and copy the file to the device or import it into its app. For the phone, save the route with your account: it appears in the VéloCore app, ready for turn-by-turn navigation, and “Start this ride” sends it to the cockpit in real time.
Five minutes, and the route is ready
Ten profiles, loop generator, drawing with the mouse, elevation profile and GPX export: everything is free in the web planner.