Originally Posted by
boomcat
I have been using Cyclemeter for about five years now. It has a lot of very nice features. About a year ago I added a Garmin 820 Plus, which is linked to my Strava account - also very nice. I use both of them on my rides. The Garmin is on the handlebars and Cyclemeter is running on an iPhone 7 inside a ziplock bag in my jersey pocket. I particularly like having a tiny Bluetooth audio bud in my right ear so that Cyclemeter can announce my statistics every mile: current speed, average speed, distance travelled, distance still to go, time-behind-best (or median or worst), heartrate, time of day, expected time of arrival, etc. Cyclemeter even has a series of audio tones that precede each announcement in order to "wake up" the Bluetooth earbud - nice!
My issue is with the accuracy of the GPS. Cyclemeter consistently shows a GPS map of my ride that displays excursions from my actual route. Specifically, Cyclemeter's GPS map frequently shows that I left the bike trail (Pinellas Trail in Florida) and rode on a side street. Over a 30-mile ride, Cyclemeter does this dozens of times. The result is that Cyclemeter reports a greater distance travelled than the actual distance. I have mapped the distance on Google Maps and it is exactly 31.42 miles. The Garmin (and its upload to Strava) consistently report exactly 31.42 miles, plus or minus one percent, and the GPS map is an accurate representation of my route, with no excursions. Cyclemeter reports distances that are about 5% too high.
I tried adding a Wahoo speed sensor to the rear hub, paired with Cyclemeter, but this seemed to only make matters worse: Cyclemeter was calculating the wheel circumference as 2665mm when the actual circumference is only 2103mm. So I have removed that sensor from the bike and deleted it from Cyclemeter. Maybe I have too many sensors on the bike already: the Garmin is paired to a cadence sensor and to a speed sensor on the front hub - that's a lot of Bluetooth RF!
Are there any Cyclemeter users out there who have better GPS accuracy than this? Is this a function of the iPhone's GPS accuracy? Do you use "Stop Detection" (I don't)? Do you use "GPS Error Reduction" (in Settings/Advanced)? I have mine set to "On".
As mentioned, I quit using Cyclemeter full time since my RFLKT died and I went to a Wahoo Bolt. However, I still use Cyclemeter in place of the Bolt's Live Tracking feature as Live Tracking kills my phone's battery in just a few hours. I have Cyclemeter set to send an email to my wife every 20 miles when I'm on 50+ mile organized rides. I recently completed a 2½ day ride from Ormond Beach to Tarpon Springs (60, 80 and 80 miles) and the difference between my Bolt and Cyclemeter was no more than .3 miles, using a Wahoo Speed sensor. The sensor is connected to my Bolt via Ant+ and to my iPhone/Cyclemeter via BTLE. My wife uses Cyclemeter with an RFLKT and when we ride together, the mileage difference isn't that much.
Stop Detection only pauses the ride time while you are not moving. Yes! I do use GPS Error Reduction with Cyclemeter.