Useful app for finding twisty roads

[AnTyx]

Yeah, I know, plenty of apps have tried to do it. But I tried this one today, and it actually came up with a novel and interesting route!

https://calimoto.com/en

They have an algorithm that, I guess, searches the local Google Maps cache based on curvatures. You can set your destination, or set a number of kilometers in a loop from your current location, and it will auto-generate a curvy, mostly back-roads route there. Then you can do live navigation and tracking along that route, including with offline maps.

The downsides:

1) You get the first map, of your area (the Baltics in my case) free with the app - and others can get pricey. It's something like $5 per week for another area, although if you buy an annual subscription, you get everything for $40. But I suppose it's not bad for a use case where you mostly ride around your home, and spend a bit of money on that rare road trip.

2) It doesn't completely know how to distinguish between sealed back roads, and gravel ones. On my ~200km route today, it included a really awkward little loop in one place, doubling back on itself via an unsealed graded road - not impassable on a road bike, but certainly not fun. Its preference for curves also means it sometimes makes weird navigation choices, like telling me to go down a turnoff from a main road just to turn around and get back on again, or to go around a busy traffic circle instead of an overpass directly across it.

3) Like any navigation app, especially one that you would use with audio and the phone's screen off, it needs to be excluded from your phone's Battery Optimization in settings, or it will just get silently force-closed by the system without you knowing it.

But hey, for what the basic free app gives you, it's a really interesting discovery tool.

[Tomkat]

www.kurviger.de also does this, though I preferred it in its former life as motoplaner where it was good for planning longer trips when Google maps ran out of the allowed number of waypoints (10). On the bike I have found that if I want a twisty road I can just set the satnav to avoid motorways and major roads, it'll then take you down the little roads and back streets.

[AnTyx]

Originally Posted by Reso1utionS

How accurate is it? How often are routes updated?

The route is automatically generated for you every time you run it with given parameters. I think it uses Google Maps as a data source, so should be pretty up-to-date.

[AnTyx]

Originally Posted by Tomkat

On the bike I have found that if I want a twisty road I can just set the satnav to avoid motorways and major roads, it'll then take you down the little roads and back streets.

Yup, that's a reasonable approach for an A-to-B trip. What I like about calimoto is that it can give me a loop with a given length, say from my work to my home the long way around.

[motoreiter]

Originally Posted by Tomkat

On the bike I have found that if I want a twisty road I can just set the satnav to avoid motorways and major roads, it'll then take you down the little roads and back streets.

Yeah, I'm generally happy putting the GPS on to "shortest route" rather than "quickest route", have had some really interesting and unexpected rides like that...

[Helen98]

Wow, I didn't know "there's an app for that"! I will have to try this one out. (will my phone bare 1 more app? )

[Surfy]

Thank you for the tip! The routes i did discovered with it.

Very scenic, but it adds too a lot of KM and hours to the bill.

Surfy