Best Iphone App for Mountain Biking

Bonkleg

Hi All

I just got a new bike and I want to use an Iphone app to measure how many miles I do each day, week, month etc. I used to use cardio trainer on my android phone which was quite good.

Any recommendations would be gratefully received.


Thanks

pete7

runkeeper pro....................................its absolutely brilliant

PeteO

Try endomondo! superb!

tlw1

Trailblazer lite - free & works even when the phone is in sleep mode

hoochylala

+1 Endomondo - its brilliant!

andreaslc

A little while back I wrote about a huge list of iPhone bike apps. Can highly recommend CycleMeter - bit expensive but the best at doing the job.

Bonkleg

Thanks guys

The Rookie

What's an iphone?

Simon

cee

The Beginner wrote:

What's an iphone?

Simon

Its an iphone with Orange as the carrier!

just took delivery of a shiny new iPhone 4 today..installing apps now!

Bar Shaker

I am a Motion X fan. It keeps a GPS lock better than any other app I have tried.

ETA: Motion X also has a great set of maps. For trail riding I use the terrain map which show public footpaths, bridleways and National Cycleway routes. On the road bike I use street maps. You can set waypoints on the map if you want to follow a specific route. Maps can be zoomed to very low scale.

Motion X now has a 'voice coach' function which will read out your speed and distance covered at set intervals.

Data cached includes altitude.

When you are done, it will email your route laid over the map and will post it on FB if you want, too.

I have about 6 or 7 similar apps but this is the best one.

Mr Wu

RunKeeper

get the free version then when you realise it's sick to the power of rad you can DL the paid version.

ian220476

what about for those of us not on an iPhone but with Android? Any suggestions (I'm a bit new to this 'Apps' business)

chedabob

ian220476 wrote:

what about for those of us not on an iPhone but with Android? Any suggestions (I'm a bit new to this 'Apps' business)

Runkeeper as well.

wesk

Ive just downloaded endomondo but can't get music playback while it's logging. Am I missing something?

hainman

hi,im using sportypal on my android(htc desire) and it works great.does miles,speed av speed and calorie count plus gives you the route youve pedalled on google maps.great app and FREE think you also get it for iphone

ahfeckit

I've been using cardiotrainer. Google maps integration, speed etc as standard, but also has a ghost mode where you can race yourself

http://www.worksmartlabs.com/cardiotrainer/about.php

RSV_Ecosse

These apps are all excellent but have one huge drawback - signal availability.

My local favorite trail is a 10 minute drive from me and I get up there at least twice a week for a run out. However, my phone ( and my mates too - and we are all on different networks ) gives me a signal in the car park at the bottom but as soon as I get started on the trail, it vanishes completely until I return to the car park.

Considering a lot of trails are in out of the way places, it somewhat negates the usefulness of these clever little apps. Or can some tech savvy person put me right on this?. Do these apps still work without a network carrier signal from your provider?. Is the GPS signal independent from the actual phone signal and therefore can still be used even in the "back of beyond"?.

wesk

HI, I got the run keeper app in the end. Worked brilliantly. They work independantly from mobile recpetion, I was riding where there was no reception on Saturday and it logged fine. Occasionally you may lose sateleite signal, but it's fairly uncommon outdoors.

RSV_Ecosse

Cool, thanks for the info. I have Motionx GPS and I'm going to grab endomondo too. Hoping to get out this afternoon onto my local trail so I'll fire one of them up then and see how they go.

Kiblams

RSV_Ecosse wrote:

Considering a lot of trails are in out of the way places, it somewhat negates the usefulness of these clever little apps.

Applications such as sportypal don't need a connection in order to work, them log your GPS data over a period while showing you realtime stuff like distance travelled etc.

Then when you finish the session it saves this data on the phone and you can upload it and look at the map etc at a later time (when you do have a connection)

DaveFeeder

I've used Endemondo for a while when I've been out walking, and I've found it to be excellent.

Rockhopper_tm

Another +1 for Endomondo. I use the pro version that has a good 'Beat Yourself' mode. Choose a route you've done before and it will tell you how you are doing compared to last time.

The website side of it is also very good, some great stats.

Sharker69

Another vote for Runkeeper, was lucky to download the pro version for free when it was on a very short offer. GPS always tracks well in the forest. Good planner for keeping track of performance and able to use it for other sports too.

andy_welch

I've tried a few of the Apps mentioned here and they all seem to work about as well as each other. You don't need a phone signal for the GPS to keep logging although you do need a signal if you need to download another tile of the map (e.g. if you want to zoom in or out) and it's not always easy to force the app to download all the map tiles that you might need on a long ride.

Personally I've stopped using the phone apps and gone for a Garmin 800 for a few reasons.

1. If you want to have the screen on all the time so that you can monitor your ride (i.e. use it as a bike computer or navigation aid, rather than just a logging device) then it eats your phone battery quite quickly.

2. If you do mount it on the bars/stem so that you can see it there is obviously more risk of breaking your phone in a crash. Since I ride on my own a lot on quiet trails the last thing I want is to find that my phone is broken just when I need it most. Basically, I don't like having all my eggs in one basket. If the Garmin fails I can probably still use my iphone (safely tucked up in my pack) to get me home (or call for help), but if that's all I've got and it breaks then I'm stuffed.

3. The sensitivity of the GPS receiver in an iphone is adequate at best and not a patch on the Garmin. I've compared tracks from both and (particularly under tree cover) the track from the phone wanders about a fair bit (making speed/distance less accurate of course).

4. The Garmin has OS 50K maps for the whole country pre-loaded. So no more riding off the edge of the map (or trying to zoom in) and finding that you can't get the next tile as you have no reception.

5. The Garmin has a barometer (so calculation of gradient and distanced climbed or descended is much more accurate) and a thermometer.

Of course, all this comes at a cost.

Cheers,

Andy