Yesterday afternoon I headed out around 3:30 for a longer ride. The plan was to got out for an hour or so and then return back near home to connect with my friend, Chris Hartzler, for another hour or so out on the road. It was also a chance to try out the Cyclemeter app on my iPhone 4.
Click to see map in Google
We ended up covering around 50 miles in just under 4 hours. It was crossing my mind that any folks watching my progress on the computer would think I was going pretty slow. That is one thing about the app, it can’t give any indication of how hard I am working. It just provides a location. So, when you are doing lots of climbing, your average speeds are going to show up low — but you’re actually working harder than when you have the high averages on the flats and downhills!
Still, the purpose of this app (for me) is to show my location. I’m happy to announce that it worked great and I’ll be using the Cyclemeter when I head out on my 700 miles in 7 days ride in mid-September. You’ll be able to track me in near real-time as I make my way from Memphis to Raleigh.
These tweets were read to me by Cyclemeter
You’ll even get to talk to me, if you like. A fun if not entirely practical component of the app is the ability it has to read tweets to you as you ride. The way it works is that Cyclemeter announces that a rider has started a route. During the time that cyclist is on the bike the app is checking his tweeter feed. You can set it up to read your time-line or just the replies. As a new tweet comes in, the app “reads” it to you in a computer voice.
That is where it loses some of its practicality. First, there is no way this will work unless you are wearing headphones. Second, even if you are the computer voice is hard to understand. Add all that to the ambient noises of a bike ride and you may hear the tweet being read, but you won’t be able to understand it. Even so, I think this is a cool idea and hope that later updates might provide some clearer voice packages.
Screen capture of Cyclemeter on iPhone 4
Overall, I am pleased with the app. At first, I planned NOT to use the app on regular rides. However, after my accident, my wife has been very supportive, but also a little nervous. The Cyclemeter app emails her when I start and she can bring up the map on her iPhone to see where I am along the route. My Garmin Edge 500 can’t do that. Looks like Cyclemeter will be going along with me more often — though don’t look for me to announce all my rides on Twitter!
Don’t expect the program to give you extremely accurate information. I pulled up at the house at the end of the ride to find that my wife was gone. I asked the Things Three where she was and was informed, “She went out to look for you.” The beautiful redhead had been watching my progress and could tell I was heading home. Well, I spent the last 10 minutes of my ride in a downpour. Turns out she could see the storm (which ended up being quite an electrical storm) and decided to go out to meet me using the Cyclemeter map.
The problem is, the application only updates the information every five minutes. Also, it appears that if the phone loses signal it will store up the data and keep polling until it reconnects. It then updates the map with the backed up data. This is a very good thing. Problem is that means the location could be almost 10 minutes later than what you see on the map.
Finally, another fear I had was with battery life. Turns out I think things are going to work out. I left with about 80% battery life. I rode nearly 4 hours and ended up with about 50% of my juice remaining.
Thanks to those of you who tested out the system while I was out riding. I enjoyed hearing your tweets…. even if they sounded like “Wah wah wah waaaaah wah wah wah.”
