Ever wanted to do your own GPS art, and write a message, or draw a picture, out there in the rear world, simply by riding your bike? And then you discovered how difficult it is to actually match that picture to the roads and paths.
Now you have the WillCycle GPS Art Generator to make that FAR easier! How does it work? Simply upload your line-drawing (which could be made up of text – perfect for that wedding proposal, or happy birthday wish) and the WillCycle GPS Art Generator will try and match your image to the nearest roads, and cycle tracks. Finally, download the GPX, and go cycle the route!
How it works
Your image will be overlaid on the map. The bigger an area your picture (and therefore your eventual) route will cover, the closer to the lines of the original image the final route will be. The smaller the area of the route, the more jiggly and inaccurate the route will be.
The tool has three steps. In Step 1 you upload your drawing. In Step 2 you position that drawing over a real map, size it to cover the area you want to ride, and click waypoints on the map to trace your route. In Step 3 the plugin routes between each pair of waypoints along real cycling paths using BRouter, a cycling-optimised routing engine, and produces a GPX file you can import into any GPS app or device.
The routing happens segment by segment: it routes from point 1 to point 2, then from point 2 to point 3, and so on, honouring every point you placed in the exact order you placed them. If a specific segment cannot be routed (for example, there is no cycle path nearby), that segment is skipped and a warning is shown, but the rest of the route is still generated.
Upload your line drawing
Upload any line drawing — it will be overlaid on a real map so you can trace your route by clicking. The plugin tries to match your clicks to the nearest real UK cycling routes. Max 1 MB.
Drop image here, or browse
PNG · JPG · GIF · WebP · Max 1 MB
Your drawing
Trace your route on the map
Your GPS art cycling route
🚴 Import into Strava, Garmin Connect, Komoot, or RideWithGPS. Routed by BRouter + OpenStreetMap.
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Some gotchas
No, it will never exactly match your image. Very obviously, that’s because where you can cycle has physical limitations. Also, it might route you up a one-way street. Should that happen, please just walk your bike (if you can). If you get fined, or worse, for being a salmon, that’s entirely on you.
Also, the more points you click, the more accurate your final GPX will reflect the original image, but the longer it will take to generate the route.
You have two free goes, but if you wanted to do more GPS art with this tool, simply sign up to become a WillCycler. You get serious value, and it’s just 7p per day! Now that’s cheap!