How to use a GPX file on your satnav or phone
A GPX file is a plain text file of map coordinates. Every route on Touring HQ downloads as one. Here is how to get it onto your bike without your satnav quietly sending you another way.
Track or route: the one thing to get right
A GPX file can hold two different things, and devices treat them differently.
- A track is a line of hundreds or thousands of points that follows the road exactly. Your device draws it and you follow it. Nothing is recalculated.
- A route is a short list of points. Your device works out the roads between them itself, using its own map and settings. Two devices can turn the same route into two different rides.
Our files contain a track, plus named waypoints for the places along the way. Load the track if you want to ride exactly the roads on our map.
Getting the file onto a dedicated satnav
Most motorcycle satnavs from Garmin and TomTom can import a GPX file, either from a computer over USB, through the maker's desktop or phone app, or from a memory card. The menus differ from model to model and change with updates, so check your device's manual for the exact steps.
When you import, look for an option to keep the file as a track, or to follow the track rather than calculate a new route. If your device can only turn a track into a route, set it to the shortest route with motorways avoided, then compare its line with ours on the map before you ride.
Using a phone app
Many navigation and mapping apps for phones can open a GPX file and draw it as a line on the map. Download the file on your phone, then open it with the app, or import it through the app's own import option. Again, check the app's help pages for how it treats tracks and routes.
- Download the maps for the area before you go. Phone signal drops out in the Highlands, mid Wales and the Alps.
- A phone in direct sun on a handlebar mount can overheat and dim the screen. Keep a charger running.
Before you ride
- Open the file on a computer map first and check it looks like the route page.
- Each route page says where its line comes from: the official route as mapped on OpenStreetMap, or plotted by us. We have not ridden them all yet. Roads close and passes shut for snow, so check for closures on the day.
- Plan fuel stops with our fuel range calculator, especially on long single-track sections.