Using My Maps by Google for GPS tracking riding

[Dangermouse449]

I have an Android phone & like nearly all smartphones it has a GPS in it.
We always carry at least one mobile phone (cell phone for you guys ) when we ride, so I can't see the point of running a separate GPS.

I use Google 'My Maps' to log our tracks when we ride, especially when we head off somewhere new. I does a great job of logging the rides.
The best feature for me is that when you save the map at the end, you can can save it in your Google account under 'My maps' & from there bring it up in Google earth.
From there, you can zoom in and out, roll around etc. & see that giant hill you all conquered etc. & share the screen shot if you want.

The only downside is, like all gps stuff on your phone, it eats up a fair bit of battery.

I like it. It's a free App, give it a run.

(Screenshot of a saved track, prior to uploading)

 

[Johnrg]

My only hesitation in using a phone for mapping is battery life. I usually switch my phone to airline mode and just use it as a camera and emergency call if in range of cell. I like some kind of redundancy so if I am mapping will do it with either 310xt or 62s, as well carry a DeLorme SE for 2 way messaging/sos while out of cell range. Battery life is terrible on phones so I try not to use it for everything. Garmin Basecamp and Connect output files to GooEarth also.

 

[Motosportz]

I do this a lot with my Samsung S4 and it will run all day on a full charge with airplane mode on and GPS on. Works well and actually is a good GPS in it.

 

[Dangermouse449]

The Motorola Razr M I run does a full day too, but i don't run the GPS if mine is the only phone on the ride, for safety reasons.
There's lots of apps out there for the different platforms, I just thought I'd share this one as I use it & find it great.

Another of our buddies runs a Garmin in his back-pack as well, but he carries a heap of gear, you can barely lift his backpack.
I like to run light (as the nominated mechanic I already have the tool-belt), so the phone is about all I load up in my Camelback.

 

[msmith345]

My plan was to do that on my KS/OK/AR/MO ride last 4th of July. I wired up a powerlet and cell phone charger just for the purpose. Had the phone in the map pocket of my tank bag. All was good for about an hour. Then it over heated from the combination of the power draw/charging and the direct sunlight in the July heat. So, the rest of my trip that I had all planned out ahead of time, I did by roll chart method, although I couldn't find a good spot for my roll chart last minute, so they were just in my map pocket.

Stopped at several gas stations in OK/AR and not one of them had maps, they said "Why would you want one of those? Don't you have GPS on your phone?"

For my CODR trip in late August, I haven't decided yet if I'm doing a GPS, or skipping it and relying on my backup of just getting all my maps ahead of time, drawing out the course on them and making roll charts for each day.




If you are only using it for tracking purposes, and not navigation, let me recommend the Garmin Edge 200. It's their low end bicycle GPS, has several quick release mounts that come with it. It will track approximately 14 hours on a charge. They run around $100 and I get a lot of use out of mine on the bicycle, using it for some dirt rides to map courses and what not.

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/into-sports/cycling/edge-200/prod90675.html

 

[Dangermouse449]

I don't ride by GPS, I use it to log tracks & refer back to later.
In your situation a stand alone GPS would be better for sure.
Bad luck about the phone, glad I don't have one of those....

 

[wrtimmy]

Interested in giving this a go. Does the app need mobile coverage to work? Or is just the GPS sufficient?

 

[wrtimmy]

I bit the bullet and bought the "Backcountry Navigator Pro" app.

I'm usually against paying for any apps (call me a tight ass!), but I consider this one money well spend so far!

The maps for the areas you want you can download while on wifi, then the actual program you can run with your mobile data turned off and just using the GPS only (offline). I used it this morning to track my drive to work and it was very accurate and made hardly any impact on my battery life. I have an HTC One and left fully charged this morning, tracked my drive to work (45 mins), sat on my desk all day (9 hour), then tracked again on the way home (45 mins) and still had ~75% charge left.

My plan is to just use it in my backpack as a breadcrumb trail back to my car when I go exploring as a backup in case I get lost. And from what I've seen so far I think it will serve it's purpose well.

Looking like ~$10 well spent.

http://backcountrynavigator.com/android-gps/

 

[Jersey Woods]

I do this a lot with my Samsung S4 and it will run all day on a full charge with airplane mode on and GPS on. Works well and actually is a good GPS in it.

Another option is a site called Runtastic.com. It basically does the same deal and it's free. When you sign up and log into your account, it will have your activities on a Google Maps. I use this when I ride my mountain bike just to track where I have been and all the fun stats that go with it. My Galaxy S3 has been able to do just fine with it.

 

[Dangermouse449]

Interested in giving this a go. Does the app need mobile coverage to work? Or is just the GPS sufficient?

Sorry for the late reply, but yes, it will run offline & just in GPS mode.
That is how I normally run it on my phone to save battery, I like how it is fairly easy to drop the data into Google Earth, gives a great view of the places you've been & the stats like elev, speeds etc. as in the above post.
(This can also be done with other GPS kml files)

 

[Ruffus]

Sorry for the late reply, but yes, it will run offline & just in GPS mode.
That is how I normally run it on my phone to save battery, I like how it is fairly easy to drop the data into Google Earth, gives a great view of the places you've been & the stats like elev, speeds etc. as in the above post.
(This can also be done with other GPS kml files)

Does it accept loading tracks? I'm soon going on a 3 day ride with little to no cell reception. I'll be using a Nexus5 in a RAM mount. Should be getting the tracks for the ride soon. I don't mind paying for a quality product.

 

[Dangermouse449]

Does it accept loading tracks? I'm soon going on a 3 day ride with little to no cell reception. I'll be using a Nexus5 in a RAM mount. Should be getting the tracks for the ride soon. I don't mind paying for a quality product.

I've never tried it that way myself, so couldn't say. (My phone screen is way too small to read standing & riding)
We usually have a rough idea where we are in our chosen areas, just log the tracks for when we find something new we like.

It is a free app, I say download it & have a play.

 

[JonXX]

The app is actually called MyTracks. I use it a lot and love it.

Does it accept loading tracks? I'm soon going on a 3 day ride with little to no cell reception. I'll be using a Nexus5 in a RAM mount. Should be getting the tracks for the ride soon. I don't mind paying for a quality product.

No. MyTracks does not accept tracks. It is only a route recorder and travel statistician (and it will shut itself off at 1000 miles or ten hours continuous recording of a track, whichever comes first).

 

[Dangermouse449]

Ten hours or a thousand miles?
That's a big day on dirt bike man!

MyTracks - yes.
Sorry for misnaming it.

Might have to get Coffee onto that.

 

[Cosmokenney]

I have an Android phone & like nearly all smartphones it has a GPS in it.
We always carry at least one mobile phone (cell phone for you guys ) when we ride, so I can't see the point of running a separate GPS.

I use Google 'My Maps' to log our tracks when we ride, especially when we head off somewhere new. I does a great job of logging the rides.
The best feature for me is that when you save the map at the end, you can can save it in your Google account under 'My maps' & from there bring it up in Google earth.
From there, you can zoom in and out, roll around etc. & see that giant hill you all conquered etc. & share the screen shot if you want.

I've been down this road when I had an iPhone and now with my Android Galaxy S4.

Note that I don't keep music or video on my phone (I use Pandora for music), so I have lots of space for downloads available, given that I have a 32 GB SD Card in it.

The only maps apps I will use are ones that don't require mobile/cell data service to function within reason. I.e. the default Maps app on both iOS and Android require a live data connection to download map tiles when you move to a new area.

For dirt biking I have come to really like Maplets. It lets you search for riding areas like OHV or State Parks and I've found most of my local riding areas. Most of the maps are geo-enabled versions of the official PDFs that are produced by the agencies that are in charge of the riding area. That's nice because you can read the regulations and trail descriptions too. You download the map once at home and you have the entire riding area covered.
I've also used "PDF Maps", "Custom Maps" and "Orux Maps" and created my own maps. PDF Maps uses geo-enabled PDFs. Custom Maps uses either PDFs or geo tiffs, can't remember. Orux is a whole different animal and requires tile download packs, but gives the ability to create or download maps that are very detailed, or just to your liking color wise or detail wise.

For general "where am I?" type of mapping, hands down, the best app I've found is Maps With Me. It's the only app that's gone this route and it is a complete departure from the image based map apps that are the alternative. They use the same databases that are used by sites like Open Street Maps to generate their mercator based tile maps (http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/QuadTiles). The idea behind this is that Maps With Me stores the data on your device instead of the images and renders the picture of the map on the fly. The benefit to doing this is that the amount of storage required is tiny compared to keeping images of all the tiles at all the zoom levels. For instance I downloaded the entire state of California and the download was only 236 MB. At that size, I could fit the entire county on my phone. That covers all streets with topo lines (usually shaded relief style), POIs, many other areas like state parks boundries, and many trails -- at all zoom levels. The draw back is that, although the open source databases have topo data and almost all streets, they don't have all of the trails yet. The most popular and oldest trails are there in most cases. But you can't always count on them. I consider this to be one of the most reliable apps I've used for Dual Sporting. I've never checked it and seen a little blue dot on a blank screen like I have with most of the other solutions. I'm almost will to say you can get away without a dedicated GPS unit if you've got this app and have your country or state downloaded to it.

 

[Motosportz]

I run a Samsung S4 and maplets, also google maps saved local. Both work good. But i got a Garmin Oregon 450 for x-mas last year and replaced my 60cx. It has been wonderful and I am back to running it mounted to my bars. It is far more convenient than my cell phone or old garmin. Both work but the new GPS is fantastic. Color touch screen is great, unit is small, works great with gloves. For exploring it is hard to beat. Lots of great options out there.

I like the "Maps With Me" idea and will download that now. Thanks.

 

[Cosmokenney]

I run a Samsung S4 and maplets, also google maps saved local. Both work good. But i got a Garmin Oregon 450 for x-mas last year and replaced my 60cx. It has been wonderful and I am back to running it mounted to my bars. It is far more convenient than my cell phone or old garmin. Both work but the new GPS is fantastic. Color touch screen is great, unit is small, works great with gloves. For exploring it is hard to beat. Lots of great options out there.

I like the "Maps With Me" idea and will download that now. Thanks.

I went with the pro version for $5. It has the auto follow mode that keeps the map centered on your location. Try the lite version for a while and see if it's accurate enough for your needs, then pop for the $s version. I think it's worth it.

 

[Motosportz]

I did not see a version and just bought the $5 app. all good.