Bike Computer vs Phone Apps like Strava, MapMyRide, etc.

straightbusta

Hi, I plan to buy a road bike soon and I have access to a 40 mile bike path and I plan to get some good exercise! I have not done much as far as physical activities for a while so I know I'll have to pace myself and start out slow, maybe working on cadence and only going 10 or so miles (5 each way) for starters. But I do want to track all my of rides so I can check my progress, speed, avg speed, distance, time, etc,. every time I ride.

I'm not sure if I should get myself a Bike Computer like the CatEye Velo 7 (http://www.amazon.com/CatEye-Velo-Bicyc ... e+computer) or if I should just buy a mount for my phone and use a phone app such as Strava or MapMyRide?

I want something pretty lightweight as far as features go and precise accuracy would be nice. Which are preferred/suggested by most road cyclists?

gsej

For tracking rides over distances like that, your smartphone would be fine. You don't even need a mount - just start the app and stick it in your back pocket. If you want to see data in real time then you'll need the mount (although you won't get cadence), or the bike computer. Also, when you build up to longer distances, you'll find that the smartphone battery can't take it. I think I only get an hour and a half or so when tracking a ride on my iphone. That's when you need the bike computer. You may want to look at more sophisticated computers - e.g. the Garmin 200 or higher. They let you upload your data to a website which is a great way to track progress.

Dippydog2

gsej wrote:

For tracking rides over distances like that, your smartphone would be fine. You don't even need a mount - just start the app and stick it in your back pocket. If you want to see data in real time then you'll need the mount (although you won't get cadence), or the bike computer. Also, when you build up to longer distances, you'll find that the smartphone battery can't take it. I think I only get an hour and a half or so when tracking a ride on my iphone. That's when you need the bike computer. You may want to look at more sophisticated computers - e.g. the Garmin 200 or higher. They let you upload your data to a website which is a great way to track progress.

Agree with nearly all of that. I got a whole day out of my iphone four though. Turn everything else off, keep the brightness down, turn off wifi etc.

iPhone 4s onwards has a Bluetooth version that will give cadence input if you want it. When I started I really liked having cadence on view. Beginners often pedal too slowly and it helped me keep my pedal speed up.

StillGoing

A phone is for emergencies if you need it. Risking running the battery down by using it as a navigation or performance monitoring device is asking for it. A dedicated device can be had very cheaply especially 2nd hand and when compared to the cost of replacing a phone when you drop it, or it becomes accidentally unattached or gets soaked, is well worth the investment.

pinkteapot

I've used my phone for 18 months and 1,700 miles and am a fan of it.

I use the following mount, which is neat and the phone stays dry through the worst downpours:
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/topeak-iphone-4 ... 5360429316
(n.b. phone won't fit inside it if it's in any sort of case)

I have this heart rate monitor, so get a readout on my screen while riding:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wahoo-Heart-Mon ... heart+rate
(was £50 when I got it - price fluctuates on Amazon)

What I like about using my phone in particular is the full map on screen for navigation purposes. To get a bike computer with a map display is expensive.

I plan routes using the ridewithgps website, and export them as GPX files. I email them to myself, then import them in the Cyclemeter app on my phone. I prefer Cyclemeter to Strava as it has ghost riders that display on routes you've ridden before so you can see where you are relative to your best and worst times on that route. It auto-exports my ride to Strava when I finish.

I have the screen on throughout and bluetooth running for my HRM. With that setup, I get about 2.5 hours battery life.

Re emergencies, I carry a battery extender and the phone will work in this even if the battery is dead. However, I've only run the battery out completely once.

I would say try using your phone first before shelling out. See what features you actually use, and what stats you want displayed while riding. See if you want it for navigation. Then, if you do want to get a dedicated computer, you'll know what you want.

mrkev83

I use Strava on my phone, have a wireless speedo to monitor speed and average speed, and carry a backup phone charger. Never killed my battery though even on commuting 16 miles each way

Moonbiker

I use both also. Strava on phone in back jersey pocket & a cheapo lidl bike computer for a speedo etc on handlebars.

Works fine usless you require gps for naviagtion, and i like that the lidl computer is smaller & neater looking than a garmin or phone mounted in a case.

Tjgoodhew

Depends on how regularly and how long you will be intending on riding. For 10 miles it will be fine but if you are looking at 40 miles i would say a bike computer is better in the long run.

Remember that a phone isnt designed to be running as a GPS device for hours at a time. iPhone in particular the battery life will suffer and you really dont want to have a dead phone when you need it for an emergency.

terryhughes

I have been on a bike for just over 18 months now. I started off driving half way to work and riding the rest on a MTB a few days a week and the Strava phone app was great.

In April I upgraded to a road bike and now I can cover more miles due to speed and found that I am now doing 25 miles each way the app has become unreliable. It misses parts of the road and parts of segments which give me incorrect times, incorrect distances and misses some segments completely.

I have just bought a Garmin Edge 200. The best £80 I ever spent. The route is now very accurate to the roads and straight aways PB's on virtually all of the segments on my route due to the accuracy.

I would say as about, The app is great for short distances to give a rought Idea and log progress. The edge 200 as an entry device is perfect. Additionally you get the ability to create routes onn the computer and copy it to the garmin to follow, a feature I wasn't aware of on an entry level device or I would habe bought it sooner.

markhewitt1978

As long as its a decent smartphone then that'll be fine for starting out. Don't put it on your stem, just leave it in your pocket; if you want get a cheap cycle computer for the stem. You may find battery life is your main issue but give it a try.

Schoie81

With regard to battery life on a smartphone - it depends what you use it for. For just tracking your ride using something like Strava you should be fine - if you want it on your bars with the screen on (for navigation) during the whole ride then you may have problems. I use my smartphone (Galaxy S3) with Strava to track me and just turn everything buy GPS off, screen off, and put it in my saddle bag. I did 62miles last week and from about 95% battery it was still on 60%+ when I got back.

shmooster

I've been using an iPhone for a few years and my take is there are a few pros and cons vs a dedicated device

Pros
Don't have to buy a new device (if you have a smartphone)
Can use route finding like google maps, apple maps, tomtom etc
Lots of apps to choose from for GPS tracking
Big high res screen
iPhone 4s and above support bluetooth speed/cadence/heart rate sensors

Cons
Phone on bars doesn't appeal to all
battery life is poor so needs an external battery for rides > 2 hours
Risk of phone battery dying when you might really need it
Capacitive phone screen can be unreliable in the wet and won't work with normal gloves
iPhones don't have temp/barometric sensors (yet) so may not get all the data you'd like
Might not want to put your phone out front on the bars (never been an issue for me)
Need to buy a phone case to use it on the bars and there isn't the perfect case out there (that I've found, though biologic comes close)

Other considerations
GPS tracking is extremely accurate on modern smartphones, especially as they have 3G, wifi, GPS and Glonass fixes to assist with location finding.

If you have a phone, see how it goes. I expect to eventually get a Garmin (probably the successor to the 510, whenever that comes out)

funkyg

I currently use Strava on my iPhone and it works fine.
My longest ride so far was 4 hours, and the battery was only down to around 55%, that's plenty for me.

BrandonA

I started with a cheap cateye device which recorded speed and cadence only. This was fine for what it did.

As I got into cycling more seriously I started to use my iPhone as I could upload my rides to Strava and MapMyRide.

It soon became apparent that for the type of rides I wanted to do that a Garmin was more suited so I bought one of these. For me the Garmin is better as it has a better battery life and it let me discover lots of new routes as I always plot a route in advance to going on a ride.

Even if you only use an iPhone you don't need to mount it on your bars. Start it at the beginning and then put it in a pocket.

I guess it therefore depends how serious you want to take cycling, what your disposable income is like and whether you want a device to follow routes.

Anonymous

iphone, they do everything, have you not seen the advert
You will have burnt all that chicken fat (whatever that is) off in no time. Who needs gastric bands? NHS should obviously just give out iPhones.

That said, if you do get a Garmin further down the line, I bet you wished you had got one sooner ;-)

Initialised

Carbonator wrote:

iphone, they do everything, have you not seen the advert
You will have burnt all that chicken fat (whatever that is) off in no time. Who needs gastric bands? NHS should obviously just give out iPhones.

That said, if you do get a Garmin further down the line, I bet you wished you had got one sooner ;-)

Does iPhone 5 have ANT+ and a Smartwatch you can use as a Head Unit?

High end Android Phones are well ahead here. If you have a Galaxy S5 and a Galaxy Gear you don't need a Garmin, just the GSC 10 and HRM. Mount the Gear to your bars for navigation and real-time data, connect the GSC 10 and HRM to your tracking app of choice, some even give power estimates to within 15% accuracy. Leaving your (IP67 water resistant rated) phone safely stowed in a jersey pocket. If the worst happens, three taps on the power button and it'll send you last known location to pre entered contacts.

Smart Phones are almost good enough to replace dedicated devices, iPhones, less so but I think the 6 is getting ANT+ and an iWatch. Bikes just need to get a bit better at integrating them.

Add a battery and BB with integrated generator to your bike to run your electronic shifters and you could power it, overcoming the main drawback of Smartphones which is their power consumption. The power output from the dynamo would relate directly to your power output negating the need for a £500+ powermeter while it sapped a Watt or so to keep your batteries topped up.

rattyc5

I have a garmin edge 800. fantastic bit of kit. it has an altimeter unlike smart phones so I know my exact height gain. the wife has the edge 200 which is great but it does not have an altimeter and its always way out compared to mine. the edge 500 has an altimeter so I would go for that if you cant afford the 800. keep the smartphones for what they are really intended. they are no better than the edge 200 in my opinion. I have an iphone 5s by the way.

smoggysteve

I use my Garmin Edge 500 99% of the time but I have also used my old iphone and more recently my Samsung Galaxy. When I have used the phone the track and the accuracy is nowhere near as good as the Garmin.

I would always stick with a dedicated device myself

norvernrob

SmoggySteve wrote:

I use my Garmin Edge 500 99% of the time but I have also used my old iphone and more recently my Samsung Galaxy. When I have used the phone the track and the accuracy is nowhere near as good as the Garmin.

I would always stick with a dedicated device myself

What was different about the data between the two devices? I usually use my iPhone but also have an edge 200, when I run them both the distance and mapping is identical. The only difference is elevation (Strava takes about 20% off and the Garmin over-reads by about 10%, that's going from the elevation figures calculated on mapping websites).

I don't even bother with the Garmin now unless it's a long ride, and even then I'll still run strava on my phone too as a backup.

Pepperoni Man

As I've done longer rides up to 4 hours I've started worrying that there won't be enough juice in the phone tank for doing the most important thing - making a call

So I've recently got a Garmin Edge 200 - no regrets and I still upload my rides from the Garmin to map my Ride at the end of the ride

birdie23

I've had an Edge 500 since shortly after I got my bike. Love it. Only really use the screen to see the time, distance and cadence but upload to Strava afterwards to track where I've ridden and look at my times on a few segments that I think give a good idea on how well I'm riding.

Graham K

Ditched the phone and bought a Garmin, phone is back to its primary use

Schoie81

SmoggySteve wrote:

I use my Garmin Edge 500 99% of the time but I have also used my old iphone and more recently my Samsung Galaxy. When I have used the phone the track and the accuracy is nowhere near as good as the Garmin.

I would always stick with a dedicated device myself

Just out of interest - how do you know its the phone that is not accurate? I'm not doubting you, just curious to know how you decide which is correct? I track my rides using GPS on Strava, but also enter them manually when I get home on Runkeeper.com (for reasons that I wont bore you with). The distance cycled and elevation gained is always different between the two and I never know which is correct and which isn't...?

mrkev83

Did my first 30+ mile ride today...and my phone died after 25 miles...that's why you're better off with a dedicated device

smoggysteve

Schoie81 wrote:

SmoggySteve wrote:

I use my Garmin Edge 500 99% of the time but I have also used my old iphone and more recently my Samsung Galaxy. When I have used the phone the track and the accuracy is nowhere near as good as the Garmin.
7
I would always stick with a dedicated device myself

Just out of interest - how do you know its the phone that is not accurate? I'm not doubting you, just curious to know how you decide which is correct? I track my rides using GPS on Strava, but also enter them manually when I get home on Runkeeper.com (for reasons that I wont bore you with). The distance cycled and elevation gained is always different between the two and I never know which is correct and which isn't...?

Its the track that seems to be effected more. Wheras my garmin will show I was on a particular road the phones to tend to have my riding through solid buildings and fields. Also the spikes in speed and power which I get more than on a garmin. I have rides that showef I did 90kph just cos of an anomaly in the data. Not saying these don't happen with dedicated gps but they are more regular with the phones I have used

norvernrob

MrKev83 wrote:

Did my first 30+ mile ride today...and my phone died after 25 miles...that's why you're better off with a dedicated device

You need a phone with a decent battery! Mine has done up to 103 miles without even bringing the battery low message up. A 50 miler doesn't even use half a battery.

funkyg

NorvernRob wrote:

MrKev83 wrote:

Did my first 30+ mile ride today...and my phone died after 25 miles...that's why you're better off with a dedicated device

You need a phone with a decent battery! Mine has done up to 103 miles without even bringing the battery low message up. A 50 miler doesn't even use half a battery.

I concur. Did you have the screen on as well? That will really kill the battery life.
I did 62 miles at the weekend, screen off, wifi, bluetooth and 3G all off as well. Only turned 3G back on to check in at the stops along the way. Was down to about 40% at the end.

mrkev83

funkyg wrote:

NorvernRob wrote:

MrKev83 wrote:

Did my first 30+ mile ride today...and my phone died after 25 miles...that's why you're better off with a dedicated device

You need a phone with a decent battery! Mine has done up to 103 miles without even bringing the battery low message up. A 50 miler doesn't even use half a battery.

I concur. Did you have the screen on as well? That will really kill the battery life.
I did 62 miles at the weekend, screen off, wifi, bluetooth and 3G all off as well. Only turned 3G back on to check in at the stops along the way. Was down to about 40% at the end.

Everything but GPS was off. I've got a HTC one s. Think it depends what mood the phones in as to how long it lasts. Considering just getting an edge 200 or some other GPS unit, as long as I can strava it, that's all I want

roux_guy

I can't recommend the Edge 200 enough. Bullet-proof and dead easy to use. The breadcrumb navigation is excellent too. Me and a mate meet every weekend to do a 30-40 mile new ride and it's never let us down.

Vladimir2007

This might sound a little bit silly, but here is my opinion. If you're worried about a phone for emergency use, a very simple nokia "3310" (or whatever is the modern equivalent) can be had for about £20 and they're very light (albeit bulky) devices. Buy one, top it up, and that's your emergency phone when you're out riding. This will enable you to use your smartphone for whatever tracking/mapping applications you need.

Furthermore (or in fact, alternatively), if you have a non-iPhone, then spare batteries can be had for £10 (e.g. I bought an Anker spare battery for my Samsung S3 @ £10), for when I have jobs 12-15 miles away and I need Google maps to get me there and back. Works a treat.

So you could be putting your smartphone to good use and getting your money's worth out of it for as little as £10. It's worth a go.

Vladimir2007

MrKev83 wrote:

Everything but GPS was off. I've got a HTC one s. Think it depends what mood the phones in as to how long it lasts. Considering just getting an edge 200 or some other GPS unit, as long as I can strava it, that's all I want

Temperature plays a very big role in the longevity of the Lipo/Lion batteries that are found in phones. By the time you get to about 5 degrees* or below, battery life can be very poor indeed...

*centigrade, of course