SkinnyLad

Garmin looks like a solid training aid and what you describe is very similar to what I'm looking for. I wish there was some lightweight alternative with tracking that worked using only your phone and it's GPS as a standalone app.

SkinnyLad

Of all the free ones I tried and paid ones I have looked into, cyclemeter might be the closest to what I'm looking for but it is difficult to know if the premium extras would actually provide the functionality and UI I'm lacking. I'll try to find some reviews and screenshots, thanks!

Troul 

(when paired) To be able to use the phone in order to easily tap N plot on the spot routing, amending active status on the fly for that route. Giving the default option to save that route file as a copy or to override the existing file (depending how the user setup the config defaults) .

burnthesheep

I think they need to figure out a way for the mapping utilities like RWGPS or Strava to integrate incident reporting. So if on a ride you encounter a problem, you can report it and it would appear as a small icon specific to the type of incident. If multiples happen in the same area, the icon would accrue a little number. I thought the driving app Waze does something like this.

Then overlay this with the already existing DOT data on traffic volume per road color code.

So when planning a route, you can see what you're getting into. Majority of fatal and serious bike accidents in towns sometimes occur in pretty concentrated areas.

So stuff like this:
-tire destroying debris in bike lane
-doorings near hit
-hits/near hits
-high/dangerous traffic
-dogs
-extreme poor road condition worse than expected
-close passes

BlazingPedals

If it's so simple to create that it's not worth paying for, then maybe OP should create it himself.

spelger

i recently inherited my daughters android phone. i might delve into this investigation once again. the iphone en devour was an expensive outlay and so i abandoned that quickly.

prj71

Agree. No need to be distracted by real time info other than a quick glance at the bike computer for current distance and speed.

SkinnyLad

An app like this is never simple to create. It's the app itself that I'd like to be simple, just core functionality, well implemented but lightweight and with a good UI.
Most people seem to want something else though, which is why such an app probably doesn't exist, there's simply not enough money in it. I couldn't create anything as I have no skills in this area, but I happen to know someone who does. To get him talked into making an app just for me and some odd hundred people out there is a tough sell but he's got a long history in open source so who knows.

WhyFi

This may sound shocking, but y'all don't seem to know what the hell you're talking about. The data that he's looking for is primarily conveyed by a) +/- seconds (vs previous and/or PR) and maybe b) distance to go; it's hardly decoding hieroglyphics. In practice, it's *less* distracting, as it's certainly as glanceable as MPH and time/distance, but requires less by way of recall and mental math.

SkinnyLad

Half a year later and I'm stoked to announce that I've been busy helping out in making just the kind of app I was looking for in my previous posts. I do most of the UI design as well as provide the developer with useful test data.
The app still needs some polishing and features for the division of a track into legs/segments but basic tracking and racing seems pretty solid and I already use the prototype exclusively for all my rides. Here's a taste of the interface so far:


Recording a new route



Home view with track selection



Racing mode comparing progress with track average (green counter beside timer)


I'd love to hear what other bikers think of this project.

Polaris OBark

I think it is great, not to mention a delightful smackdown of all of the pessimistic sanctimonious nay-sayers and incorrigible vultures of ill-omen.

spelger

happy to see you working on something. you have a long way to go yet but keep on it. need a map. took me quite a bit of time to get a map into mine.

looks like phone...iphone or android?

spelger

what? not sure about all the nay-sayers and smack-down business but i recall this thread starting about mid last year and i think most were put off by the hoity-toity dissatisfaction of what was available in free apps. like developers are supposed to just put down what they are doing (family or owrk) and bow to the demands of a non-paying user. as a developer i know i was, all this work takes time as i'm sure the OP now is learning.

SkinnyLad

Depends on what you're after. Since I specifically did not want a typical "google maps"-based layout it's pretty much perfect for me already. Only the "checkpoint" functionality is incomplete, but I've been told the most difficult bits (code wise) in this whole enterprise have already been dealt with.

My developer guy also says it's done in a way so it should works on both android and iphone, but I'm using it on an android phone.

Have you done an app, cool! Any chance of finding it on an app store somewhere?

njkayaker

This "free" app is going to cost them thousands of dollars in time.

Polaris OBark

I read it for the first time in the middle of the night (insomnia) and I think (admittedly I was a bit bleary-eyed) the OP's question was rather mischaracterized, to put it more neutrally.

Polaris OBark

The idea behind "free" software is that the source-code is freely available to use and/or alter as desired, without restrictions.

It isn't about mooching.

Some companies pay their employees to write free software. In academic environments, it is normally the case that one makes results, including code, freely available. I understand that isn't identical to apps for a phone, but the grotesque mischaracterization of the free software ideal is what I found most objectionable, including the ideas that the products are by necessity inferior, and that whoever writes such software is a chump.

spelger

no, post 14. windows app since that is what i know. might look into android though.

njkayaker

"Free" is ambiguous. The way you are using the term is basically jargon (used by a limited group).

Most people are going to see it a "doesn't cost me money".

Software can be "free" (no cost) but not be "open source".

https://opensource.stackexchange.com...e-as-in-speech

Polaris OBark

Nothing ambiguous about it: https://www.fsf.org

The GPL (GNU Public License) is recognized by everyone who writes software, as well as the courts.

Not all open-source software is licensed under GPL. However anything licensed under GPL is free and open-source. (There are many other open-source licensing standards.)

If you use any of the unix command-line shells, python, ssh, ssl (which you are doing to read this website), anything linux or freeBSD, and a vast number of other programs, you are using free and open-source software. No one in their right mind would refer to that terminology as obscure jargon.

spelger

there is open source SW and there is free SW. the two are not the same. open source is typically source code which becomes the downloader's responsibility to compile,link, and use, sometimes an exe is already there. free SW is just that, free SW that can be immediately used. there is plenty of that in google store and apple store. want open source code? dive into gitHub.

Polaris OBark

Nope.

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html

spelger

i'm a developer. but what do i know.

njkayaker

The ambiguity is well-known by people familiar with all this! It's the basis of the "free as in beer versus free as in speech" phrase that has been used for years when talking about the difference.

I didn't say it was "obscure".

The vast majority of people here are not going to be familiar with FSF and the fairly-specific meaning they apply to "free" (or any of the rest of you mentioned).

The vast majority of people here are going to see "free" as meaning "no cost to me".

So, you managed to prove my point.

This is ridiculous. Very few of the people using this website will have any idea about what any of this means!.

mschwett 

cool project.

the “cadence” cycling app does a really great job of this for any strava segments that you’ve starred and synced. instead of a map, it shows a cross section of the ride with your current position, best, and either last or average. it’s really fun racing yourself. at any time you can switch from the live segment race to any of the other data screens.

a lot of the complexity is probably in automatically figuring out which segments you’re possible running, given that GPS coordinates certainly don’t exactly match ever.