Sharing Routes Using That Internet Thingie

When I started in with my GPS I had a plan to record rides and upload them to Google Earth to share with others. For a variety of reasons, mainly that the damn thing would drop out under trees or just randomly, this didn't work all that great. The Garmin ETrex Vista is better for following routes than creating them. There are a number of websites which allow you to create routes and share them with your friends (or your enemies, up to you). Here's a quick review:

www.gmap-pedometer.com
This is a basic tool which allows you to double click on route points on Google Maps and it traces your progress. There are mileage markers, an elevation profile and map, satellite, hybrid (map overlaid on satellite view) and topographic views. You save the route and Google gives you a link to it. On the downside, if you aren't using Explorer on XP then kooky things can happen. Also, lockups are not unusual. This basic tool is what lies beneath every other one I've found except one.

www.toporoute.com
Very new, and will probably improve. This is a frontend for gmap-pedometer which adds a really cool feature, "Follow Road". While this is turned on you just click points along the route you are recording and the program fills in the interim points. On the basic pedometer, it's purely "connect the dots". Downside: this feature does occasional screwy things, you'll know when you see it. Ironically, the "topo" view isn't there!

www.mapmyride.com
This is probably the oldest frontend for the pedometer and has the most features (including "Follow Roads") and routes . You'll find thousands of rides in the database. Downside: very commercial, map is somewhat small because of all the extraneous stuff on the screen.

www.bikely.com
Fairly new and quite international, and necessary if you're going to be doing brevets in the San Diego area. Downside: not that many routes saved (as yet, that'll change) and you must get a free account to make any significant use of it.

www.runningmap.com
Obviously made for the runner, the only one not using Google. Last I looked it had not road following feature and was limited to 500 points, but if the gmap-pedometer site is locking up your computer this may be useful. A nice point, when you browse to a point on the elevation graph and click it lights up on the map. Every point has a distance from the start, so it's easy to calculate slopes between any two of them.

www.elsewhere.org/journal/gmaptogpx
This isn't a mapping site, but has a java widget that convert gmap data to gpx format. REALLY COOL! This means you can map out a route on the pedometer, converts (a little clunky, you cut and paste the text it makes) and upload to Google Earth. Makes you wonder why Google doesn't incorporate it.