General Cycling Discussion - Good Bicycling software

Anyone know of a good Training program for cycling (or even just to keep a log of rides, etc). I've found BikePro, but there's no option to exclude all the heart datga, and I'm not to that point yet. I prefer cheap or free, but reasonably priced ($30 or less) is welcome too. Free trials would be nice too...

Thanks,
Carl J. Stoneham

I haven't used it, but http://download.com.com/3000-2136-10111000.html?tag=lst-0-11 looks like what you are looking for.
I did a search on Download.com and found it.:)

You might want to try Bike Log from Siesta Software.Bike Log from Siesta Software (http://www.siestasoftware.com/bikelog.htm).
It's shareware; if you decide to buy it, it's $14.95.

Lots of people on the forums use bikeprolog.com (http://www.bikeprolog.com) to keep track of their rides.

If you have Excell you can make your own.

Joe

do you all want an online bike stats page? It will take me a year Plus, but i could try to make one for you all.

-Ross

I certainly appreciate the offer Spaze, but I'd prefer an offline program so I could use it on my laptop when I don't have a dial-up connection. Nevertheless, your offer was very generous :beer:

Ross
But how long would it take to make a spreadsheet or (I've never used a database pgm) Dbase skelliton for one? Not long, except you might tweek it for a long time improving it. I'll bet it would be usuable after 2 hours.

Joe

True, but I kind of tire of Excel. I like dedicated programs just because all the info is a bit better managed and I suck at Access :P

I found that BikePro 3.0 works for me. Check it out at www.he.net/~bikepro

Ooops. Didn't notice the "Ross". Sorry :o

I actually just started a log in Excel a few days ago. Using Excel is simpler and more flexible than custom software. I have attached mine if you want to use it as a starting point.

i can whip up a sql and asp driven one in 4+ weeks. If i work on it ever day after work It *could* be done in 2 weeks. I just got a server with raid so now i can do real developing. If you all want an online tool my offer will stand forever.

-Ross

I use this program on my PDA, and it now has a windows companion that can be used in conjunction with a PDA, or as a standalone PC program.

www.fitnesslogs.com

For $10.00 ($14.84 Cdn),you can't go wrong!

Hi,
this may be too Stone Age for you; but I use the Heart rate Monitor Log Book by Edwards and Reed. It is easy to use, and a hard rive crash won't lose last year's training info.

Hey Late- I'm old school too. I use the Heart Rate Monitor Log Book and write in my info. I just like that I can drag it around and it weighs nothing, and the more I write the better I feel reading through all my old workouts and seeing how I've progressed.

Koffee

I use an excel spreadsheet someone made and posted it it works fine for me.

I like web-based "Bikeprolog.com"

Hi

I am a software developer. If anyone would like to contribute suggestions for an offline desktop piece of software, I'll write it for you - no charge. Let me know the information you would expect to feed in to the database, and the types of analysis you would want back.

www.activebody.org is free to use. Has great reports and quick and easy ways to enter data for cycling, running, and walking.

-clint

www.activebody.org

Hey! That's a good website. Wish they had a more comprehensive HR section, but that's easy and straightforward... Hmmmm

Hey Carl, I created the site... just let me know what you want and I'll build it for you (within reason).

-clint

Will do! I like it alot! Didn't know it was yours... The more time I spend on the site, the better I like it. I figured out a way to around only having avHR. I just base the difficulty on HR ranges... :)

An option to add ride time (i.e. 8am, 5pm) might be nice for those of us who ride 2-3x a day as well as fields for average speed and cadence (user-calculated).

Another thing, a "Home" link would be nice. On some of the pages, I can't get to the main page (for the ranking lists, etc) w/o retyping the domain.

I'd just make the banner a map and clicking on the rider or "ActiveBody" takes you back to the main page.

Hey Carl,

Good idea, but for each person, there are different "main pages"

For runners, you go to a specific running home page, cycling -> cycling home page, and you guessed it... walking -> walking home page...

I've put links at the top to all 3 so just click the activity (your case, cycling) and that should get you back.

Thanks,
Clint

I know this is a lot of posts, but...
I see the average speed field for all of my rides combined, but this is kind of useless to me for ride comparison. I determine how "well" I did by comparing AvSpeed and Cadence between rides. This way, I can compare a 6mi ride to a 15mi ride. The ability to enter these in separate fields (not the "notes") would be nice. I don't need them to be formula driven since my cyclocomputer already gives me the information. They could just be text fields.

Hey Carl,

I see what you are trying to do. I think I'll add a avg cadence field for cycling, but I think I'm going to keep the auto avg speed in there as other people like that feature.

thanks for the suggestion,
clint

HEY! What about adding a "Top State by miles per cyclist"? That would be interesting and would even out states that only have one registered user vs states w/ 20.

You could do the same thing for the "Top Countries" and then we'd see where the US *really* falls :)

OK. I promise I'll stop the crazy posting :P

Clint, I agree w/ the overall avSpeed and like it too, but I was thinking about you *adding* the Ride Av Speed feature to the "Add ride" screen. It doesn't need to be a public stat, just a field (like temp and wind). I think you'd find that many people would like to have this added in as a *supplement* to the overall average. As I said, it wouldn't need to be formula driven, just a text field (like the cadence). That way, in 3 months, I could compare my av speeds on a certain ride to see if I've improved w/o having to actually do the math...

I've put links at the top to all 3 so just click the activity (your case, cycling) and that should get you back.

Oops. Didn't notice that :P Perfect!

Hi Carl,

The av speed for each ride is listed on the edit for the ride. If you go to the calendar. Click one of the rides, you would see that you have an avg speed for that specific ride.

I'll go ahead and add the cad field though... that's a good idea.

Thanks again for the comments,
Clint

AWESOME! How do I miss that?!?! Your site is great! Any thought on the PayPal link so some of us can donate...?

One thought: the "wind" field requires a number and I always just use "Calm, Light, Moderate, Heavy" (take too much time to determine the spped and it varies so much anyway). When I type one of these into the field, it resets it to "0" when I return. Anyway to fix this and give both options?

I have another reason for an average speed field: the current one is not working correctly. Apparently, it's basing average speed off minutes only. I rode 6.4 miles the other day at 18mph exact (21:20). When I entered this into your site, I got 18.2857.... knowing this wasn;t right, I played around with the ime, saving each time. The time did not change until I hit 22' when it dropped to 17.45.... Obviously, this isn't all that helpful. The extra decimal places are kind of interesting, but since the program doesn't factor in seconds, it's fundamentally flawed. Can you fix this or add an AVS field?

Still enjoying the site (though the AVS accuracy has diminished this some)

knowing this wasn;t right, I played around with the ime, saving each time. The time did not change until I hit 22' when it dropped to 17.45

That should read:
knowing this wasn;t right, I played around with the time, saving each change. The speed did not change until I hit 22' when it dropped to 17.45

Carl,

The cycling add and edit page has been fixed to include the seconds.

Does this make you enjoy the site just a little more...:)

Keep up the great work Carl,
clint

BTW... the paypal suggestion...

The only thing I ask is that you get some friends use the site... and have them get some friends use the site... the more people on the site, the better!

-clint

If I had any friends around here who cycled, I'd *force* them to use your site, even if they didn't want to ;)

Seriousl, I enjoy the site and will suggest it whenever I have the chance. Also saw your coverage in the Washington Post. Sweet.

Lots of developers willing to write programs out there. It'd be cool if there was a bike log type thing sister to bikeforums..which I guess bikeprolog is in a way.

Hi

Well, I've written a desktop (offline) cycling program. The front screen looks like this...

You click the Bikes button, then you can enter one or more bikes. Each outing will be on a specific bike, so you can analyse your log for all your bikes, or a particular one.

Similarly, you can click the Routes button on the front screen, and enter one or more routes that you habitually ride.

This last screen is where you actually enter the details of a ride - you get there by clicking the Rides button on the front screen.

You enter the date and (optionally) the time of day of the ride. For the route, you select from the list of Routes that you previously entered into the database. The same for the bike. You can enter the temperature and wind if you like - these might be specific (50 degrees, 10 mph), or you might just like to be vague (warm, light). Anyway, the drop-down list lets you choose from all the values you have previously entered, or you can type a new one.

Distance comes automatically from the route you selected, but you can overtype this field if it is different. For example, you might have a General route, which is non-specific, then you would enter the actual distance each time.

The duration is how long the ride took in hours, minutes, seconds, and down to hundredths if you like. The average is calculated automatically from the duration and the distance.

Lastly you can enter any string of words to describe the ride.

I'm currently working on producing a graphical representation of the data, then I might look at a PocketPC version - it would include synchronisation between desktop and PPC, with the ability to update the database from either end.

Hey Robertlees, that looks pretty good. So where do we find the program so we can try it out?

I'll put it together and upload in the next 24 hours. I'll post the link when it is ready.

Robertlees, this programme of yours looks promising. Thanks for putting so much effort into this!

Are you planning to eventually include 'training data'? It would be nice to have log entries for heart rate (HR) zone (plus time in, below, above that HR zone), average, maximum and recovery HR. Weather conditions and perception of the ride are also worth thinking about.

Bruco,

I guess I could link to a polar hrm file, and pull the information from this file, rather than have you re-enter the data.

WOuld like to get in on this activebody.com deal but mostly ride alone and don't really want to setup a team for just myself. Maybe we could setup a team bikeforums for those of us that wanted to use it?? whatta ya think? anyone else interested?

Hmmmmm........ OK after I went back and looked again it has the option to just skip the team selection. So I guess I'll just do that for now.

I'd LOVE to do a BikeForums Team!

Originally posted by CarlJStoneham
I'd LOVE to do a BikeForums Team!

I'll join it if someone wants to set it up and post the password. Or I can do it if you want me to. :beer:

I don't ride nearly as many miles as most ppl on here but but I could add SOME mileage to the group. I think it would be kinda cool to do. :)