Question 1

Which countries does RouteGems cover?

Accepted Answer

Routing and stop discovery currently cover the whole of Europe. You can plan any route with both ends on the European map from anywhere in the world, so planning a European trip from the US or Australia works fine. Routes outside Europe can't be planned yet; more regions are on the roadmap. Accounts are worldwide, and the free Weekender plan is available everywhere.

Question 2

How do I get started?

Accepted Answer

Create an account: Weekender is free, and the paid plans start with a 7-day free trial. Then either import a GPX, TCX or FIT you already have, or create a route from scratch: draw it point by point on the map, or type a start and end under By place. After that, add your stops and export.

Question 3

How do I import a GPX, TCX or FIT file?

Accepted Answer

Open the planner and use the Import control in the top bar (or the GPX tab in the Create panel), then choose your .gpx, .tcx or .fit file. Your track appears on the map ready for stops, and any stops already in the file arrive with it.

Question 4

How do I create a route from scratch?

Accepted Answer

In the Create panel pick Draw or By place. Draw drops a point wherever you click and routes between the points along the network for your bike type. Create route builds the route once you have two or more points, and Clear starts you over. By place plans between typed locations with autocomplete.

Question 5

What does classifying a route as road, gravel or MTB do?

Accepted Answer

It sets the riding profile: how edits and reroutes pick their way across the network, and the speed used for your ETA. You can change it any time under Routing options.

Question 6

Can I use miles instead of kilometres?

Accepted Answer

Yes, under Settings → Units. One switch flips every unit in the app together: distance (km ↔ mi), elevation (m ↔ ft), and the weather pane's temperature and wind (°C ↔ °F, km/h ↔ mph).

Question 7

Does RouteGems work on mobile?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The RouteGems app is on the App Store for iPhone and on Google Play for Android. Sign in with the same account you use on the website and your routes are there. In the app you can plan or import a route, find stops along it, export FIT or GPX or send it to Wahoo, and follow it in Ride mode, which shows how far it is to the next stop. Routes you've opened work without signal. To look around before signing up, tap Try the demo on the app's sign-in screen. The website works in a phone's browser too: the map fills the screen and the planner's panels open over it.

Question 8

What file types can I import?

Accepted Answer

GPX, TCX and FIT, up to 25 MB. Files exported from Strava, Komoot, OS Maps, Garmin Connect and most other tools work fine. We detect the format from the file contents, and course points in the file arrive as stops on your route. Where the file says what a point is, we keep that (water, café, campsite and so on). Where it doesn't, which is common for viewpoints and other scenic markers, the point arrives as a Point of interest and you can set the type yourself.

Question 9

Can I edit a route I imported?

Accepted Answer

Imported tracks are kept exactly as they came in. To reshape one, click “Edit this route” to derive draggable control points. After that you can drag the line, add via-points and reroute. (The first edit snaps to the road network, so it may shift slightly off the original GPS line.)

Question 10

Can routes use ferries, and can I avoid them?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Planned routes take ferry crossings where they make sense, shown as a dashed line with a boat marker. If you'd rather stay on land, turn on the Avoid ferries option under Routing options and the route detours instead.

Question 11

How do I add stops to my route?

Accepted Answer

Nothing is pre-selected, so start in the Add-a-stop panel by tapping the stop types you want. Matches appear on the map as you select them, and update when you change the search radius. The list follows your map view: zoom into a town to narrow it to what's visible. Selected facilities are inserted into your route as course points and exported with it. If you always want the same types lit, choose them once in Settings → Preferences → Default stop types.

Question 12

Which stop types can I search for, and what exactly does each include?

Accepted Answer

Water: drinking taps and fountains. Cafés & pubs: cafés, pubs, bars and distillery tasting rooms. Shops & bakeries: supermarkets, convenience and grocery stores, greengrocers, post offices (often the village shop), bakeries and patisseries. Petrol stations: forecourt shops, for snacks, water and loos at all hours. Fast food: takeaways and chains. Ice cream: gelaterias, ice-cream shops, and cafés whose main trade is ice cream (very important for cyclists). Hotels & campsites: hotels, guest houses, hostels and campsites. Toilets: public toilets. Bike shops: shops and repair. First aid: pharmacies and medical-supply shops.

Question 13

What do the routing options actually do?

Accepted Answer

Each option re-weights the roads the planner may choose. When you combine them, drag to set priority; the first matters most. Avoid major roads keeps you off trunk and primary roads but still uses B-roads (it's the traffic-avoidance option). Prefer quiet roads goes further and favours the smallest lanes even over B-roads, which is slower and twistier but prettier. Minimise turns sticks to through-roads for simpler navigation. Shortest prioritises pure distance, which often means busier roads. Minimise elevation trades extra distance to dodge climbs. Avoid ferries detours around ferry and car-shuttle crossings. Prefer signed cycle routes steers onto EuroVelo, the National Cycle Network and regional signed routes. With nothing selected, the planner already picks the fastest sensible ride for your bike type on cycle-friendly roads.

Question 14

What does the search radius do?

Accepted Answer

It sets how far off your route we look for facilities, from 500 m up to 5 km. A wider radius finds more options but adds detour distance.

Question 15

Will my head unit warn me about a stop, and what does the note do?

Accepted Answer

Every stop you add exports as a course point in the FIT file and a waypoint in the GPX, so a head unit that alerts on course points warns you as you get close. Whether yours does is down to its own course-point setting. The 📝 button adds a note to a stop; the note travels with the stop and becomes the waypoint description on GPX exports.

Question 16

Can I print my ride, or save it as a PDF?

Accepted Answer

Yes. In the planner, open Export and choose Export File. Your browser's print dialog opens on a ride sheet: a map of the route with its stops marked, the elevation profile, and the stop list with when you reach each one, its opening hours and your notes. Choose Save as PDF to keep a file, or print it for the bar bag. On Rider and Ultra the sheet also carries the weather along the ride, for the start time and speed the weather pane is set to.

Question 17

Why does my imported route have no elevation profile, and will it get one?

Accepted Answer

Because the file had none. Plenty of tools, OS Maps among them, export a route as bare coordinates with no heights attached. Without heights there is no profile, no climb total, and nothing for your head unit to show you about the climbs ahead. So when an imported file carries no heights of its own, we work them out from the same elevation data we use for routes you draw here. The profile appears shortly after the import finishes, which can take a moment on a long route. If the file does carry heights, we keep them exactly as they are and never replace them with ours.

Question 18

Why do some stops move onto the route when I export?

Accepted Answer

A stop within about 100 m of your route is placed on the line itself when you export. Head units match a course point to the nearest point of the course and silently drop one that sits too far off, so a café just off the road has to be on the line to survive the trip to your device. Anything further out, such as a viewpoint over a loch or a café in the next village, keeps its real position in GPX exports, because its position is the reason you added it. Your head unit may not show those, but every map and planner that reads the file will put them in the right place.

Question 19

What is the suggested stop?

Accepted Answer

RouteGems looks for the longest stretch of your route with nothing planned and suggests facilities there. On a long route, that's the gap you'd otherwise discover at 180 km with an empty bottle.

Question 20

How does the ride-day weather work?

Accepted Answer

On the Rider and Ultra plans, the weather pane forecasts conditions along your route for the time you'll reach each point. Pick the ride day and a start time (in 15-minute steps) and set your speed, and it shows temperature, rain, wind and gusts across the whole ride, with headwind sections highlighted. It also shows the UV index, the air quality and when it gets dark on your ride. Forecast data comes from Open-Meteo, and like any forecast it can be wrong.

Question 21

What do the rain and wind map layers show?

Accepted Answer

On the Rider and Ultra plans, forecast rain paints the map where precipitation is expected; stronger blue means heavier, more likely rain. The wind layer animates the forecast flow so you can see its direction at a glance. Both stay on the map after you close the weather pane (handy on a phone) until you switch them off.

Question 22

How does the ride playback work?

Accepted Answer

With a rain or wind layer on, press play (or drag the timeline) to watch the forecast change through your ride. The steps scale to the ride length, from 15 minutes for an afternoon loop up to a couple of hours for a monster day out. A rider marker moves along the route to show where you should be at each moment, based on your riding speed.

Question 23

How do I send a route straight to my Wahoo?

Accepted Answer

Connect once, then it's one click. In Settings, open Connected apps and choose Connect next to Wahoo. You approve the link on Wahoo's own sign-in (we never see your Wahoo password). After that, any route's Export menu in the planner has a Send to Wahoo option. The route lands in your Wahoo account with your stops included, and the ELEMNT companion app syncs it to your head unit, usually within moments. It works on every plan; on the free plan you'll need a verified email first, as with file exports.

Question 24

I sent a route to Wahoo but it isn't on my ELEMNT

Accepted Answer

First check the route reached your Wahoo account: open the ELEMNT companion app and pull to refresh the routes list. The head unit syncs from the app, so the phone has to sync first. If the send itself failed in RouteGems, the Export menu shows why. If the connection has expired or been revoked on Wahoo's side, disconnect and reconnect under Settings → Connected apps.

Question 25

How do I disconnect Wahoo, and what happens to routes I've already sent?

Accepted Answer

Settings → Connected apps → Disconnect. We delete our stored connection immediately. Routes you've already sent stay in your Wahoo account. They're yours, exactly as if you'd imported the files by hand.

Question 26

How do I get my route onto my cycle computer?

Accepted Answer

For Garmin, go through Garmin Connect: export FIT or GPX, import it as a course, then Send to Device. Garmin Connect builds the course, timed at the pace you set in its pace calculator, and every stop arrives as a course point. Copying our FIT straight onto the device over USB doesn't work: a Garmin unit wants the timings Garmin Connect adds, so import it there first. For Wahoo, export either, since the Wahoo app imports FIT routes as well as GPX. For Hammerhead Karoo, export GPX: the Karoo takes FIT for workouts but rejects routes sent as FIT. For COROS and most other head units, FIT works and GPX is the safe fallback if your device or app refuses it.

Question 27

Should I use GPX or FIT?

Accepted Answer

FIT is the richer file, on Garmin and elsewhere. It began as Garmin's format and is still their native one, but it has become the format head units share. Your stops arrive as typed course points with their own icons, and the file carries the route's total climb and descent, so the device can show you what is coming before you set off. Garmin takes it through Garmin Connect, Wahoo's app imports it, and most other head units take it too. Every platform reads GPX without exception, so it is the right choice for a Hammerhead Karoo (which rejects routes sent as FIT), or anywhere a device or app turns a FIT file down; stops travel as waypoints.

Question 28

How is the ride time estimated?

Accepted Answer

From your riding speed, with the route's climbing added. Set your speed in Settings: the time estimate, and the weather forecast on the paid plans, start from it. The weather pane has its own speed slider for trying a faster or slower day without changing the setting.

Question 29

What's the difference between Rider and Ultra?

Accepted Answer

Rider is the complete planner: create, import and modify routes, every stop type, the advanced finder, projects, sharing, every export format, and the ride-day weather timed to when you'll be there. Ultra adds Ask RouteGems: describe a ride and it builds the route, whether that's a loop, an A-to-B, or a named trail like a EuroVelo route followed properly end to end. It can split a tour into a day-by-day project, and it picks stops around your climbs, your arrival times and whether places will be open when you get there.

Question 30

How does the free trial work?

Accepted Answer

The paid plans, Rider and Ultra, start with a 7-day free trial. Use everything, and if you cancel before it ends you won't be charged. If you keep it, the subscription starts automatically. For a plan bought on the website we email you a reminder a few days before that happens; a trial started in the app is run by Apple or Google.

Question 31

How do I cancel my subscription?

Accepted Answer

That depends on where you bought it. A plan bought on the website is managed under Account → Manage billing, which opens the billing portal: there you can cancel, switch plans or update your card. A plan bought in the app is billed by Apple or Google, so you cancel it with them, in your Apple account's Subscriptions settings or in Google Play under Payments & subscriptions. The Manage subscription button on the app's Plans screen takes you there, and deleting the app doesn't cancel the plan. Refunds for an app purchase come from Apple or Google too. Cancel during the trial and you pay nothing (in the app, cancel at least a day before the trial or period ends); cancel later and your plan runs to the end of the period you've paid for.

Question 32

How does route sharing work?

Accepted Answer

Use Share to copy a public link to your route. Anyone with the link can view it without an account, and they get the full stop finder and weather panel: they can light up stop types, browse what's along the route and open Street View. They can't change your route. Add to route is greyed out until they take a copy, and the weather forecast is the route owner's (a copy gives them their own). You control whether new routes are public by default in Settings → Privacy.

Question 33

How do I plan a multi-day trip?

Accepted Answer

Group routes into a project, one route per day. A project keeps the days in order with each day's distance and climbing, so a week-long tour reads as one plan.

Question 34

How do I change my password?

Accepted Answer

Settings → Profile → Change password. You'll need your current password. Once it's changed, every other device is signed out (the one you changed it on stays signed in), and we email you to say it happened. If that email arrives and it wasn't you, use Forgot password on the sign-in page straight away.

Question 35

How do I change my email address?

Accepted Answer

Settings → Profile → Change email, with your password. Your current address has to be verified first. We send a confirmation link to the new address and a heads-up to the old one, and nothing changes until you open that link (it's valid for 24 hours). Until then you keep signing in with the old address. Once you've clicked it, the new address is your sign-in, and it counts as verified.

Question 36

How do I delete my account?

Accepted Answer

Settings → Privacy & sharing → Delete my account, and type your email address to confirm. Everything linked to you (routes, stops, projects, saved settings) is erased at once, and we email a confirmation to the address that was deleted. Before you confirm we ask why you're leaving. Answering is optional, and the answer is kept with nothing that identifies you. On a paid plan, cancel it first: under Account → Manage billing if you bought it on the website, or with Apple or Google if you bought it in the app. The delete button will tell you if it's still live. Want a copy first? Download my data is on the same page.

Question 37

Who can see my routes?

Accepted Answer

Only people you give the link to. Routes aren't listed publicly or indexed. You can also choose whether your name appears on shared routes in Settings → Privacy & sharing.

Question 38

Why won't my GPX file upload?

Accepted Answer

Check the file is a .gpx, .tcx or .fit and under 25 MB. Very large activity files (lots of trackpoints) can take a moment. If it still fails, re-export it from the source app and try again.

Question 39

Why did the stop finder find nothing?

Accepted Answer

Usually the radius is too tight for a remote area, so widen it (up to 5 km) and search again. Facility data comes from OpenStreetMap, so places nobody has mapped yet can come back empty. If a stop you know exists is missing, it probably isn't mapped yet.

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