Bike Tracker

PC Ability

About this app

There are loads of apps out there for Android that track bike rides, runs, and other physical activities, so why create a new one? I wrote Bike Tracker because I found that all of the other trackers were weak in key areas that were important to me. I didn't care about social sharing of my routes, nor did I did own heart rate monitors and other Bluetooth-attached accessories. I didn't go cycling to train for anything, I just went out to enjoy myself, and what I really wanted was an app that could track my rides and provide conversion from GPX format into Google Earth-friendly KML files without the need to connect to an online service. In fact, the app does not require an internet connection, unless you opt to display a map.

I was also rather disillusioned with the available spoken turn-by-turn direction apps out there, and so I've written what I believe is a superior turn-by-turn engine into Bike Tracker. It gives timely and accurate turn instructions, and will talk you back onto the course if you ever take a wrong turn or drift off route. The app also connects directly with your "Ride with GPS" account, so you can gain immediate access to all your cycling routes in just a few taps.

Furthermore, I wanted highly-customizable voice feedback that used whatever TTS engine was set as the default on my device. Most apps provide voice feedback to some degree, but as those apps are designed to work in multiple languages, not much seems to be done to clean up the way various tidbits of information are spoken. Bike Tracker is written solely in English, and so great pains have been taken to present spoken information (especially times-of-day) in a manner that is familiar to English-speaking users. I even give you the power to tweak the parameters used by the turn-by-turn algorithm, so that it can be tailored to best suit your needs.

I've also provided a large array of information that you can choose to have spoken, including; total riding time; total moving time; total stopped time; distance; time-of-day; start time; average GPS accuracy; and worst GPS readings. You can select which of these pieces of information is spoken, in which order it is spoken, and you can customize the fixed spoken words that surround the information (such as "Total distance is 3.5 kilometers" or "You've traveled 3.5 kilometers" for example).

Also included are flexible methods of presenting different information each time the app speaks. For instance, I have a large amount of information I want spoken each kilometer, but at the half-kilometer I have the app ONLY announce the distance. The combinations are virtually endless.

What and how information is spoken is defined in a PROFILE, and you can create as many profiles as you like. For example, I have two very similar profiles that differ only in how much is spoken. One speaks LOTS of verbose information for when I'm on solo rides, while the other speaks minimal information for when I'm on rides with others.

Another feature lets you designate "Quiet Apps". Whenever any of the quiet apps are in the foreground, Bike Track will SHUT-UP and say nothing. You can assign apps like calls handles (both stock and VoIP), push-to-talk services, voice recorders, etc, where you simply do no want to be interrupted by spoken information from Bike Tracker.

During rides, you can invoke a SECONDARY SUMMARY that starts from zero, but doesn't change the PRIMARY SUMMARY that may be returned to once the secondary summary is of no further value. This is handy for ride-within-a-ride situations.

Once a ride is over, the recorded GPX file can be converted into a KML (without having rely on an online service), ready for display on Google Earth using their route fly-over feature. If you need to edit the GPX file (using such PC apps as Java Open Street Maps) you can quickly convert the edited GPX into a new KML. The app includes error-smoothing algorithms that you can adjust to suit your needs.

Ratings and reviews

So far all I've done is download & install the app and connect it up to my Ride with GPS account. Based on what I'm reading and what I see, this app looks AMAZING!! I'll actually give it a try this afternoon on my ride home from work and will update my review afterward. Update 11/16/19: I've been using this app for two years and it's still 5+ stars. The integration with RWGPS is awesome and the audio prompts are exactly what I need. I have a bike computer with routing (Wahoo Elemnt) but when I'm navigating a route I'm unfamiliar with the audio prompts from Bike Tracker are just what I need. I put a single bluetooth earbud in my ear and rely on the prompts from Bike Tracker to get me where I'm going. Love it!!

I have updated from my previous review (2 stars). Previously I was suffering from a very buggy and temperamental experience, which was detracting from what looked like a nice idea and much needed app for the cycling community. I stuck with it and have had a pretty flawless experience since. I can say that you definitely need any battery/cpu saver setting on your phone turned off as this can interfere with the apps operation. Also make sure you have a green or yellow GPS fix shown at the bottom.

I recently had a problem connecting this with RwGPS, but a quick note to the forum and it was fixed it in lightening time. So if I could award this 6 stars for it's usefulness and support, I would! I use Bike Tracker (BT) to log directly into RidewithGPS to get voice guidance. RwGPS has voice guidance but I found it unreliable on my phone. BT isn't fancy but it does give good voice guidance and hasn't lost the GPS signal over the several years I have used it. If you want to get the best out of BT, it has lots of help in the app.

What's new

Rebuilt settings for map colors (progress and various map types, as well as color for a planned route).