I created a website that shows elevation profiles for mountain bike routes based on nasa's srtm data. It works for routes that contain connecting segments only (check http://ra.osmsurround.org/ for route errors)
Go to http://osm.santolibre.net/ for an overview map or open http://osm.santolibre.net/routeinfo.aspx?relationid=1145205 for an example.
Discussion
Comment from JoshD on 15 June 2011 at 03:42
Very cool! I'd love to see this kind of elevation profile service for other types of routes, like bicycling and hiking. I tried to use a relation ID for this type of route, but it failed, so I'm guessing it only works with route=mtb. Would you consider expanding the service to work with other routes, or perhaps sharing the source code so others could setup similar services? Great work!
Comment from dcp on 15 June 2011 at 17:23
Excellent achievement. I too request you add bicycling and hiking.
Comment from Harry Wood on 16 June 2011 at 10:33
Nice. cyclestreets has a little elevation profile feature (tucked away in the corner somewhere) which works for arbitrary routes, but I guess if you're going to cycle over a mountain then the elevation profile really matters!
I love the mouseover interactions with the profile chart<->map.
Comment from andywcoder on 17 June 2011 at 12:03
The route info works for other route types too (i.e. http://osm.santolibre.net/routeinfo.aspx?relationid=345917). Just edit the relation id in the url manually and click 'Force reload'. If the route is valid, you should see a similar output like for a mtb route. I probably add overview maps for other route types like hiking in the near future.