Tracking your Ride

Peter T

All,

After my ride in killarney at the weekend I've come away with thinking of purchasing a bike computer with gps. At the moment I track my rides using strava and chuck my phone into my back pack. I did a good bit of research into the area before the ride, looking over strava, google maps, youtube etc to then throw away all that info and follow anything that had mtb tyre marks on it. The result was a fair bit of doubling over and back, which is fine if you've the total day to be out exploring but this isnt often the case.

So my logic behind the gps:

• More compact on the bars than if i decided to mount phone
• Phone battery isnt drained running strava or other gps maps
• Display is right there so you can see if you're coming close to doubling back on yourself and see the general direction you should be going
• You'll see any sections you missed
• You can pre plot routes and get the most from exploring the area

I know nothing about them and road biking maps are well supported but how do they stand up to using off road ?

I'm not looking for something that is magically going to take me down a single track trail. Once I know where I am and the direction i want to be going should work. It can be annoying stopping every now and again to try figure out where you are or where you've been on your phone where reception could be patchy at best.

Any advice or personal experience on what you're approach is ?

xxyyzz

I think you're mixing up two different purposes here. For tracking your rides some kind of garmin device is best, I use the edge 520. You can upload to garmin connect and strava. For finding your way around somewhere new, first find someone else's spin in the location on strava and download their ride to a gpx file on your pc. Then install viewranger on your phone. On your pc go to the viewranger site and import the gpx file as a route. This will be synced to the app on your phone. You can then follow the route on the viewranger app as it overlays it onto an OS map and tell you which way to go.

Peter T

I think so too. I thought i could build a route on strava, download gpx file onto the garmin and use that as a heads up display like the viewranger app you described. The idea is to stop using the phone all together but maybe that's not possible. I'll give the view ranger a go and see what its like

xxyyzz

Peter T wrote: »

I think so too. I thought i could build a route on strava, download gpx file onto the garmin and use that as a heads up display like the viewranger app you described. The idea is to stop using the phone all together but maybe that's not possible. I'll give the view ranger a go and see what its like

Yeah I used it very successfully a number of times last year to scout out new locations. It can still be a frustrating experience starting and stopping and doubling back etc but I think it's the best option out there.

ianobrien

OP, I use a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt and I find it brilliant. The mapping is an OpenStreetMap outdoor map base. The unit lasts for ages and I use it for my exploring and I've yet to get lost with it.

I build my routes before I go in RidewithGPS.com, save them there and then on the morning copy them onto the Elemnt using the Elemnt phone app. Ride with GPS I find very good as it overlays Google Maps (including satellite) along with all the OpenStreetMaps outdoor maps.

Edit - While it does show the map in Black and White, it's a lot easier to read than a colour one in strong sun. The only drawback is that if you go off route, it won't recalculate like a car GPS

Peter T

Great thanks for the info. That sounds like almost exactly what I am looking for. A family member has a edge 520 so going to borrow that some weekend and go try it out. They were recommending to check out the wahoo also, plenty of members in his club using them with positive results

Top Dog

I started the same way, using a phone for tracking. Then got myself a Garmin Edge 200 as it was cheap and cheerful. Soon tired of the fact that I had to physically connect it to my computer to upload activity, so got rid and moved on to an Edge 520. Find it much handier, though I'm still getting used to following routes I've loaded onto it. If I want to follow other peoples routes I can download from Strava using a Firefox add-on, create a new route on Garmin Connect, and then send to device so I can use it. Happy enough that it does what I want for now, just want to get a heart rate monitor to go with it now.

CramCycle

ianobrien wrote: »

OP, I use a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt and I find it brilliant. The mapping is an OpenStreetMap outdoor map base. The unit lasts for ages and I use it for my exploring and I've yet to get lost with it.

I build my routes before I go in RidewithGPS.com, save them there and then on the morning copy them onto the Elemnt using the Elemnt phone app. Ride with GPS I find very good as it overlays Google Maps (including satellite) along with all the OpenStreetMaps outdoor maps.

Edit - While it does show the map in Black and White, it's a lot easier to read than a colour one in strong sun. The only drawback is that if you go off route, it won't recalculate like a car GPS

If I remember right though, you can pull out your phone, tell it where you want to go and send this to your Element via their app, I think

emeraldmtb

Tracking and following a route map are two different functions. The first can be done with a multitude of devices, including your phone, the already mentioned Garmin 520 and many others.

Creating a route and following it on your ride i amiore advanced feature that only seems to be included in the higher level (aka more expensive) devices like the Garmin 1000 series etc.

xxyyzz

Incidentally I have been using an app called Komoot recently for planning my MTB rides and find it superb, much better than view ranger. You can download someone's spin from strava as a .gpx file and upload it to your Komoot app as a route. The navigation is excellent and you can purchase the map for the spin to use in offline mode when you don't have any data signal. Highly recommend it.

smacl

I use www.bikemap.net in conjunction with a Garmin 810 and find it great, though it will route you through someones back garden if you're not careful. I'm always on the lookout for new gravel routes, so tend to look at the satellite photography on google maps, figure out possible loops, load them onto the 810, and cycle out to them. Loads of backtracking, and carrying or pushing the bike on a regular basis, but good fun for all that. Amazing some of the truly obscure places you see MTB tyre tracks though, there would appear to be some hardcore MTB mofos in the hills out there.

cletus

smacl wrote: »

I use www.bikemap.net in conjunction with a Garmin 810 and find it great, though it will route you through someones back garden if you're not careful. I'm always on the lookout for new gravel routes, so tend to look at the satellite photography on google maps, figure out possible loops, load them onto the 810, and cycle out to them. Loads of backtracking, and carrying or pushing the bike on a regular basis, but good fun for all that. Amazing some of the truly obscure places you see MTB tyre tracks though, there would appear to be some hardcore MTB mofos in the hills out there.

Out of curiosity, have you made any of your tracks and loops public?

smacl

cletus wrote: »

Out of curiosity, have you made any of your tracks and loops public?

Not as yet. Shared a few bits here and there, but I'm more interested including bits of off-road in mixed road and gravel spins, so possibly not much interest to MTBers. Lot of dead ends in Coilte lands which can make cobbling a loop together difficult. Real pity this, as with a bit of work we could have a great gravel road network.

cletus

smacl wrote: »

Not as yet. Shared a few bits here and there, but I'm more interested including bits of off-road in mixed road and gravel spins, so possibly not much interest to MTBers. Lot of dead ends in Coilte lands which can make cobbling a loop together difficult. Real pity this, as with a bit of work we could have a great gravel road network.

That's the very reason I asked you . Gravel and mixed road are exactly what I'm looking for. I've tried a couple of local coilte woods, but as you say, a lot of doubling back

smacl

cletus wrote: »

That's the very reason I asked you . Gravel and mixed road are exactly what I'm looking for. I've tried a couple of local coilte woods, but as you say, a lot of doubling back

From your sig, you're in Limerick and haven't cycled that part of the country myself, though there's great cycling in Clare. I find routes by following L-roads in sattelite view and looking for tracks that don't have street view. Then mark them up, copy to a gpx file for the Garmin, cycle out and try my luck. Lots of horrible climbs, carrying the bike and backtracking but fantastic way to explore new places.

cletus

smacl wrote: »

From your sig, you're in Limerick and haven't cycled that part of the country myself, though there's great cycling in Clare. I find routes by following L-roads in sattelite view and looking for tracks that don't have street view. Then mark them up, copy to a gpx file for the Garmin, cycle out and try my luck. Lots of horrible climbs, carrying the bike and backtracking but fantastic way to explore new places.

Thanks Smack. I'm actually in Kildare, but the rest of your post still stands

smacl

cletus wrote: »

Thanks Smack. I'm actually in Kildare, but the rest of your post still stands

I'm only rarely cycling through Kildare, mostly backroads from Sallins & Naas to get back to Blessington and home across the hills. If you go a bit towards Wicklow there are lots of options. If you have a look here and head up this way it looks like an interesting loop with a bit of length to it. I find having a GPS with mapping and your own track files is a huge help for those times when you're lost in the middle of nowhere looking for the nearest road.