This section covers how ‘Ride with GPS’ (RWGPS) can be used to
Much of the information shown below has been supplemented/replaced by instructions shown under ‘Club Videos‘.
There are many other programs that are functionally similar to RWGPS, these include
It is unreasonable to cover all these programs, so I a have chosen RWGPS – it works well and seems to be the most widely used within the club.
To work within RWGPS, it is best to create a (free) account – ‘Basic’ and ‘Premium’ accounts are available for a fee, but this is not necessary. A free account will enable you to login, create routes and store them within your own RWGPS library. The rest of this page assumes that you have a free account and that you are logged in.
A ‘Route’ is a ride which you have created/planned with a view to riding it and/or loading it onto your Garmin.
An ‘Activity’ is a ride that you have already ridden, recorded it on your Garmin, and stored it within RWGPS.
One way to create and store a Route is to take a stored Activity and convert it into a Route!
The most likely starting point is to create yourself a Route within RWGPS. A good introduction into how to do this is shown in this video. (the video is a bit long in tooth, for example to start creating a Route go to ‘Route Planner’ and not ‘Plan’.
Whilst creating a Route it will display both the distance and ascent. When finished you can store the Route for later use.
This is a ‘paid for’ feature.
Having created, saved and displayed your route. you will see the option ‘Export GPX/TCX file’, use this option to download the file, in either format, to your computer.
Connect your Garmin to the USB port of your computer, the Garmin will appear as a disk in File Explorer. Open up the Garmin device and copy the TCX/GPX file into the folder Garmin > New Files folder. Eject the device, unplug the Garmin and the course will appear in your Garmin menu.
It is possible to display your routes on the club web site in either the ‘Runs List’ or ‘Runs Library’
To do this you first need to create a link to the route that has been stored in your RWGPS account. To obtain the link proceed as follows.
Your ride will then be displayed on the website for the benefit of other members. Don’t be disappointed if it isn’t immediately displayed – it can take 5 or 10 mins to become registered.
Need More Help?
Contact Paul Godfrey, Barry Barlow or Ken Dean who will be happy to help.