Friedrich

(Apart from Strava)

mev

Some of these aren't "cycling apps" per se but scanning through my app list, these are the ones getting the most uses (on the road 3+ months so far):

- AccuWeather; particularly for weather radar and projection of rainfall
- Chrome/Weather Underground; for predictions including rainfall and wind direction/magnitude
- Windy; for wind map and projection

- Komoot; occasional route planning out of the box
- (RideWithGPS) sometimes though I do more route planning on my laptop
- GarminConnect; to download/sync routes with GPS devices
- iOverLander; informal camp sites; small town services

- BeyondPod; on quiet/remote roads have listened to Podcasts (not in urban areas or with traffic)
- Audible; audio books, currently Lewis and Clark expedition

- Chrome/Expedia; motel reservations, not the Expedia app

- Clock; alarm clock
- Gmail; communications
- Google Maps; services
- Maps.ME; offline map and location
- OrganicMaps; offline map and location
- Sunrise sunset; sunrise times

- WordPress; blog posts
- Photo and Picture resizer; blog posts

For what it is worth, I have my Garmin rides linked so they show up on Strava so I can embed them in a blog post. However, I don't use the Strava app itself. I will go to the Strava Web site to look at heat maps.

dvdwmth

I like Komoot. I use for planning, navigation, and tracking.

I would rave about iCardio as a tracker and heart monitor except it’s too buggy to use on long rides

Steve B.

Ride With GPS. I have a basic paid version, I use it all the time to plan out routes of varying distances, not always downloading. It’s also my activity tracker, keeps a log of my bike rides, kayak trips as well as swim workouts,

KC8QVO

I'll 2nd, 3ord, what ever, Ride With GPS.

Speaking in terms of route planning - Ride With GPS is very powerful in giving you data from which to plan your trip, not just "where". As in - the data can assist you in determining "where" - which is more powerful than just establishing a basic "go this way, go that way" route.

For example:
- Ride With GPS differentiates between roads and trails, and different grades of trails. Note that this needs to be scrutinized - usually with a satellite view unless you can physically get to the location where you are trying to scrutinize, or have someone scope it out for you. The trail surfaces that you may see detailed in RWGPS may not correlate if there have been improvements since when the data set used by RWGPS went in to the system

- RWGPS does an excellent job of outlaying elevation. This is especially helpful on bike tours. I did a presentation a couple years ago on a method to determine ride difficulty based on elevation. The root of it is that you have to establish a baseline of how various elevation gains/distances feel to you first. Then once you have that you can look at the numbers of routes you are contemplating and have a scale that fits you that can be the foundation through which you view the numbers you find on your RWGPS routes.

Ironically, I am reading a book right now called America on Two Wheels by David King. In no disrespect to the author, the first chapter in the book details his start of his cross-country tour starting in California with a several thousand foot climb up from the coast on which he bailed and got a ride. I won't spoil any more of the book, however the example highlights the importance of what I just laid out with respect to RWGPS and elevation. If you study those numbers and have established a baseline for yourself - you can route plan and do so with confidence to avoid such a situation as trying to make what miles you think you can make on relatively flat ground and end up with the route doing nothing but climbing up a mountain. It doesn't take much for a cyclist to know a comfort level of 40 miles in a day, for example, on lightly rolling terrain isn't going to happen with 5,000ft of elevation to gain. However, you need to know the numbers and to know the numbers you have to see them along with a scale from which to base them off of that pertains to YOU - not anyone else.

There is a thread I had going here in the Touring forum before I did that presentation, so somewhere around early 2022 I think or the fall of 2021. I tried doing a search for it but my search function on the forum right now doesn't work for some reason. Do a search for my username and "elevation gain". The thread had something to do with a method of determining the level of difficulty of various elevation for newcomers to touring. There are several examples in there with screen shots and charts to assist you.

KC8QVO

Here is a quick follow up with a link. I used an external search engine to find it. For some reason Bike Forum's search still won't work for me.
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/1...-tourists.html

DCwom

RWGPS - Easy to make routes on PC and share with others, most people can figure it out and the free version is enough for average riders. Kind of a dumb name though.

Strava seems appealing to the serious performance rider, which we aren't, so I can't say much about it.

Also have the Garmin app to sync with RWGPS, that's about all find the Garmin app useful for.

rm -rf

ridewithgps on my PC for creating routes.
I sometimes used the Strava Route Builder for unfamiliar areas. It uses one year of Strava recordings to color in roads by ride popularity -- the Strava heat map. It did a pretty good job of routing onto more popular roads instead of taking the shortest route. But it's editing tools to modify and analyze the route aren't nearly as good as rwgps.

Now, rwgps has their own heat map, viewable on the maps as I create a new route. I use Heat Maps to avoid roads more than I use them for choosing the most popular roads -- if a road has way less activity than nearby roads, cyclists are avoiding it.

osmand
Open Street Map for Android (and Apple iOS, too)
The free version lets you download 7 region maps -- in the USA, each state is a region. There's a simplified map for outside of the downloaded areas.
I got the paid version years ago. It was about $10 one-time then, now it's around $30 for a one-time perpetual license, I think.

This app launches in just a few seconds on my phone, and only needs a view of the sky for the GPS signal, no cell coverage is used. The maps are stored on the phone. It's possible to use it for navigation, but on the bike, I use my Garmin.

I like having osmand for situations like this: Where does this side road go? I want to detour or shortcut the ride, what's the best way to go? What's that mountain far ahead? It has a tool that shows straight-line distance from my current position to a spot on the map, quite useful.
For hiking: it has lots of trails (but probably not every one?) Very useful on the local trails that link lots of short trails in a tangled mess that's hard to navigate.

It has different map views for General, Driving, Hiking, Biking. As I zoom in, more and more detail shows up.
I have the hill-shading and contour lines loaded too. Very nice for visualizing hill steepness and height.

gauvins

Cycle.travel for route planning when internet is available. Distinctive feature is incredibly efficient routing - lightning speed, excellent choice of roads/paths/etc. Downside is coverage limited to Europe/North America AFAIK. Several download options, to push routes to navigation device.

Locus Pro/bRouter for offline route planning. Worldwide coverage. The only combo that I know will work 100% when offline.

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WeatherBug
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Need41speed

I initially started with RWGPS when I did the Metric Century ride here in Honolulu last year. Recently I’ve been using Bike GPS and running RWGPS in the background. I like the running display that Bike GPS uses especially current speed and current distance.