Regain wrote: Sun Mar 15, 2026 11:25 am
@jfheath you're correct, you didn't specify that exactly but you helped me to understand I would need more than one shaping point to avoid my route jumping to a faster road. A combination of that and MRA forum info is what I meant so sorry to besmirch you. I did notice that your trip between Carlisle and Penrith (approx 30 miles) had only a couple of points, one being at the beginning/end. My experience is that at least a couple more might be needed. That may be anathema to some but just the way it seems to be. Easily checked between platforms on your phone - well, with MRA anyway (sorry @proofresistant
).
No apology needed - I'm just aware that people visit these threads in months years to come - so I do tend to correct things that I spot.
It is actually a very useful learning process. You see something, and you take what you think from it. Its handy to have it re-played to enable adjustments to be made.
On that point - here's another. That route from Carlisle to Penrith - I wouldn't even program the satnav for that route. The A6 is a superb riding road. It is the old main road north before the M6 motorway was built. It is twisting through the ups and downs of the hills between the English Lake District and the Pennines and because the motorway is so close it is relatively traffic free. And can be enjoyed at well within legal speed limits.
But it is also handy for testing purposes - because there is a motorway nearby. I just happened to use it when I first started trying to create routes on the Tread App. And I noticed that it was easier to plot via points first than it was shaping points. On the Tread App, I can control the order of via points, and move them around in the route after it has been completed. Not so with shaping points. I wanted a route than runs north south, 'cos the phone is tall and narrow.
Having created such a route I then changed the vias to shaping points, but noticed that when I did, the route points moved onto the motorway. Sometimes they didn't so I'd change another. And a third. When the third was changed all three of the shaping points jumped onto the motorway.
That behaviour still exists - but not the same behaviour every time. Curious though - if you undo the action with the undo button so that they are all Via points again, and then change them to shaping points, it doesn't do the same thing. If you undo again and repeat - it doesn't do it at all !!
So I tend to use that route to observe moving shaping points, and because I knew what it did on a previous version of tread, it is an easy test to carry out to see if that particualar behaviour has been fixed. It certainly isn't an example of how to plot a route.
If you want to know how I think routes should be created, take a look at
viewtopic.php?t=521 and download the pdf The first chapter is all about route points and using them in routes.
I also covered it on these pages for the XT1
app.php/ZXT-P04
The text is still relevant for the XT1 and XT2 - as long as you do not enable Tread/Drive synch and you nobble the route to prevent RUT behaviour
(Resave Active Route on XT1, Copy Route on XT2) or use Trip manager.
Also - the drive north to Scotland in those links was the start of an actual tour that we did many years ago. I show that in those articles with Just 2 Vias and 3, 3 and 2 shaping points. The first two shaping points of the route were to ensure that it followed the A6 route that we are talking about. That is really all that is needed. If it tries to take me onto the motorway, I ignore it and continue - it will correct itself.
!
