Every time someone sends me a GPX file, the same questions go through my head. So I built a tool that answers them: Route Reveal. Free, on this website.
The questions every GPX file brings
Whether it comes from a friend or I download it from the internet, I always ask myself the same things. Can I make it with my motorcycle, or is it too heavy for this one? Would I need a smaller bike? Should I go alone? How many kilometres of road, how many offroad, and at which kilometre does the hard stuff start? Will there be a difficult slope? I need those answers to plan the track, the day and the ride, so it stays safe, nice and manageable.
How it works
Go to Route Reveal in the menu, choose your GPX file (or drag and drop it on the map) and press Upload. The page reads the roads and tracks along the way, and the route appears on the map: red is offroad, blue is road. Even without a single number, you can already see how much of the ride is gravel.
Below the map there is an elevation profile. Move along it and a little face follows you on the map. It tells you exactly where you are: the kilometre, the altitude, the slope in degrees, whether you are going up or down and what surface you are on. And the face changes with how difficult the terrain gets.
What the numbers tell you
In the video I uploaded a piece of a track I rode some time ago. Route Reveal showed 98 km in total: 60 km offroad (61% of the track) and 38 km of road. The steepest slope was 22°, very steep, at kilometre 71.9. So I know from the start that a hard climb waits there.
Further down you get the full breakdown: the offroad difficulty, the surfaces in kilometres, and the slopes, from 0° (flat) to 9° and more (very steep). There is also the part I find the most interesting: the steepest climbs. On my route, one starts at kilometre 25.9, about 500 m long at 11°, and another at kilometre 71.6, 620 m long at 22°. You also see the offroad sections (four on this route), the toughest kilometre (at km 26.8, rated hard) and how many kilometres are steeper than 6° (4.6 km here).
Take it with you: the ride card
Now, who remembers all these statistics? On a trip I ride six, seven, eight days of offroad, sometimes with 10–15 GPX files, two or three a day. That's why, at the bottom, there is a section called Take it with you. You name your ride, for example "Dragos GPX day one", and download a ride card as a PDF or a JPEG picture for your phone. The card marks the toughest parts on the profile (1, 2 and 3), so you have the same statistics with you every day, for yourself and for your buddies.
If it's six in the evening and you're at kilometre 70, but at kilometre 76 a very hard, steep climb starts, maybe you stop, put up your tent, enjoy the night, and tackle the difficult section tomorrow.
It's free, and I want your ideas
Route Reveal is completely free. I take this tool very seriously and I absolutely love it, because I think it helps us plan our rides and ride them better. At the end of the page there is a form: send me a suggestion, ask for a new feature, or tell me if something is wrong or not working. I'm super curious which routes you analyse, and keen to hear what you'd like to see in it next.
Before you go
New to adventure riding? Start with the free off-road gear guide, and check our rider discount codes. And if you liked this one, subscribe on YouTube for the next rides.
