AdvOSM Motorcycle Adventure Rider Maps
160 countries. For Garmin. For OruxMaps on Android and iOS. For Basecamp and GPXSee on PC and Mac to plan routes to export to OsmAnd as GPX files. Biweekly updates. Free.
AdvOSM maps analyze OSM data to reveal paved roads, unpaved roads, tracks open to motorcycles, tracks closed to motorcycles, track grades, surface warnings, narrow roads, ford crossings, weir crossings, protected areas, and steep terrain for adventure riders. The lines and icons are designed for high visibility on a GPS screen.
Most maps show roads based only on their category: trunk, primary, tertiary, residential, unclassified, service, track, etc., so they look identical whether they are smooth asphalt, broken concrete, graded gravel, rutted dirt, sandy riverbed, too narrow to pass a truck, or closed. Any road other than a motorway can be impassable, yet this can't be seen on most maps. But this information matters for safety and planning, especially when the rider is alone in places where cellphones don’t work.
A GPS can be set only to avoid all unpaved roads or none. AdvOSM maps let riders choose suitable unpaved roads and tracks by reading the map on the GPS screen, informed of surface type, smoothness, and grade, as well as width and accessibility issues wherever this information is available in OSM. AdvOSM maps let riders plan challenging but safe rides in Basecamp (a free download from Garmin) that can be exported as GPX files to most GPS units and cellphone apps.
The USA, Australia, Europe, and Canada maps include overlays of the Trans America, Trans Euro, Trans Australia, and Trans Canada Trails. These are shown as outlines so the road type isn't covered. The Trail websites offer up-to-date downloads of GPX files that can be followed in a GPS, and AdvOSM maps are good to use in the GPS together with the GPX waypoints and routes. Or the maps may be used to plan a route to suit the rider's motorcycle, tires, skills, support, and seasonal weather by considering the Trail routes in the overlays together with the OSM information and warnings.
Examples
Here, half the highway and nearby road is unpaved, and surfaces are "very bad to horrible." Yet other maps don't show this:
The Trans America Trail splits and merges over different road types near Mount Ouray. Frequent routes appear thickest:
The Dead Sea in Israel and Jordan:
Weir crossings (on concrete) lie near the Trans Euro Trail by the Danube, and a ford crossing is part of the trail itself:
In the Ngorongoro Crater there is only one good road but many challenging roads:
The Trans Euro Trail near Dobrich follows three paved road types, one track, and two unmapped paths in less than 40 km:
Rishikesh on the Ganges in Uttarakhand:
Road Legend
A Motorway open to motorcycles.
B Motorway closed to motorcycles.
C Trunk Road. Paved.
D Primary Road. Paved.
E Secondary Road. Paved.
F Tertiary Road. Paved.
1 Minor, Residential, or Unclassified Road. Paved.
2 Unpaved Road. Includes unpaved parts of all classes of roads except service roads. Intended for traffic.
3 Track or unpaved service road. Not intended for traffic.
4 Track closed to motorcycles or to all motorized vehicles.
5 Service Road, paved or untagged. Includes alleys and driveways. Not intended for traffic. May have restrictions.
6 Trail or path not intended or permitted for vehicles.
7 Boundary of protected area with entrance or activity restrictions, such as national park, forest park, wildlife sanctuary, nature reserve, monument conservation, wilderness, and managed habitat, resource, or hunting areas.
8 Trans America, Trans Euro, Trans Australia, and Trans Canada Trails outline.
Surface Legend
S2 Intermediate surface; pavement repairs with small cracks, holes, or ruts; or compacted earth with shallow holes and ruts for over 2 km.
S3 Poor to bad surface; rough pavement with cracks, holes, or ruts; or uncompacted earth with holes, ruts for over 1 km.
S4 Very bad to horrible surface; pavement with deep cracks, holes, and ruts; or loose earth with rocks, deep ruts for over 500m.
S5 Very horrible to impassable surface; pavement with ruts, rocks, and obstacles; or earth with deep ruts, rocks, and obstacles for over 500m.
G2 Degraded pavement or gravel track with sand and clay for over 2 km.
G3 Mixed soft and hard surface track for over 1 km.
G4 Soft soil and grass track with some hard material for over 500m.
G5 Soil and grass track without hard material for over 500m.
N2 Narrow road with width 3m or less for over 2 km, or only one lane for two directions for over 2 km.
N3 Narrow road with width 2m or less for over 1 km.
N4 Narrow road with width 1m or less for over 1 km.
Ford Level stream or river crossing on gravel or earth, depending on season and weather.
Weir Reservoir or canal crossing on concrete. Road may be underwater and have steep embankments.
Surface warnings are searchable. If you enjoy deep ruts, rocks, and obstacles, search for “S5:”
Multiple maps can be loaded into a Garmin GPS with seamless interconnection. For example, by loading the Europe, Silk Road, and Southeast Asia maps, a Garmin can plan a route from Portugal to Singapore with turn-by-turn navigation and auto-rerouting.
Maps Download
Downloads take a few minutes up to an hour depending on connection quality. The red lines show the map boundary and the purple lines show the Trans [Country] Trails. To download a map and legend (PDF), click on the map:
To use the maps in a Garmin GPS, download your maps (IMG files) into your PC. Connect your PC to your Garmin using a USB cable, or remove the microSD from your Garmin and connect it to your PC with a USB adapter. Copy your maps into the “Garmin” folder in the root directory of the microSD card. If there is sufficient space in your Garmin, you can copy them into the “Garmin” folder in its root directory; if the Garmin is a Zumo, this folder is named “Map” not “Garmin.” Enable the maps in “Setup—Map Selection” of the Garmin menu. Most Garmins show each map as two or three maps in the map selection screen: the lowest is the base map; the next is the contour map; the highest, if there are three in the selection screen, is the Trans [Country] Trail overlay map. In rural areas, set “Map Detail” to Maximum. In large cities, you might want to set it to Minimum.
To use the map in Basecamp you must have a removable memory device (an SD card or a USB thumb drive or a Garmin GPS with a microSD card inside it) attached to the PC. Basecamp will not open maps from a hard disk, only from removable media, nor will it open them by clicking on the IMG file in Windows File Explorer. Create a folder named “Garmin” in the root directory of the removable medium and copy the IMG file into it. Basecamp will see the map automatically when it starts.
To use the map in OruxMaps on iPhone, download the maps from this website directly into your iPhone. Use the Apple Files to locate your map files, usually in the "Downloads" folder. Long-press the file and select Copy. Navigate to "On My iPhone > OruxMaps (or wherever OruxMaps is installed) > mapfiles." Long-press inside that folder and select Paste. Open the OruxMaps app. Tap the Map icon in the top right corner. Select Switch Map. Tap the Offline tab. Tap the Refresh button (double arrow) to ensure OruxMaps detects the new file. Find your map and tap it to load. If the screen goes blank, it is because OruxMaps thinks it is in a different part of the world than your map, in which case zoom out to the world map, drag your location to your map region, and zoom back in.
To use the maps in OruxMaps on Android, download your maps from this website into your PC. Connect your PC to your phone using a USB cable. Use Windows File Explorer to copy your downloaded map files from your PC into this Android folder: "[Your PC Name]/[Your Phone Name]/Internal shared storage/Android/data/com.orux.oruxmapsDonate/files/oruxmaps/mapfiles/". In OruxMaps, go to the Configuration page, and your maps will be listed. Select a map. If the screen goes blank, it is because OruxMaps thinks it is in a different part of the world than your map, in which case zoom out to the world map, drag your location to your map region, and zoom back in.
The digits at the end of the downloaded map's filename indicate the date of the last update, as YYMMDD.
These map features are possible thanks to the volunteers who travel these roads and map and tag them in OSM. Please help by uploading corrections and additional information to OSM.