Originally Posted by
trail_monkey
I know the advantages and disadvantages like battery life and things like that. But I have a pretty nifty holder for my smartphone on my bike stem and for the time being I would like to use my smartphone to do more than just map my ride. I mean I would like to be able to actually input a map on to it a particular course that I wanted to ride. I see on Google Maps I can create my own course. My question is what would be the best app to use on my phone to import a created map to? I have my tracks recently installed but I've never used it. And I always use Strava when I go riding. And of course I have Google Maps that came installed on my phone. I don't see anywhere in Strava to import a route. So my question is between my tracks and Google Maps would 1 be better for this purpose as far as battery drain? And is there any other apps out there that can do it all without having to use Google maps to do the creating?
There are numerous websites that allow the creation of planned routes that also allow the user to download the route to their smart phones by using a phone app. The ones I usually hear the most about are *RidewithGPS and Mapmyride. I use *RWGPS myself. While RWGPS website also offers it's own phone app it will also work with a few other notable navigation apps. I use
Cuesheet and
Locus Pro for android ( Iphone versions should also exist ). Both work well for general turn by turn navigation for planned routes although Locus Pro has many more features and programmable options. Cuesheet is the easiest to work with though. With Locus Pro in order to export the route you have to have a drop box account ( free ) so you can access it from your phone. With Cuesheet the routes you create on RWGPS automatically come up when you link it to RWGPS website. ( *Been since last year that I visited these websites so no doubt there might be new options and better features since I last logged on. )
Most of the phone navigation apps offer free starter versions of the app but if you want better features you can always purchase the "advanced or Pro version" for a small one-time fee. On the other hand if you chose to use RWGPS's own phone app the last I heard they charge a monthly subscription fee which is of course much more money. Then again you can choose to "pay as you go" with the RWGPS app and only pay for the months you know you will most likely be using the app.
Keep in mind in order to create a planned route you still have to do so on one of the websites I mentioned. To do that you open an account and then you should be good to go once you decide what app to you want to use.
Right now my favorite navigation app is *Locus Pro. I like *LP because LP gives me the option to use *Openstreetmap(cycle) as one of the many maps it offers. *OSM (cycle ) is nice because it also clearly shows a lot of "off road trails and off road paved trails". That fact alone makes it a big winner IMO, even if the app is somewhat complicated to work with. At least with Locus Pro if you have a problem with something they do have a dedicated website that can answer most of your questions.