How to plan a curvy motorcycle route (that's actually good to ride)

Most bad rides were planned badly, not ridden badly. The road was fine — there was just 90 minutes of highway to reach it, no fuel where you needed it, and everyone was flat by three o’clock.

Here is a method that fixes that. It takes about ten minutes and works in any decent motorcycle planner.

Step 1: decide the day, not the distance

Start with two numbers: when you leave and when you want to be home. Everything else follows.

The mistake is planning in kilometres. A 250-kilometre day on main roads is a comfortable morning. A 250-kilometre day on genuinely curvy back roads, with photos and coffee, is a full day out — you will average far below the speed limits because the roads are the point.

Rough planning figures for a full-day ride, allowing for stops:

Riding style	Achievable in 6 hours out
Highway and main roads	350–450 km
Mixed, some good roads	250–320 km
Properly curvy, back roads	150–230 km

Use time as the input and let distance be the output. Good planners let you plan this way directly.

Step 2: place anchors, not a route

Do not draw the route. Place the handful of points the day is built around, and let the router find the roads.

A good day ride has three or four:

• Coffee, about an hour in. Far enough that you have warmed up and want to stop; not so far that it breaks the rhythm.
• A destination with a point. A lookout, a pass, a coastal stretch, a bakery with a reputation. A ride with no destination feels aimless, even when the roads are excellent.
• Lunch, somewhere with parking you can see. Riders relax more when the bikes are in view from the table. It is a small thing that changes the mood of a stop.
• Fuel, before you need it. Placed deliberately, so the ride is built around the stop rather than interrupted by it.

Four anchors is usually all a full day needs. The router fills the gaps with far better roads than you would pick by hand, because it can see the whole network.

Step 3: dial the curviness

Set the router to prefer curvy roads, then resist the urge to max it out.

At absolute maximum, routers hunt for bend density above all else, which brings:

• Single-lane roads with blind crests.
• Unsealed sections, unless surface is explicitly constrained.
• Farmyards, gates and dead-end-ish lanes.
• An average speed that turns your three-hour loop into five.

One notch below maximum is where most riders land: proper roads, plenty of bends, enough flow to keep a rhythm. If you want the detail on what these settings are actually doing, we wrote up how curviness is scored.

Then set your vehicle. A sports tourer, a big adventure bike and a scooter should not be handed the same roads, and the surface tolerance that follows from the vehicle is what stops a road bike being sent down 12 kilometres of gravel.

Step 4: check three things before you save

This is the step everyone skips and then regrets.

Unsealed percentage. If the route includes gravel, know it now. Some riders want it; a road bike on sports tyres in the wet does not. A good planner tells you the unsealed share of the route before you leave. If it is a surprise on the day, read this first.

Fuel range. Look at the longest gap between fuel stops and compare it to your realistic range — not your tank size. Curvy riding uses noticeably more fuel per kilometre than cruising, and remote fuel keeps country hours. The fuel planning guide has the maths.

Elevation and time. A profile full of climbs is a slower and more tiring ride than the flat equivalent. If the estimated time is at the edge of your day, cut an anchor now rather than cutting a corner at 5pm.

Step 5: make it a loop

Wherever possible, come back a different way. Same hours, twice the road, and the return leg stays interesting instead of being an obligation.

If you have a season of recorded rides, this is where avoid-visited routing earns its keep — ask for a route that skips roads you have already done, and the loop is built out of tarmac you have never turned onto.

Step 6: save it properly

Save the route in the app and, if it matters, export a GPX. Two reasons: a copy that survives your phone, and a route you can hand to riders using different apps. GPX is the portable format and takes ten seconds.

If you are riding with people, share the route the night before so everyone arrives with the same plan, the same stops and the same idea of what time home means. Group ride planning is its own skill.

The mistakes that ruin good routes

Starting with highway. Ninety minutes of dual carriageway to reach the good stuff sets the tone for the day. Accept a later start on better roads instead.

One enormous leg without a stop. Concentration on demanding roads fades after about ninety minutes. Break it whether or not anyone asks.

No slack. Plan to be home an hour before you need to be. Roadworks, a flat, a long lunch, a mate’s chain adjustment — the day will eat it.

Ignoring the direction. Many roads are better one way than the other. If you have a favourite, build the loop so you take it in the good direction, with the sun behind you rather than in your visor at 4pm.

Planning for the fastest rider. In a group, the pace is set by the least experienced person there, and the route should be too.

The shortcut

If all of the above sounds like more work than you want on a Sunday morning, use Surprise Me: give it a start point and a duration, and it builds the loop — curvy roads, biased away from what you have already ridden — with anchors you can lock, swap or re-roll. It is the same method, automated.