[Closed] android phone as a bike gps

Use Maverick- full OS mapping- really useful 🙂

Free 😀

The closest to what you want that I know of is Viewranger.

[url= http://www.viewranger.com/product-overview/product-features ]Viewranger[/url]

slainte 🙂 rob

I use endomondo for tracking, does the job pretty well. Sometimes gives some rather dubious claims to the top speed of a ride etc.. But seems to map well, I can see where I recently crashed and fell down the side of the trail in the mapped route. Not sure if you can use it to follow a route as I haven't needed to do that!

It's also free. (You can pay for a pro version)

Thanks
Viewranger looks great. well priced 1:25 maps and does all the training logs.

anyone have any exp with this??

Backcountry Navigator gives you a full function, limited period free trail, and uses open source and free OS maps. It works very well on my Galaxy S.

It can use both online and offline maps, so if you're likely to be out of data coverage you just download the maps for the area beforehand.

The biggest flaw in your plan, though, will be battery life - it's dire on smartphones anyway, and far worse if you're using the GPS all the time (Think 1-2 hours from full charge).

Alaric.

some rather dubious claims to the top speed of a ride etc.

I've tried a few different apps and they've all had this flaw.

On Sundays moderately paced road ride, Runkeeper had me topping out at an astounding 147km/h.

I use my Nexus S for tracking (never tried to use it to follow a route) - No problems with battery life; I've had it on for 6 hours+ - you just need to make sure that you aren't running any non-essential apps / services.

alaric - Member
The biggest flaw in your plan, though, will be battery life - it's dire on smartphones anyway, and far worse if you're using the GPS all the time (Think 1-2 hours from full charge).

Recalibrate your battery (run it down completely, then full charge in one go). If that doesn't improve it then your battery is farked. I get well over 6 hours on my Galaxy S running Orux Maps or over a day recording a track with MyTracks (accidentally left it running over night!)

Theres been a bit of discussion about this on [url= http://www.justgoride.co.uk/content/forum/messages.aspx?TopicID=378 ]here[/url].

It all gone a bit pink and ghetto though! 😯

I've used Viewranger + other apps on a Nokia 5800 and latterly a htc Desire and it's good for what it is. But if you want and can afford a "proper" GPS get one, they're miles better than phones, much longer battery life + ruggedized. No worries about a usually flimsily built £300 smartphone in the firing line on the front of your bike, better UI and screens that you can use with gloves (resistive, rather than capacitive).

"Backcountry Navigator" *s****s*

I guess it depends on how 'actively' you want to use it - I'd take my phone in case of emergency anyway so I just start tracking; stick the phone in a ziplock and put it in the camelbak. Comes out when I get back so I can log the route / time.

I use EveryTrail Pro on my iphone but it's available on android too. Big advantages of it for me over other apps:

- Good interface
- Decent battery life
- Allows you to download maps to the phone so that you're not reliant on a signal (and saves money if abroad!)
- Has a dedicated website to post your rides to rather than just facebook or twitter which lots seem to do (example [url= http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=696015 ]here[/url])
- Can upload photos to the website which you can then link to on here and such (eg below!)

[img] [/img]

Battery life is rubbish if you have the screen on all the time, like you would on a normal bar mount gps. If you just look at it when you want to check which way to go, it isn't too bad, 5 or 6 hours easily on my HTC desire.

I use viewranger for navigation, which is brilliant but not cheap, and endomondo for just route tracking if I don't need maps etc.