Creating a motorcycle road book in France with GeoRide
Protect my motorcycle with GeoRideTo create a motorcycle road book in France, start by defining your route: roads, stages, fuel stops, points of interest. Then put it into a format you can use while riding: paper notebook, dedicated app or GPX file. With a GPS tracker like GeoRide, your rides are captured automatically: you can merge your trips, export them as GPX and share them with other riders. Enough to turn your finest roads into reusable road books.
Key takeaways
- A road book is your route, your stages and the tricky sections of the ride, prepared before you set off.
- The GPX file is the standard format for exchanging routes between riders (Garmin, Komoot, MyRouteApp).
- GeoRide captures every ride automatically: trip merging, GPX export and sharing in a few taps.
- During the road trip, the unit also watches over the bike at each stop and alerts your loved ones if anything goes wrong.
What is a motorcycle road book and why prepare one?
A motorcycle road book is a document listing the route you are going to ride, with the stages, the fuel stops and the difficulties along the way: winding roads, frequent black ice, rockfall risk. Born among rally riders, it has become hugely popular with riders heading out for a day ride or a road trip.
The point is simple: riding with a free mind. When everything is written down (fuel available at this spot, the lunch break here, the castle to visit there), you waste no time on the road and you miss none of the gems along the way. You ride France's finest roads almost with your eyes closed, guided by your preparation.
The road book complements mechanical preparation, it does not replace it: before a long trip, checking the bike (tyres, brakes, fluids, chain) remains essential. Once the machine is ready and the route is set down on paper or on screen, only the best part is left: riding.
How do you create your motorcycle road book step by step?
The method comes down to four steps: choose the region and the duration, plot the route, note the practical points, then pick the format you will use while riding.
Start with the big picture: how many days, how many kilometres per day, what kind of roads? In France, the small country roads almost always offer more pleasure than the main highways. Then plot your route, favouring mountain passes, gorges and coastal roads, and flag the sections where caution is required. Finally, add the practical information: petrol stations (precious in remote areas), accommodation, restaurants, monuments worth visiting.
That leaves the choice of format. Each has its advantages:
| Format | Strengths | Limits |
|---|---|---|
| Paper road book | No battery needed, the pleasure of preparing by hand | Unreadable in the rain, no rerouting if you take a detour |
| Route app | Real-time guidance, automatic rerouting | Depends on your phone and on network coverage |
| GPX file | Universal standard, freely exchanged and edited (Garmin, Komoot, MyRouteApp) | Requires a GPS unit or a compatible app |
Many riders combine all three: a GPX track in the GPS, an app as backup and a few paper notes for the stages. To choose your guidance tool, our comparison of motorcycle route apps covers the whole question.
Where can you find motorcycle route ideas in France?
The best ideas come from three sources: riders who have already ridden the route, specialist sites and blogs, and your own tracks from previous years.
The most reliable guide is often human: a friend or acquaintance recommending a ride they have actually done, with the good addresses and the traps to avoid. Regional specialist sites are also full of the details that make the difference once you are there.
On the GeoRide side, the team regularly shares its own tested routes: motorcycle routes region by region, a ride through the Pyrenees or a road trip in Corsica. Plenty to build a first skeleton of a route before making it your own.
Finally, the GeoRide community exchanges tracks directly: every trip captured by the tracker can be exported as GPX and passed on to another rider, even one without a GeoRide. You set off on a route already proven in real conditions, with peace of mind.
How do you turn your GeoRide rides into reusable road books?
Every trip is captured automatically by your GeoRide GPS tracker, with nothing to start: precise track, distance, duration, weather, towns crossed. Your history becomes a library of routes ready to be used again.
10
positions recorded per second when cornering by GeoRide, when a conventional GPS tracker sends one point every 5 minutes. That is what makes the track faithful enough to be reused as a road book.
The real bonus for a road book is trip merging. If your day was ridden in several legs (lunch break, a visit, a fuel stop), the app brings them together into a single route:
"If you have done a big one-day road trip, you can merge your trips to get a full recap of your ride." (GeoRide)
Once the trip is merged, download it in GPX format from the GeoRide web interface. You can then rework the track in Garmin, Komoot or MyRouteApp, reverse the direction of the ride, or send it to a friend preparing the same journey. And in the evening at the stopover, the trip replay is part of the pleasure:
"When you do a big day of road-tripping, you get home in the evening, you settle onto the sofa and you watch your ride. That feeling is incredible." (Thomas, GeoRide founder)
You can even export the ride as a video, with the animated track, distance, weather and top speed overlaid, to share on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube. A road book that makes people want to ride is part of it too.
And what about safety during the road trip?
A good road book plans the route, but also the unexpected: that is where the unit takes over from the preparation. On the road, if a crash is detected and you do not respond, emergency services are triggered automatically in under 2 minutes, at the right location, and it works even if your phone is broken or switched off (emergency dispatch in mainland France).
Your loved ones follow the ride the way you decide: real-time sharing during the trip, automatic arrival notifications at each stage, or "crash-only" mode for those who want zero tracking. The goal is not surveillance, it is shared peace of mind.
And at the stopovers, the bike rarely sleeps in your room. In the hotel car park, the GPS tracker stands guard: immediate alert at the slightest vibration or movement, by notification, phone call or email. According to the Observatoire GeoRide du Vol de Moto en France 2026 (GeoRide's French motorcycle theft study), in more than half of attempted thefts the alert was enough: the bike was never moved. Location works in more than 200 countries, enough to handle even a road book that spills across borders.
What GeoRide brings here
GeoRide does more than protect your bike: it is the riding companion that turns every ride into a memory and a reusable route. Automatic trip capture, merging, GPX export, replay, sharing with loved ones: everything that makes a good, living road book is already in the app.
On the hardware side, the GeoRide 3s installs in 5 minutes and adds underground radar detection, useful for city hotel car parks. If you are torn between the two units, our comparison GeoRide mini or GeoRide 3s helps you decide. And to try before you buy, the GeoRide app offers a demo mode that is freely accessible, even if you are not a customer.
Frequently asked questions
What is a GPX file and why use one on a motorcycle?
GPX is the standard format for recording and exchanging GPS routes, readable by most GPS units and motorcycle apps. It lets you prepare a track on your computer, edit it in Garmin, Komoot or MyRouteApp, then follow it while riding or share it with other riders.
How do I export a GeoRide trip in GPX format?
From the GeoRide web interface, open the trip in question and download it as GPX. You can then rework it in the tool of your choice, ride the route in reverse or send it to a rider who does not have a GeoRide.
Can you create a motorcycle road book for free?
Yes: a paper notebook and a map are enough for a traditional road book, and several route apps offer a free version. The winning combination remains a GPX track prepared in advance, a guidance app and a few notes about the stages.
Does GeoRide work abroad during a road trip?
Yes, the tracker works in more than 200 countries: location and alerts rely on a multi-operator network that automatically picks the best local network. The automatic emergency call is deployed in mainland France and handled in several languages in around ten European countries; elsewhere, your loved ones are alerted.
À lire ensuite
