Underwhelmed by the Route Library

[David Rudgley]

This is not a criticism, more like a post to try and get an understanding of why there's not a great quantity of routes in the UK posted in the route library.

For example, my home county of Norfolk, I appreciate we don't have many challenging mountains or hills to transverse, but we do have areas of outstanding beauty such as the Norfolk broads and the North Norfolk Coast.

There is one route that starts and ends in Norfolk and then a few routes that cross into Norfolk, and then one route that goes from North Norfolk to Middlesborough nearly 230 miles away, completely pointless.

Also, about four routes within Wales Snowdonia, the part of the UK with some of the best roads and all the library can manage is four routes with a few others just passing through.

I know what the standard response is likely going to be 'Well why don't you become a Routexpert then'.

I have looked twice to becoming a Routexpert and every time I read the Routexpert manual I come away with a feeling of what's the point?

I could provide hundreds of great routes across the UK, but I would need to provide everyone with a full detailed description (who reads them?) along with plotting stops, hazards, view points etc.

I would suspect that the real reason there isn't that many routes is simply because there are not enough Routexperts because like me it looks like too much work for what should be a simple task.

Maybe a simpler approach could be that route experts could submit routes and members give them a try and give them a star rating, this might provide a better experience and most importantly provide more routes to choose from.

I consider myself a MRA power user, I have read the RE manual many times, I watch the training videos and plot my own routes for my touring group with successful outcomes. I understand the technicalities of Tracks, Routes, online, off-line etc. Unfortunately The MRA Library is the last place I look for route ideas.

[Con Hennekens]

RX routes come with a certain standard on quality and information, to keep them standing out from "just anybody's routes". If you don't want to become RouteXpert yourself, that's understandable, but maybe you can donate routes to one of the existing RXs, so they can enhance them to be proper RX routes.

Another option is to place your own personal route library embedded on your own webpage.