How to Upload Data From Ride With Gps to Strava

26 December Smartphone Cycling App

One Less Device

When my Garmin died the 2nd fourth dimension, I was travelling away from dwelling.  I had noticed that some people use a smartphone cycling app to record their ride straight on their phone, without a dedicated GPS device, like a Garmin.  I got out my phone, connected to a WiFi hotspot, downloaded the Strava app, and decided to gave it a try.

The first fourth dimension recording a ride using a smartphone cycling app on my phone was a disaster.  Afterward recording for a few minutes quietly in my jersey pocket, the phone went to sleep and the app stopped tracking me.  When I took information technology out a little after to check what was going on, I woke it up.  Right before my eyes, it updated my location and drew a straight line from where I had been when it had gone to slumber to where I currently was.  Impressively, it said that I was averaging 237 mph on the ride.

At that speed, I set some unassailable KOMs ("King of the Mountain").  On the other hand, it would likely raise more than than eyebrows on Strava.

Information technology took some trial and mistake, and a picayune online sleuthing, but I discovered that when the device went to sleep some apps would stay awake, and some non.  More than investigation revealed a setting to continue Strava, or a second app I was trying out, RidewithGPS, awake.  In the Android 6.0 vernacular, I had to turn OFF battery optimisation for both apps.  That done, adjacent ride, the smartphone cycling app tracked my progress with no hitches.

(Interestingly, from a battery usage standpoint, there was niggling difference from using i smartphone cycling app or two.  Both were using the same GPS indicate and seemed to exist cartoon minimal power. More almost bombardment usage in a later postal service…)

Smartphone Cycling App Advantages

At that place is actually one big advantage to using a smartphone cycling app for tracking your rides. In that location was no demand for the tedious process of "uploading" the track afterwards the ride.   Whether sending from the Garmin to Strava, RidewithGPS, GarminConnect or whatever other online site.  That is because when I tell the app that I am done with the ride, it saved the track to my online account immediately (bold it had some kind of data connectivity – WiFi or mobile broadband).

That is a lot less fuss than plugging in the Garmin to a USB port on my computer, copying the .fit file and uploading it to Strava, or where ever other site I might use.

In fairness to Garmin, I insisted on doing information technology the hard fashion. You can configure the device to send the rails to GarminConnect via WiFi.  So you tin can configure GarminConnect to laissez passer the information on to Strava, RidewithGPS or other online services.  For various reasons – simply generally because I do not like linking my online accounts – I had never bothered with all that configuration.

When the USB port on my starting time Garmin 1000 packed up, I was unable to recollect the tracks that I had not already uploaded to my computer.  The WiFi was working, simply you cannot verify the configuration without the USB port.  "Sorry," Garmin support told me, those tracks are history.

Smartphone for Cycling Navigation?

Back to my state of affairs where I was travelling and found myself all of a sudden Garmin-less.  Later on a couple of missteps, I could at present reliably tape my rides using a smartphone cycling app.  Merely since I was travelling, what I really wanted was a way to navigate some new routes.  I am used to either plotting the routes myself or finding popular routes online.

Google Maps could provide some form of navigation, but only when I took the telephone out of the safety of my jersey pocket.  The user-friendly Garmin handlebar mount was no apply.  Even if the phone was on the handlebar, however, I did not accept a way to follow a pre-defined road.  The most I knew how to do was to have it show a track and my current position.  The Garmin was closer to a proper satnav.  Information technology was able to tell me when to turn, and to show a useful map of the turn equally it approached.

More Hurdles to Using Your Smartphone on the Wheel

Attaching the phone to the handlebar is non the simply challenges to using a smartphone cycling app for navigation.  For instance, if I configured it to keep the brandish ON, how long could I ride earlier the battery died?  Of the diverse problems I had with the Garmin, the battery on it never died mid-ride.

And what if it rained, something that is more common in Yorkshire than sunshine?  Could I leave my phone out in the rain?  My first Garmin quit after an extended drenching on the roads east of Hull.  That is a device designed to be outside!  That left me scrambling to find a data signal for my smartphone.

A smart telephone may exist enough smart enough to navigate me around the Yorkshire Dales – or anywhere else in the world, for that affair.  Merely is information technology rugged plenty to stand the weather, and durable enough to proceed running on a long twenty-four hours out?  I'll share my experience in solving these challenges in future posts…

Scott Blau
Result Organiser
White Rose Classic

houstonmilive.blogspot.com

Source: https://whiteroseclassic.org.uk/navigation/smartphone-cycling-app/

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