How to create a motorcycle road book in France with GeoRide
Protect my motorcycle with GeoRideTo build a motorcycle road book in France, start with the route: roads, stages, fuel stops, places worth a detour. Then get it into a shape you can actually use on the bike: a paper notebook, a dedicated app or a GPX file. With a GPS tracker like GeoRide, your rides are recorded automatically, so you can merge them, export them as GPX and pass them on to other riders. That is how your best roads turn into road books you can ride again.
Key takeaways
- A road book is your route, your stages and the tricky sections of the ride, all sorted before you leave.
- GPX is the standard format riders use to swap routes (Garmin, Komoot, MyRouteApp).
- GeoRide records every ride on its own: merge your rides, export GPX and share in a few clicks.
- On the road trip, the device also keeps watch over the bike at every stop and warns your loved ones if something goes wrong.
What is a motorcycle road book, and why write one?
A motorcycle road book lists the route you are going to ride, with the stages, the fuel stops and whatever the road has in store: twisty sections, regular black ice, rockfall risk. It started with rally riders, and it has since caught on with anyone heading out for a day ride or a road trip.
The idea is simple: ride with a clear head. When it is all 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 ride past none of the good stuff. You get to enjoy the best roads in France almost with your eyes shut, because the homework is done.
A road book adds to the mechanical prep, it does not replace it: before a long trip, going over the bike (tires, brakes, fluids, chain) is still a must. Once the machine is sorted and the route is down on paper or on screen, all that is left is the good part: riding.
How do you build your motorcycle road book step by step?
The method comes down to four steps: pick the region and the length of the trip, draw the route, jot down the practical points, then choose the format you will use while you ride.
Start wide: how many days, how many kilometers a day, what kind of roads? In France, the small D roads are almost always more fun than the big national routes. Then draw your line, going for mountain passes, gorges and coast roads, and mark the sections that call for care. Last, add the practical information: fuel stations (worth their weight in gold out in the middle of nowhere), places to sleep, places to eat, monuments worth a stop.
That leaves the format. Each one has something going for it:
| Format | Strengths | Drawbacks |
|---|---|---|
| Paper road book | No battery to worry about, and the pleasure of laying it out by hand | Unreadable in the rain, no new route if you take a detour |
| Route planner app | Real-time guidance, reroutes on its own | Depends on your phone and on network coverage |
| GPX file | Universal standard, easy to swap and edit (Garmin, Komoot, MyRouteApp) | Needs a GPS unit or a compatible app |
Plenty of riders run all three: a GPX track in the GPS, an app as backup and a few paper notes for the stages. To pick your guidance tool, our rundown of motorcycle route planner apps covers the whole question.
Where do you find motorcycle route ideas in France?
The best ideas come from three places: riders who have already done the route, specialist sites and blogs, and your own tracks from previous years.
The most reliable guide is usually a person: a friend who points you to a route they have actually ridden, with the good addresses and the traps to steer clear of. Region by region, specialist sites are packed with the small details that make all the difference once you are there.
Over at GeoRide, the team regularly shares its own tried and tested routes: motorcycle routes region by region, a ride through the Pyrenees or a road trip in Corsica. Enough to sketch out a first route before you make it your own.
And the GeoRide community swaps tracks directly: every ride recorded by the tracker can be exported as GPX and handed to another rider, GeoRide or not. You set off on a route that has already been proven in the real world, with nothing nagging at you.
How do you turn your GeoRide rides into road books you can reuse?
Every ride is recorded automatically by your GeoRide GPS tracker, with nothing to launch: precise track, distance, duration, weather, towns you rode through. Your history turns into a library of routes ready to serve again.
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positions recorded per second through corners by GeoRide, where a conventional GPS tracker sends one point every 5 minutes. That is what makes the track accurate enough to be reused as a road book.
The real win for a road book is ride merging. If your day came in several chunks (lunch break, a visit, a fuel stop), the app pulls them into one single route:
"If you have done a big road trip in a day, you can merge your rides to get a full recap of the whole thing." (GeoRide)
Once the ride is merged, download it as a GPX file from the GeoRide web interface. From there you can rework the track in Garmin, Komoot or MyRouteApp, flip the direction of the ride, or send it to a friend getting ready for the same trip. And in the evening at the stopover, watching the ride back is part of the fun:
"After a big day of road-tripping, you get home in the evening, you drop onto the sofa and you watch your ride. That feeling is something else." (Thomas, GeoRide founder)
You can even export the ride as a video, with the animated track, the distance, the weather and the top speed laid over it, ready to post on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube. A road book that makes people want to ride: that counts too.
And what about safety on the road trip?
A good road book plans the route, and it plans for the unexpected too: that is where the device picks up where the prep left off. On the road, if a fall is detected and you do not answer, emergency services are dispatched automatically in under 2 minutes, at the right spot, and it works even if your phone is smashed or dead (emergency dispatch in mainland France).
Your loved ones follow the ride on your terms: real-time sharing while you ride, automatic notifications when you reach a stage, or a fall-only mode for anyone who does not want to be tracked at all. This is not about being watched, it is about everyone breathing easier.
And at the stopovers, the bike rarely sleeps in your room. Parked at the hotel, the GPS tracker stands guard: instant alert at the slightest vibration or movement, by push notification, phone call or email. According to the 2026 GeoRide Theft Report on motorcycle theft in France, in more than half of all attempts the alert was enough: the bike never moved. Location works in more than 200 countries, so even a road book that spills across a few borders is covered.
Where GeoRide fits in
GeoRide does more than keep your bike safe: it is the riding companion that turns every ride into a memory and into a route you can use again. Automatic ride recording, merging, GPX export, replay, sharing with your 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 brings Radar detection even underground, handy for underground hotel parking in town. If you cannot decide between the two devices, our comparison GeoRide mini or GeoRide 3s will settle it. And to try before you commit, the GeoRide app has a Demo mode that is open to everyone, customer or not.
FAQ
What is a GPX file, and why use one on a motorcycle?
GPX is the standard format for recording and swapping GPS routes, and most GPS units and motorcycle apps can read it. You can prepare a track on your computer, edit it in Garmin, Komoot or MyRouteApp, then follow it while you ride or share it with other riders.
How do I export a GeoRide ride as a GPX file?
From the GeoRide web interface, open the ride you want 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 build a motorcycle road book for free?
Yes: a paper notebook and a map are all you need for a traditional road book, and several route planner apps have a free version. The winning combination is still a GPX track prepared ahead of time, a guidance app and a few notes on the stages.
Does GeoRide work abroad on a road trip?
Yes, the tracker works in more than 200 countries: location and alerts run on a multi-carrier network that picks the best local network on its own. The Automatic emergency call is being rolled out in mainland France and handled in several languages in around ten European countries; everywhere else, your loved ones get the alert.
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