venomx

I have cycle meter which is good. But I can’t see how to save bike ride times etc so I can improve them each day

it also gives different mileage when compared to apples health app ( which to be fair is for walking not cycling)

any suggestions?

adamrice 

Cyclemeter has a lot of depth to it, and extensive help inside the app. It's worth spending some time reading that.

Before you start a ride, you need to indicate the route you'll be riding. From the stopwatch view, this will appear in the top left of the screen. This will appear as "new route" -- if you've never ridden the route with Cyclemeter before, tap on "new route" and add a route with a name before you start; you'll be able to select the route the next time you ride it and make direct comparisons (it doesn't really let you compare performances between different routes, which seems reasonable). Cyclemeter will show you your best/average/worst times for each route, and how your current ride compares. You can also race your previous performances on the route.

It also has a calendar view and a history view where you can review past rides. And you can have it e-mail you a download link for your GPX/TCX files for import into Training Peaks or whatever.

venomx

thanks dude
i have tried strava and cycle meter and cycle meter is miles better in my opinion.
im learning how to use it step by step and have bought the elite version and it’s brilliant

is the calorie count accurate? I’ve specified my weight, age etc

venomx

If you save and then choose a route as you said. Then veer off slightly around a different road, then what happens ?

also will it work if you do the same route but backward ?

adamrice 

If you tell it that you are riding a certain route, and then go off-course, then it'll throw your averages off, but it'll record the ride accurately. If the change is big enough, you can define a new route from the ride after the fact if you want; you can also define a new ride as the baseline for an existing route. I used to get hung up about each route being exactly right, and I've got like 5 versions of basically the same route with minor variations, but I've decided to live with the ambiguity.

I think that if you ride a route backwards, the interim splits showing how you compare to past rides will be off, but it'll probably average out in the end. On very hilly rides I can imagine the difference might be significant.

Calorie counts are not very reliable. The better you instrument your ride, the better the counts will be: if you add a heart-rate monitor, accuracy will improve. A power meter is the gold standard for calorie counts (calories burned are basically defined as equal to power expended—read this article for way more information) and gives you a huge amount of additional data.

I don't use Strava myself, but I can see how it's useful to a lot of people. The Strava heatmaps are really cool.

venomx

Ok last question
does it work well round cycle paths in parks or does it depend on the map ?


did the same route today as yesterday but the mileage is slightly different?

adamrice 

GPS doesn't care what's on the ground. You could be riding across a frozen lake for all GPS cares. And all these apps do is log your GPS waypoints.

Ogsarg

I'm using cyclemeter and what I've seen is that if you have it on a saved ride and alter the route, it automatically defaults to New Route. That way it does not throw off your times.

venomx

Awesome, thanks for the info!

Is the best way to compare the same routes in the history section? For example having them side by side so I can compare the timings after each run ?

i.e comparing the same route times

sirjag

wow i'm learning a ton...i'm so heavily invested in Strava for the last couple years...change is hard for me....but cyclemeter seems pretty sweet, i wonder if my fitbit heart rate and wahoo cadence and speed sensors will all pair with it?

Steve B.

The app is only tracking where you went. GPS units have built in distance inaccuracies as they are only recording a point every second or so at maximum resolution. That tends to have the track cut corners if you’ve ridden a route that’s very twisty. As well the GPS signal is inherently weak, so riding in areas with a lot of foliage can cause the unit to lose a position. That too can throw off the distance measured. Then it’s dropping the recorded track onto an online map, whose image of where a road or path actually exists may not correspond to real position, thus you can see a track not following a road on the map.

Speed sensors use the earths magnetic field to determine wheel revolutions. That is usually used as the better distance measurement as compared to the GPS signal (is how Garmin does it).

adamrice 

Speed sensors don't use the earth's magnetic field. They use a magnet on your wheel (or crankarm, in the case of a cadence meter), which momentarily closes a reed switch as it rolls by. Every time the switch is closed, it sends a "ping" to your head unit or app; that in turn does the math on wheel size and ping frequency to figure out your speed.

Speed sensors and HRMs that use Bluetooth will interface with Cyclemeter just fine. They're pretty much commodity devices.

Steve B.

The Garmin (and other similar sensors) do exactly that. These are different than the type that attaches to a spoke with a sensor on the fork.

https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?fa...Jd3Tnyif9jRSy6

canklecat

Garmin, Wahoo, XOSS and others make dual function earth induction sensors. Remove and re-insert the battery and check the LED color change to switch from cadence sensor mounted on the crank, to speed sensor mounted on the hub. No magnets needed. They're ANT+ and Bluetooth compatible.

My computer chooses automagically. With my old iPhone and 2012 era Wahoo Fitness pack and ANT+ dongle I can choose between ANT+ or Bluetooth. My Android phone is Bluetooth only. They all work pretty well after choosing the appropriate mode.

I have both types -- two sets of 2012 era Wahoo speed/cadence magnet sensor kits, and the XOSS speed/cadence induction sensor. They all work pretty comparably. The induction sensor seems to have a few more brief signal loss glitches but not enough to matter over distance. The older Wahoo speed/cadence magnet sensors were ANT+ only but work fine with my inexpensive XOSS G+ computer.

venomx

Cyclemeter is brilliant. The only thing that doesn’t work well is the stop detection, I’m guessing it’s supposed to detect when you stop and then pause but it doesn’t

also doesn’t seem to calculate ascent whatsoever even though I went up a huge hill
strava calculates ascent perfectly

changed my map from google to Apple and now seems to calculate ascent correctly, still hit and miss though

adamrice 

GPS is inherently bad at reckoning altitude. Strava can correct altitude on the back end by referencing known altitudes for locations. I don't think Cyclemeter does that.

adamrice 

I learned something new today.

venomx

Ok after some support from the developers and tweaking settings it now calculate ascent and descent properly rather than it just saying zero

venomx

Stop detection never seems to work ?