We all love a good ride and we all like sharing the details of our rides. We share planned routes on group rides, we share our location in case of an emergency and we show off our rides on social media. Sometimes we simply record a route for our own purpose – for example to get statistics such as distance, speed and lean angle.
Smartphones have made recording and sharing trips an easy task. There are many tracking apps for both Android and iOS devices, some specific for motorcycle riding, others more generic. In this review I will cover five apps which I used myself, each with a different focus. (I have no affiliation with any of them and only review my impressions as an end user)
ESR – EatSleepRide
ESR is an “all-in-one tracking, social and safety app for motorcycle riders”. It tracks/saves rides, provides ride statistics and allows you to share your routes. You can explore motorcycle routes near you, create ride groups and see your friends on the app. The premium version includes a feature called Crashlight for crash detection and notifications.
The Explore tab of the app includes Featured Stories (events, stories and news) and “Fresh” (recent rides posted), which are very US-centric. The Nearby Posts section, however, does display Aussie routes, although there are not many of them.
After installing the app you will be required to create a free online account, where you can manage some of your settings and trips.
Recording a new ride is as simple as clicking the red record button. You can pause the recording when stopping for a break, however, I had a number of occasions in which the app simply refused to resume the trip and I ended up losing trip details.
Once you have completed your trip you can name it (cannot be modified later!) and provide basic details about phone location, type of bike and type of trip. You can then share your trip as a Route, name it (as well as rename), and add photos. Your routes and trips are sync’ed to your online account.
Details of the recorded trip include time travelled, distance, speed (top and average), elevation and lean angle. A nice touch is the ability to select a point on the graph which then displays the statistics for that point in the trip and focuses the map on that point.
All in all ESR is a good and useful app, although a bit US-centric. It is available for both Android and iOS.
https://eatsleepride.com
Relive
Relive is a cool app, although a bit gimmicky, which creates a 3D-like video of your ride. It is suitable for rides, hikes, runs and any other outdoor activity. It connects to your mobile phone and can also connect to other tracker apps (like Suunto, Garmin Connect, Endomondo, Polar, etc.)
Relive turns your ride into a video story, where you can see your route in a 3D landscape showing the terrain. You can include photos from you and your friends, see your highlights (like top speed) and share your videos with your friends on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and more. Location and key stats can be viewed in real time.
The Premium version (Relive Club) provides HD videos and allows editing videos, adding music to videos, adding up to 50 photos and more.
The app is very simple to use and allows pausing a trip during breaks.
You can see a sample of a real life ride on my Vimeo channel here.
Relive is available for both Android and iOS.
https://www.relive.cc/
Yamaha MyRide
The Yamaha MyRide app was developed by Yamaha Europe and is available in Australia too. Despite the name it can be used by any rider, not only Yamaha riders.
The app tracks and records your routes, allows you to look for new routes to explore and displays statistics of your rides. Statistics includes distance travelled, total time, speed (top and average), acceleration, altitude and lean angle. You can add photos to your saved trips, export trips to GPX files and share trips on social media.
Your trips are sync’ed to an online account, which is completely useless. You cannot manage your trips online and in fact I had a lot of trouble with managing trips in general. Some of my trips were not saved, some were not sync’ed online and others could not be deleted. The app insists on recording trips in another timezone, with time details needed to be changed for each trip.
Support for the app is non-existent. No one at Yamaha bothered to even acknowledge my emails and Facebook messages.
Yamaha MyRide is a free app available for Android and iOS.
Yamaha MyRide website
Calimoto
Calimoto is an app which was developed with motorcycle riders in mind. It allows for planning routes, turn-by-turn navigation, “tour catalogue” (saving and exploring routes) and trip statistics.
The devs’ moto is “no more straight roads” and they claim they want “every biker to find the perfect route”. They have developed a specialized routing algorithm for route planning which according to them always plots the best ride, along the nicest winding country roads. I can confirm from my own experience that Calimoto did a far better job than Google Maps when I plotted a route from Wisemans Ferry to Sackville Ferry for example. Planned trips can include POI’s and be set to fastest, winding, super winding or avoid highways. Enduro riders can select off-road tracks as well.
The app provides statistics such as speed, distance, acceleration, altitude and lean angle. Trips can be shared on social media directly from the app.
Premium features include access to all maps, and “danger zone alerts” (such as radar warnings).
Calimoto is feature rich and I’m yet to explore all its features. It works well and is fairly user friendly.
It is available for both Android and iOS
https://calimoto.com
Fuelio
Fuelio app is a bit different to the other apps in this review. It’s a vehicle management app and can be used to track mileage, fuel consumption and running costs of vehicles.
The Trip Log feature of the app allows you to record your trip and get costs statistics. A trip can be started manually or can be triggered to auto start by a Bluetooth device. For example, I configured Fuelio to start / stop recording whenever I switch my Cardo Freecom4 on / off. At the completion of a trip Fuelio calculates the distance and shows the cost of the trip based on your average fuel consumption (we’ll get to this feature too). Trips can be set to “private” or “work”, can be exported to GPX files and shared. Trip reports can be exported and emailed..
The fuel consumption tracking is very good too, allowing you to set fuel type and cost for each fill up. Favourite petrol stations can be saved and fuel discounts can be factored in. The app then shows statistics such as L/100km and cost per km.
Other costs and expenses can be tracked as well, such as rego, service, parking, tolls, insurance and more. Recurring costs such as insurance can be tracked easily, including reminders.
All data can be sync’ed to Dropbox or Google Drive, including automatic backups.
The app provides plenty of statistics, charts and reports, which can be easily exported. It is very comprehensive and powerful. The developer updates the app regularly and is very responsive and helpful. Personally I use it daily and highly recommend it.
Feulio is currently available only for Android.
https://www.fuel.io/
It would be impossible to try and list every useful travel app there are too many and every traveller wants different things from their travel apps. However, here’s a few useful or interesting travel apps that you may want to consider for your next trip.
You are absolutely correct. In this post I only covered apps which I have tested and used myself.