tarwheel 

The website that I have been using for years, mycyclinglog.com, has been going downhill for a while. The owner/developer does not appear to be maintaining the site any more or with any regularity. Earlier this summer, the site went down for about a week before it was fixed. More recently it has quit tracking rides by "tags," which is how I track my commuting mileage.

Can anyone recommend any good apps for tracking cycling mileage? An app that would track other kinds of exercise would be even better. I am not looking for a GPS style app such as Strava or Cyclemeter that tracks miles while you are riding. My cycle computer handles that just fine. I am just looking for a basic app that will allow me to easily track my exercise each day by type, miles, time, average speed, etc.

I have tried using another website, bikejournal.com, but it restricts the number of fields you can use -- by their selection -- so I cannot use it to track commuting miles unless I pay for premium membership. I might not be opposed to paying for membership if I could actually use the site for a while to see how it works, but I'm reluctant to pay $20 for a tracking site that may or may not work well.

I also would rather use an app rather than a website (altho both would be great) so I can easily enter exercise with my iPhone or iPad.

rpecot

Strava is really starting to grow on me. I like the social aspect of it. I recently found the BF commuters club, which doesn't seem to get a lot of discussion here. Hope I didn't breach some unspoken rule by mentioning it.

Bike Forums Commuters | Strava Club

ill.clyde

I like Endomondo ... I know you said you didn't need it to be GPS based, but it makes tracking SO easy. And I don't get tied up in trying to beat people on segments in Strava.

I think most "cycling miles" apps are GPS based because it just makes it easier. You don't have to input anything.

I don't think I've ever seen anything like what you're looking for. Maybe just a simple spreadsheet?

jrickards

The MapMyWhatever.com collection of sites (MapMyRide.com, etc) may be what you're looking for. Some sites, like Strava and Endomondo, depend on a GPS device or a GPS-enabled phone for data and don't support much user entered data very well. MapMyRide does support GPS devices and GPS data from their phone app but doesn't require it. In MapMyRide, you can plot a route on the site and save it then record the ride and assign it that route. You don't need routes so you can just record that you rode 15mi in 1hr2m55s and that's fine. You may record many other activities such as gym workouts, volleyball games, walking/running, virtually any activity. You don't need to have an account with MapMyRide, MapMyRun, MapMyFitness, ... to log each of the different activities, all can be logged on one (so I don't really understand why they have all of them other than to attract users with different interests).

They have an app too which allows you to run the GPS and record your route or you may just use it to enter data manually such as selecting a route and recording the time.

I find that MapMyRide is the most versatile of all of the sites.

Here is a screenshot of October for me.

tarwheel 

The site I've been using, mycyclinglog.com, was developed before there were any apps or before they were widely use. It is website based, however, and I can access the site through my iPhone or iPad, but it is not an app. I would prefer a tracker that has an app as well as website, so I can use it on my desktop computer as well as phone or tablet.

I have had apps with Strava and Endomondo in the past but didn't keep them because they seemed to be data/battery hogs. I also found that the GPS trackers on these apps consistently under-report mileage compared to my cycle computers. However, I hadn't considered using those apps to manually enter and track exercise, and wasn't aware you could use them for that.

WestMass

I'd also like to chime in for using STRAVA. I think it gets a lot of flack because people are competitive about it and some people seem to like strava more than they like biking....

BUT

It is a really great app. If you WANT to be competitive (with yourself or with others) it is amazing. I can see every day how I did on my commute on certain segments (climbs, etc.) against every single other time I've ridden that route. I can see where I stand in comparison to other commuters in my area. If you go premium you can use heatmaps which show every road you have every ridden on since you used the app. I also like how it gives you the option to choose different bikes in the app (which you program in), it gives you weekly mileage, gives you graphs comparing your riding week-by-week throughout the year.

The route-mapping feature, which is relatively new, is BY FAR significantly better than any other program for mapping out your rides. You can even use the app while you ride as a type of turn-by-turn like a GPS.

I think the interface is smooth - works well on iphones and androids, and on your computer.

(also - it is super easy to manually enter rides)

tarwheel 

What's funny is that I have used the Strava, Endomondo and MapMyRide apps on my iPhone in the past but got rid of them. I was using them mainly to track rides using their GPS function but, like I said, they were data and battery hogs. They would undercount miles on rides, and the elevation gain data was worthless. However, all of them might be fine for my purposes if I can manually enter data.

Tundra_Man 

Call me a troglodyte if you want, but I just use an Excel spreadsheet. I take my mileage off my odometer on the bike and enter it in every day. I've gotten fancy with it where it breaks down my mileage by month and by which bike I rode.

laflavor

Manually entering data with any of them seems like your best bet. I do a lot of workouts that aren't bike based, and map my ride has a pretty good selection that you can manually enter, in addition to the tracking feature with the phone, so it works well for me. Both the app and website are pretty easy to use.

velocity

If you like forums and you like face book or sharing or just social networking all those apps like Strava are for you. Also you can get a Garmin and use their connect account which is free and get feed back that way. All apps/programs are motivation through numbers. They can be a whole lot more too.
V

RonH

I use CycleMeter on my iPhone. I upgraded to the Elite status for $4.99. It tracks other types of exercise too (walking, running, etc).
--> Abvio | Cyclemeter

pdlamb

Ok, you're a troglodyte!

I use a spreadsheet as well. Takes about 15 seconds to enter data, and maybe 5 minutes every year to open another tab and copy all the stuff from my mileage log from last year over and change the dates. I've got 4-5 charts I like to look at, and I'll make more if I want them.

PatrickGSR94

Wasn't this just posted the other day?

I use Strava because I'm a numbers junkie, and Strava lets you track miles on individual bikes, and also lets you add parts to individual bikes and retire those parts as you replace them. So you can instantly know how many miles are on your tires, chain, cassette, etc. Very handy for tinkerers and DIY folks like me.

no1mad 

I've used various apps to track/log activities and the ones I like the most are (in no particular order): endomondo, RunKeeper, and Sports Tracker.

If you were using an Android device, I'd say check out Google My Tracks- data stored locally and you choose whether to upload it manually or sync automatically. Not only that, but you can choose what to upload- either the route info or the activity data (which is saved to a spreadsheet in Google Drive).

jrickards

I've been thinking of doing the same but I have so much data on MapMyRide that I'd like to download but need a premium membership to get.

tarwheel 

Is there any way to track different bikes using MapMyRide?

I already have an account and tried logging miles for the month of October. I like the way it logs data and the readout it gives you, but I couldn't see a way to track data by different bikes.

Hypno Toad

Funny, I'm a knuckle-dragger too, but also invested in the new world. I keep a spreadsheet I've used for many years, over the years, I've tracked data with a Cateye, Endomondo, Strava, and Garmin. I use Android and the Razr Maxx has a lot of battery life, so battery life hasn't been an issue to me.

Like the OP, my wife doesn't like Endomondo or Strava on the iPhone because of the battery drain. She bought a multi-sport Garmin this summer and love the extended battery life for her phone.

My short answer is Endomondo is the best phone app, however the issues stated earlier will continue to be issues (drain the battery and not the most accurate GPS); otherwise, invest in a specific GPS device like Garmin. I'm very happy with the Garmin 510, I use it will all bikes. Garmin Connect logs all my data, and I can push that data to Endomodo and Strava automatically.

Andy_K 

Actually, I use a spreadsheet and MapMyRide. I had been using just MapMyRide, but they recently broke their gear tracking feature and so I added a new tab to a spreadsheet I had for other bike-related data. I still record my rides on MMR, but I update the spreadsheet at the end of the month to see where the components are.

It would be quicker to just use the spreadsheet for everything, but it's not like I'm actually going to spend less time obsessing about bike stuff anyway.

jrickards

There is a gear tracker but I haven't used it. Someone else on this forum has tried to use it and found it buggy. There is the possibility that you need a paid membership to see the difference between the bikes, I'm sure a free membership can log different bikes and perhaps see summaries but I'm guessing at this point.

I might try an experiment and log today's ride with one bike and tomorrow's ride with another, I'll post the results.

jrickards

The one thing I don't like about GPS data (keep in mind, I'm using a phone, not something more accurate like a Garmin) is (1) it is too accurate and a 15km route might be 14.7 one day, 15.5 another because I'm cutting corners or taking wide corners and I don't need that level of accuracy and (2) it is dependent on weather conditions/availability of satellite connection.

no1mad 

I no longer have a MapMyFitness account, so can't answer your question about MMR. However, I do have an endomondo account and while I use the free one, it looks like you might be able to tag each ride with a bike and then use a tag filtered search in the Premium version (I could be wrong, though).

TallTravel

I've been using Strava for the past 4,000 miles, and I love everything about it. The free version is so feature rich I haven't begun paying yet, but almost pulled the trigger numerous times.

They use Bluetooth as their only conmmunications protocol, though, so if you already own a ANT+ transmitter, you'll need something else.

They offer 4-5 different methods for manually adding data, from the full website only.

I've used my Samsung S5 with the GPS on for 9 hours straight, so battery has not been an issue for me. I feel bad for Apple users, but hope their new phones have decent battery life.

I've got my road bike and my MTB stored on Strava, so I simply click on the bike I'm riding, whether I'm running, walking, hiking, riding, etc. I don't think there's a limit on the number of bikes you can store, but I'm sure someone else here had found the limit they'll store.

It takes me 4 seconds to start the app, 2 seconds to stop it. For me, that's not time consuming. It gives me altitude, feet climbed, mileage, group segments, individual segments, challenges, Daily average speeds, total daily miles, weekly totals, personal bests for segments, annual mileage per bike, etc, etc.

Walter S

I quit using apps to track mileage years ago. They're all too time consuming. I have an el-cheapo speedometer with basic functions for speed, odometer, trip meter, average speed, etc. I look at the odometer once in a while to see how many total miles I've wracked up. And I reset the trip meter usually at the start of each week so I can see how far I rode that week.

Andy_K 

I was going to say that you could easily track mileage for multiple bikes, and you can if you happen to have added the bikes to your gear list before they rolled out the current Gear Tracker sponsored by Zappos, but now you can only add shoes and near as I can tell only shoes that are in their database. I suppose you could just pick a random brand of shoes and give it a "nickname" that tells you which bike it is. If you did that, you could track mileage for multiple bikes by selecting them as "gear" when you record a workout.

You used to be able to track separate mileage for things like tires and chains that you use together, but that went away when they introduced the new Gear Tracker. They claim it's going to come back at some point, but they don't have a time table for it.

Anyway, when you log a workout on MapMyRide, you can select a single piece of gear that you used for that workout and it will accumulate a mileage total. If you've signed in, you can find the Gear Tracker under the "My Home" menu.

jrickards

Yeah, I noticed the same thing for the Gear tracker, only shoes. It was suggested by someone that some websites/apps are only created to generate ad revenue, it is beginning to look like MapMyWhatever is going that way.