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Welcome Wrench and hello to all Google Maps fans.

I also like Google Maps and it has been my absolute favorite route planning base for decades now.
I don't know of a better basis for creating routes.
Very importantly, Google Maps is also the best choice for me when it comes to evaluating or reviewing routes.

So, the route described by Wrench sounds interesting.
But, maybe I still have an ace up my sleeve.
Since Google Maps is the best basis, but the UI of these websites is definitely not intended for creating motorcycle routes, I use the tool called “Tyre”. For details and download see https://tyre2navigate.com/

“Tyre” is a Windows program, but it works with online maps on the web.
It is easy to use. Set points, use the rubber band to set the route shaping points or via points.
Save the route in GPX format on the PC
Transfer to the navigation device, done.
(Finished at least if you could ignore the destroying of the routes with the TREAD app)

So, where there's light, there's shadow
Tyre has direct access to OSM maps by default.
Tyre also has access to Google Maps maps by default, but the use of these maps is blocked by Google Maps for the time being.
Google itself requires an API key. The APi key is also available with a very large free quota of access from Google for 0 dollars. I haven't even come close to reaching the number of free accesses in my life.
You then "only" have to enter this API key in the "Tyre" program.
The programmer has also described the details, see https://www.janboersma.nl/gett/getkey/H ... 20(EN).pdf
Then nothing stands in the way of using it and believe me, it's a pleasure to work with it.

It couldn't be easier! (If it weren't for the TREAD app).

Try it out and maybe start with the OEM maps first.
This is exactly how the Google maps work, but then with satellite display and or directly with Streetview

@proofresistant wow, your post is like going back in time. I’m honestly not trying to be rude but it did make me smile. Some of us who use MyRoute-app will have started out on Tyre years ago before it developed into MRA. If you have a look at MRA, you’ll recognise a lot and it’s a sharing platform so you can add friends who can see your routes and use them.

Or is there a new Tyre that I haven’t seen? Anyway, whatever works for you. I’m determined to make Tread work for me in the long run too.

Regain, you're not being rude, but remember, for some it's time travel and for me it's a skilled trade.

No, there was nothing significantly new in Tyre, even if it did get better and better in detail. Tyre has basically stayed the same.
The thing you didn't see, or rather you don't see anymore, is how simple Tyre has remained.

You probably also left Tyre when Google introduced new rules and Google Maps no longer worked in Tyre.
For me, that was precisely the reason to delve deeper into the subject and that's where my interest in OSM maps began, but that's another topic.

Yes, there are now a lot of online tools that definitely have a right to exist.
They also all have advantages.
Whether Kurviger, MRA or Calimoto.

But they all have the same weaknesses.
1. they are hosted on the web. No matter how simple, I always have to import or export somehow to exchange data.
The advantage is then only given if I work exclusively with their tools across platforms.
2. they are subscription models.
3. they have become too complex and too colorful. The sense of the essential is lost.

The lightness of Tyre is still unmatched.
Then in collaboration with Onedrive and others. Just save a “file”, open it, no matter where I am and no matter what device, no one can show me that this is somehow easier.
Create a file with Tyre, without logging in, without exporting, just like that, then save it and simply open it on your cell phone in the same folder and it's already on the XT2 via the Tread app (if Tread app didn't destroy the route)
Or the same file directly in OSMAnd, just as easy, no detours.

Here are the 2 views I use, that's all I need. Set start and end points, set sharpening points, done. Then save and that's all I need.

Then another important fact.
I have been planning my own trips for decades now.
No matter where in Europe, on or off-road, always the smallest winding roads, even over thousands of kilometers like on a tour through the middle of Germany across the Alps to the Mediterranean Sea.
All the curve algorithms are great, but no algorithm of today can replace experience, knowledge of the individual areas and a feel for curves and landscape.


And sorry if I went off topic.

But it was about the use of Google Maps,
and Tyre (and no, I'm not advertising it) is perhaps also an alternative.

@proofresistant nice post. I agree, Tyre works and very simple. I wasn’t sure it still existed. I do remember the Google issue and having to get a key to use it. Then we all seemed to migrate to MRA.

Re Tread, I try to build a route that Tread will not try to change. Sometimes a bit of to and fro to add another shaping point or two once I’ve checked on it. I’m getting the hang of it now and want to keep it synced so I can plan when away from home.

Anyway, enjoy your riding and thanks for the reply.

I’m back on the road and have been using the maps2gpx site mentioned earlier to build routes. They work but they’re about twice as big as the ones I can create using the GeoConverter app on the iPad, so I’m back to using that and the workflow that I described at the top of the thread. I’m not having any trouble with Tread re-routing me – it’s following my GPXes just as I make them. The XT2 is still dog slow when you get more than a few routes in it, and it crashes at least once a day, so it’s still an infuriating device, but I continue to prefer it over a phone, for many reasons.