Smart phone mapping

[david k]

You can download to a gps device or follow the route from the phone. The phone has issues to do screen visibility and inclement weather.


To the best of my knowledge it does not let you plan routes offline - you need an internet connection, I think you can follow a route you made previously if offline.
Any phone running gps & displaying your route will run down your battery faster. Look at options like "waking up" for turns etc.

The "offer" for the maps runs almost tot he end of April. Lots of time to download your free region and test it out.

Yeh I think once you've downloaded at home wifi you can then run it offline

If it has a waking up option then that's great, I have a couple of back up battery's but never used them I'll have to dig them out

 

[steveindenmark]

Dont get me wrong with Komoot. I like it and its better than nothing for on the fly routing. I have it set to road bike and it has taken me up gravel tracks and forest tracks, but nothing unrideable.

A friend of mine used Komoot to plot a route from his address in Holland to my address in Denmark. He said that for apart from about a kilometer, it was the route he would have chosen. So its a useful tool. I like it because I can plot with Komoot on my phone and send it to my Wahoo Bolt.

 

[steveindenmark]

You can actually use Google maps as well. There are several problems using a mobile phone for navigating imo. I find the screen really hard to see in sunlight. The phone eats battery power compared to other devices and its probably the most delicate piece of kit we carry. I prefer to have mine in my pocket. I use a Wahoo Bolt. It is really tough. I have dropped it several times and left it on the bike in the pouring rain and it still works. I rode 200km in 10 hours yesterday. It still had power when I finished. It is a faultless piece of kit.

 

[steveindenmark]

For mapping my main app is Ride with GPS. I use this with my Wahoo. I have mapped hundreds of Kms with RWGPS and had some excellent days out. But you need to learn it to get the best out of it. The 3 best things about it is that it works effortlessly with the Wahoo. It has Street View with it so you can see the roads you will be riding on. You can make excellent, cusomised route sheets. So if everything fails you just follow printed out route sheet. I can customise the route sheet so what appears on the sheet also comes up on my Wahoo as I ride.

 

[tom73]

Funny enough had a play with RWGPS this morning it looks to be a nice bit of kit. Had a 30 mile ride planned out in no time. Uploading to wahoo well it just works once set up which is just a click or two.

1+ for wahoo a great bit of kit that just works out the box.

 

[Crackle]

Even RWGPS needs checking. A few rides I've mapped on it have taken me down a couple of dodgy tracks. My own fault for not checking unfamiliar parts of the route. It quite often diverts onto cycle paths which I don't want to use. Great website but again, it needs checking.

 

[tom73]

Like most gps not 100% they do all seam to have in built common sense blinkers.

 

[steveindenmark]

Even RWGPS needs checking. A few rides I've mapped on it have taken me down a couple of dodgy tracks. My own fault for not checking unfamiliar parts of the route. It quite often diverts onto cycle paths which I don't want to use. Great website but again, it needs checking.

You are right it does need checking. Once you get used to it, you can see those little offshoots it creates quite quickly. I find it easier to use than all the other apps for customising a route.

 

[tom73]

Well tested out RWGPS , wahoo combo worked like a treat. I did go a different way a few times to test out the wahoo but soon routed back onto route planned. So all in all a great combo with option to print off the route too. Oh and that 30 mile ride well it turned into a 40 mile one

 

[david k]

I've paid my £20 and got the lifetime offline maps, I've also bought a battery pack for my phone

Only issue now is the sunlight! The screen isn't great in sunlight

So my set up

Vivoactive 3 watch for recording data and downloading through Bluetooth
Garmin 800 so I can easily see miles and data, acts as back up to vivoactive watch
Phone and battery back up for mapping and routes

And cycli g used to be simple

 

[Crackle]

I've paid my £20 and got the lifetime offline maps, I've also bought a battery pack for my phone

Only issue now is the sunlight! The screen isn't great in sunlight

So my set up

Vivoactive 3 watch for recording data and downloading through Bluetooth
Garmin 800 so I can easily see miles and data, acts as back up to vivoactive watch
Phone and battery back up for mapping and routes

And cycli g used to be simple

That's quite a complex setup! if it works though, it works. I do sometimes take an old Forerunner as a backup to my Edge on longer rides and I do always have a phone, so I suppose it's not too different.