Following on from an earlier thread

Off on holiday soon, created a few gpx of mixed on and off road rides im looking to do round some areas I know I’ll have no signal never mind internet connection.

Normally use MMTracker but don’t have / can’t get maps for the area.

ViewRanger seems to be popular but even in Navigation mode it seems to want to record a track which I suspect will unnecessarily burn battery plus I can’t seem to get the screen to stay on or the map to rotate despite clicking the option.

So… Does anyone know of a basic android based app that will let me upload a gpx and navigate me along it using free offline maps?

They will all burn through your battery. Personally I like ViewRanger but Back Country Navigator was a very good and cheap alternative.

I think Oruxmaps will do that, though I’ve never tried using the navigation functions. Works with free maps ripped from the internet – I’ve got my map creation sorted and full UK mapping ripped, but it can be a bit of a faff depending how you do it (at some point I’ll polish my map generation app and release it).

I use Back Country Navigator. Full UK os maps included in the price of the app, which was £8 when I bought it. I think there is a free trial version.
You can download map tiles to use when off line.

Thanks I’ll have a look at those two, everything seems to be rammed full of features when all I need is the basics

Problem with buying more maps is I already have 95% of the ones I need, I don’t want to be paying again and again

OSMand, there’s a free version (limited number of offline maps) and a paid version which is well worth the money. As said above, any app will kill your battery if you’re constantly using via a combination of GPS and keeping the screen on!

Tried osmand, didn’t think too much of it and it kept telling me one of the gpx was too far from a road to navigate

Normally use MMTracker but don’t have / can’t get maps for the area.

Is it old Memory Map maps that you use? I think I have the whole of the UK on a CD or DVD that I will never use again. 1:50k of the UK, version 5 I think. If you can make use of it I can stick it in the post or I may even have a version I exported for MMTracker if I delve into the depths of my NAS

Yep old memory map files, I have most stuff but I’m lacking any detail on Anglesey, I’ll email you, thanks

Just sent a reply

I’ve found that the phone comms is the biggest drain on battery life. If using navigation features for a long period, put the phone in Airplane mode

BCN here – can use Open Street maps when abroad.

Put your phone in airplane mode when out in no-where land so the phone is not hunting for a signal as this is the biggest battery hogger of the lot.

It really depends of the setting of your phone before the ride. I was recently in similar situation, when going for holiday in Normandy.

What I did was I got premium maps of the area we were going to, I found plenty of GPX files on French MTB forum (VTT!), bought the QuadLock mount and it was it. Before the rides I switched wifi, Bluetooth and NFC off on the phone, the network setting was 2G only, display dimmed a bit and running Strava with ViewRanger (in “follow” mode, which records your ride, as you said) simultaneously I was able to enjoy the technology for around 4 hours.

And this included: snapping photos during the rides, sending occasional text to the wife and having the screen on for most of the time (proper navigation!). Phone is Xperia Z3.

I use an old phone not my main one so its always in aeroplane mode with just gps switch back on.

Thankfully I’ve had a mystery donor of the exact maps I needed to work with MMTracker so I’m all good now.

Just got an idea: getting an external battery pack in one of these stem/toptube mounted bags would allow for a whole day of exploration!

I’ve known people do that and I actually have a dynamo front wheel and usb charger so its not really an issue, its just if I was going to buy a new app and potentially buy a load of maps for a third time I don’t want to be buying a battery pack (for when I don’t have the dynamo) just because I cant get a bit of the app I never use to turn off and stop draining the battery.

Anyway, as above, I’m sorted now, many thanks