Ride tracking sites suggestions

[1happygirl]

Apologies if this has been covered already but since plans, technology, features change rapidly I thought I would ask.

I'm new to gps/ride tracking. I recently bought a Garmin 810 so my question is about tracking my rides.

I see Ride with GPS is somewhere around $80 a year. Is it worth it? I know there is also Map My Ride, etc.

I think for watching the Giro one year (in addition to money) NBC Sports/Universal made you create a free account with Map My Ride, but since I've never used any of these, I don't know which one is easiest and the best value.

My NEW Garmin is not working quite right (calls to Garmin, but I think we've straightened out) but due to my newness with the unit, I hit some laps that I didn't wanna hit and want deleted/edited out.
If you guys/gals also can help, I'm not sure how to create routes of rides I wanna do (Goal this year do fun tours until money budgeted runs out) on the computer or "on the fly" from the unit.

Thanks in advance as always!

[oliver1850]

Here's the last thread that came up on the subject:

http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=142210&highlight=strava+mapmyride

You can join any of the three popular mapping sites with no fees, you just have to put up with the ads.

Mapping a ride ahead of time is pretty similar with any of the three, some function buttons are in different places though.

I don't use a GPS until but regularly map rides both before and after riding. This year I'm doing a composite map for the year which will have every ride I do in 2014, or at least all the ones that start from home. I'm going to try to ride every road in the county again this year and the composite will make it easier to see where I've been, where I haven't, and help me plan the next ride to get the maximum amount of "new" road mileage.

People seem to have pretty strong opinions in favor of one site over the others, but I find they all work about the same for what I use them for. Competitive types like Strava for the segment times, but I already know everyone is faster than me and don't need data to drive the point home.

You might want to start with the free version of one (or all) and play around with it some. I can help with the mapping functions, but can't help with the GPS usage.

[regularguy412]

i 'inherited' my daughter's old iPhone (3GS) when I got her a 5Cfor Christmas. I put the Map My Ride app on it. Only been able to use it once, since it's been so darn cold and ugly here. I took it on one of my usual routes. The built in GPS worked great with the mapping feature of the app. I could then go online at the site and see the map of my ride. Sadly, my Polar HRM strap and wheel sensor are not ANT+ so I don't get the benefit of having all the data in one place.

I've not used Strava or any of the others, but I'd say that, for free, Map My Ride works just fine.

You can avoid most, if not all, of the ads by using Firefox and Ad Block Plus.

Mike in AR:beer:

[kramnnim]

Strava is also free and the site is not horribly bloated and slow like MMR.

[josephr]

Similar boat...I just got an 800 for x-mas and set up accounts on all strava, garmin connect, and ridewithgps. I've stopped updating my stuff to garmin connect....but still upload to ridewithgps and strava as it only takes a few minutes. I've not given anybody any money yet --- well, except I did buy the maps from ridewithgps though....I needed a microSD card and it seemed like a quick way to get all the maps at once rather than having to download each section...for $25, I thought that was a pretty good deal.
Joe

[thegunner]

strava, just never look at the KOMs and you'll be fine :)

[oliver1850]

I still don't get the bloated and slow comments about MMR. Do they apply to the GPS functions vs. the other sites? I don't have any problems mapping rides at MMR. I do find the search function a bit annoying. When viewing a route selected from the search results, I've not found a way to return to the search results without starting from scratch.

[kramnnim]

No...the site in general is slow, and full of large buttons and menus and links and MVP ads that are just annoying when you're used to something more intuitive.

I clicked around with it today, and they've made some improvements in the last year...but it's still irritating. (and maybe I'm irritable)

[fkelly]

I use ridewithgps. I agree with those who say MMR is bloated and unhelpful. You don't need the $80 membership at rwgps unless you are into a very few advanced things like fancy editing of rides you've uploaded. You might want the $50 membership but you can do a lot with the free registration. The $50 gets you a good printing function (to a PDF file that's emailed to you) plus a few other features.

Last I looked (in the Fall), Strava's mapping product was is beta and looking far from finished. It took rwgps a couple of years to iron most of the wrinkles out of it's mapping and there are still a few loose ends. Mapping is where you create a route with a turn list and then can download it to your GPS unit to give turn by turn directions as you ride. Or print the map and cue sheet out and use it on the ride.

Aside from mapping, the other side of these products is that you upload completed rides from your GPS unit. The products store these as "activities" or rides and you can retrospectively browse what you've done. Both Strava and rwgps support the concept of segments where you pick out a portion of a route ... usually a climb and save it. Then anyone who rides the same portion gets matched and you can see who is fastest on the segment. I get the impression that more racer types use Strava for this but still there are a lot of segments on rwgps. I know I've created about 80 of them. :)

I posted an article about mapping on rwgps at:

http://www.mohawkhudsoncyclingclub.org/articles/2014/01/10/ride-gps

Good luck.

[slidey]

If you're only looking to track your rides, Garmin's Training Center (free software) does a decent enough job in my opinion.

I have tried Strava (free), and I couldn't see the differentiation from GTC so I'm sticking to GTC. I'll admit though that Strava is great for exploring new segments/rides/routes.

If you're paying, then if I'm not very mistaken you get the most out of it if you upload your power readings. But then if you're going down the power route (in my view, polar opposite from your goal of doing fun rides), there are a host of other sites to help you train better with power than Strava.

[rain dogs]

I use training peaks, and would recommend it. It's effectively a calendar tailored to fitness. But you can use it to track anything. I use it for tracking M-W-F strength workouts, and T-T-W/E rides.

It all sounds very serious, but it doesn't have to be, and I'm not very serious...and I don't race. But, if you want to get serious, you can used the paid site and get training plans etc.

It doesn't have the competition stuff Strava does, which I think is a blessing, cause that competitive segment stuff can potentially really mess up your training or enjoyment/fitness riding (whether you're serious or not), unless you are super, super disciplined or a zen master. Fitness isn't anything close to trying to set PR's each time you ride.

Training peaks has sufficient post ride mapping and analysis tools (heart rate, power, zones, TSS etc.) even for free. I don't do pre-ride mapping, with turn-by-turn gps navigation in ride, so I can't comment on that.

I'm quite happy using training peaks even though I think it's more a legit racers/hardcore training/analysis tool

[Rob1519]

Garmin will update Connect shortly and it appears to be fairly well thought out.

http://garmin.blogs.com/my_weblog/2014/01/ces-announcement-garmin-connect-redesign-.html#.UvU-1vldVCA

I also use the free version of Strava as do many people I ride with. I dabble with Ride with GPS as well (free version)

Rob

[onekgguy]

Thanks for starting this thread. I've been using Garmin (8 years) and Strava (1 year). I'd started using ridewithgps back in 2009 but didn't stay with it. I just went in to have a look at it again and I'm really impressed with its interface now. I can definitely see a change in my future.

Kevin g

[1happygirl]

Thanks Everyone for your time replying!!!
I think I'm gonna go the $50 Ride With GPS to start, then decide about others later.

I don't really need cue sheets but rather editing out my newbie error punching laps but I think that's only with the $80 function, so we'll see….NO money has changed hands yet.

So far RWGS seems easy but I haven't figured out how to download to my Garmin yet, only upload to site.

[kramnnim]

They have instructions... http://ridewithgps.com/edge_810

Thanks Everyone for your time replying!!!
I think I'm gonna go the $50 Ride With GPS to start, then decide about others later.

I don't really need cue sheets but rather editing out my newbie error punching laps but I think that's only with the $80 function, so we'll see….NO money has changed hands yet.

So far RWGS seems easy but I haven't figured out how to download to my Garmin yet, only upload to site.

[AnthonyC]

RideWithGPS is great for planning rides/routes. I'll often use it to figure out rides in advance, which I then download onto my Garmin.

Strava's great for the social aspect, and for the occasional monthly challenge to get you out on your bike more often. There are better fitness-tracking apps out there (training peaks has come up), but if you're not planning to race these kan often be overkill.

[1happygirl]

Thanks K (Kramnin) for the link and A and Everyone. I really am not lazy and I did stay at a Holiday inn once.:)

I would be ashamed at how slow I am to use Strava. Sounds great but I don't wanna pay multiple sites for almost the same product.

I might join (by join I mean get a free account) Strava in the future with maybe some friends that may ride around me but really just want the tracking/planing etc.

Ok, so now I have the instructions link, I'll practice with it. Probably a topic for another thread, but one thing with previewing courses (another thing I wanted ) is to determine how difficult? or challenging ? the route is.

Just starting out and getting back to riding my knees want me to play nice:eek:.
Thanks guys (meaning gals too/generic term) for your help getting me gps'ed up.

[josephr]

all these sites are free to use....you only pay for premium options such as the editing you're talking about. keep in mind 'editing' doesn't let you put in lost mileage if your GPS cuts out....

also....Internet Explorer has had some issues lately with the Garmin plug-in to upload your rides...I've had no problems with Google Chrome.

I track on both RWGPS and Strava simply because all my ride friends log to Strava and its fun to see what everyone else is doing. If you start logging to Strava, be sure to join the Paceline Forum club. :)
Joe