iOS Apps,  Top 10's

Top 10 Bike Navigation iOS Apps

We’ve looked at the top 10 bike apps in the past but this time we have concentrated on the navigational aspect. After all, we don’t want our readers getting lost. Take a look at this list, some are country specific, some are more advanced than others but one thing they all have in common is that they are all fantastic and work well.

Bike Maps – by Maplets

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Offline access to high resolution bike maps for navigating cities, designated bike trails or even rail trails across the US! Whether you bike for recreation or commute, these maps will help plan your next bike ride through the city.

Unlimited Downloads – Download as many or as few maps as you need;
Offline Access – Once downloaded the maps are stored on your device, with no further need for internet access;
High Resolution – Maps can be as high resolution as 10000×10000;
Fast Display – Much faster than viewing the equivalent PDFs on iPhones and iPads;
Continuous Updates – New maps are added constantly, and are available for download without needing to update the app.

$0.99/Download here

B.iCycle – GPS Cycling Computer For Road & Mountain Biking

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– Accurate values for current speed, average speed, maximum speed, total distance, trip distance, current altitude, climbed altitude, burned calories as well as trip time. Units can be set to US or metric.

– Watch your bike automatically move on the map and zoom in on your trail

– Receive your trips via email (KML und GPX) and review them at home (e.g., with Google Earth) or share them with other bikers. You can send the data after each ride or anytime later from your track history (e.g. when there is no cellular network available). For detailed analysis of your trips at home we recommend to upload your tracks to the portal www.1-2-sports.com at no charge.

– Suspend, pause, and resume for trips allows you to receive calls or take a break

– iPod function can be used together with B.iCycle

Based on countless test drives and refinement we calculate all values with maximum precision of the built in GPS. In contrast to standard cyclometers you do not have to calibrate B.iCycle to your bike. It just works – out of the box.

For the full experience we recommend to use a bike mount. "Bicycle Mount Pedestal with Swivel-head" from semsons.com provides solid mounting as well as fair pricing.

$9.99/Download here

BioLogic BikeBrain

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Transform your iPhone into a powerful, easy-to-use cycle computer. BioLogic BikeBrain delivers GPS mapping, speed, distance, altitude, elapsed time and many other data parameters. Highly customizable data windows let you decide which data you see. BioLogic – Gear to get you there.

• Stay on track — GPS mapping shows you where you are and where you’re heading. Access Google Maps on the fly.

• See it your way — Customizable windows display the data you want, the way you want it.

• Train smarter — Training mode tracks speed, distance, laps, intervals and much more.

• Track your trips — BioLogic BikeBrain automatically keeps the details of your rides.

• Always on — BioLogic BikeBrain is smart; the application stays on throughout the ride so your data is always accessible at a glance. There’s no need to fumble with typing in pass codes just to check your current speed.

• Efficient battery management — GPS functionality is power hungry. BioLogic BikeBrain is optimized to give you a great balance between GPS accuracy and long battery life.

• Easy navigation — Hate fumbling with small icons during a ride to switch between windows? So do we. With BioLogic BikeBrain, just swipe your finger across the screen to change between Console, Map, Digital, and Training modes.

Free/Download here

Ride the City

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Ride the City is a bicycle routing application that will help you find a safe bike route from point A to point B in 27 cities (listed below).

Like other mapping and routing applications, Ride the City finds the shortest distance between two points, with a difference. First, Ride the City avoids roads that aren’t meant for biking, like highways and busy arterial streets. Second, Ride the City tries to steer cyclists toward routes that maximize the use of bike lanes, bike paths, greenways, and other bike-friendly streets while avoiding steep hills.

$2.99/Download here

Spokes NYC

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Spokes NYC is a bicycle routing application designed to generate ideal bike routes with turn by turn directions for New York City cyclists. Other features include a bike rack locator, a bike shop locator, and the ability to report thefts from a given bike rack or location. Future features will include personalized routes and a list of suggested rides (for leisure).

Spokes NYC bike routes may not be the most direct from point A to point B. Instead, we try to create routes that prioritize a cyclist’s safety without taking you too far out of your way. Our routing engine will always try to keep you riding on bike paths and Greenways or streets with bike lanes as opposed to riding on plain old streets.

Need a bike shop nearby? No sweat! Spokes NYC has a catalog of nearly 200 bike shops citywide complete with contact information and a tap-to-call feature. One tap will show you which ones are closest to you.

Free/Download

Cyclemeter GPS Bike Computer For Road & Mountain Biking

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Cyclemeter turns your iPhone into a powerful GPS stopwatch, giving you feedback and motivation to go farther, be healthier, and live longer.Supports iOS 4 and multitasking.

Note: Does not support iPod touch or first-generation iPhone, which lack GPS capabilities.

POWERED ENTIRELY BY YOUR IPHONE 3G, IPHONE 3GS, OR IPHONE 4
Cyclemeter is an iPhone-centric solution for tracking your workouts on your iPhone. It can be used for cycling, running, walking, skiing, skating, and more.

TRACK
Cyclemeter continually records your time, location, distance, elevation, and speed – years of workouts only take up the space of a few songs. Stop and start recording on-screen or with your earphone remote.

VISUALIZE
See your results on maps, graphs, and a calendar, and organized by routes and activities. Summarize your statistics by day, week, month, year, and overall.

HEAR
Monitor your progress with up to 25 configurable announcements including distance, time, speed, elevation, and more. Announcements may be heard automatically at time or distance intervals, or on-demand with your earphone remote. High quality voices may be downloaded through In App Purchase for hearing replies from Twitter, Facebook, and dailymile.

RACE
Compete against your previous workouts along a route, or import and compete against other people’s workouts. See your virtual competition on a map and in graphs. Hear announcements of how far you are ahead of or behind your competition.

SHARE
Use Facebook, Twitter, dailymile, and email to share Google Maps of your workouts, automatically updated every few minutes. Have emails automatically sent to keep family and friends notified of your location and progress. During your workout, hear replies from family, coaches, and friends spoken using text-to-speech technology. (Requires In App Purchase.)

$4.99/Download here

Bikemate GPS

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BikeMateGPS is mainly for bike riders. However, you can use BikeMateGPS for driving, hiking, or jogging.

:: Load the previous exercise history to challenge your own record.
You can load the stored riding data to check the route using Google™ map, and you can compete against the record on the loaded path to enjoy various experiences on the same course.

:: Share riding data using mashup.
You can share riding data and photos using Bikemate’s mashup function.
Created mashup can be posted to your blog or community sites.

:: Let us organize all the recordings and build the history!
The ‘History’ function of the BikeMateGPS helps you to organize all the previous riding records. The calendar function and total distance/time/calorie information gives you a good idea of the previous exercise results for better exercise management.

:: Leave the memory of riding with photographs
BikeMateGPS supports iPhone photography. Photographs taken while riding contain GPS information so that you can check the riding path in Google™ Map with BikeMateGPS. Enjoy the riding that leaves great memories rather than simple riding.

:: Share the riding record with other people
You can export all saved riding paths and photographs in BikeMateGPS through email and Web Mashup. In particular you can analyze your riding pattern by exporting the data using the Web Mashup function where you can see speed and altitude information.
You can also share your experiences with others through a personal blog or Facebook.

$2.99/Download here

iMapMyRIDE+ Cycling, Bicycling, Bike, Ride, GPS, Fitness, Training, Cycle, Road Cycling

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iMapMyRIDE+ uses the built-in GPS technology of your iPhone to enable you to track your rides and gets you closer to achieving your health and fitness goals. Step out your front door, get on your bike, start pedaling, and this app will effortlessly mark-out your ride along an interactive map and record essential metrics including duration, distance, pace, speed, and elevation. Once you finish your ride, save your data and it automatically uploads to www.MapMyRide.com where you can view your route, ride data, and a comprehensive workout history.

The new iMapMyRIDE+ also gives you the ability to easily share your workout data with friends and family via email, and Twitter, listen to your iPod during your ride without leaving the application, and geo-tag photos along your route.

✓ Real-time tracking that measures and displays time, distance, pace, speed, and elevation.
✓ An interactive map that lets you view your current location and exactly where you have traveled along your route.
✓ Synchronization with your online ‘Training Log’ on www.MapMyRide.com.
✓ Manual entry of workout data directly from the app so you can easily record your indoor activities like gym workouts and indoor cycling classes.
✓ Twitter integration that enables you to tweet your ride data to friends and family.

Plus, iMapMyRIDE+ gives you these fantastic extras:
✓ iPod integration that allows you to select and control your music while the app is running.
✓ A geo-tagging photo capability that automatically uploads any photos you take along your ride to your saved ride on www.MapMyRide.com
✓ A completely ad-free experience while the app is running.

$1.99/Download here

Cycle Watch – GPS Cycling Computer for Outdoor Biking

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Aimed at users who require top-class GPS navigation directions and easy route management for fitness, Cycle Watch, the best cycling app for outdoor biking will help you ride faster, be healthier and live longer. It can be used for cycling, running, walking and more.

Cycle Watch continually records your time, location, speed, elevation and these data will be presented intuitively to help you manage your fitness better. All of your rides will be organized by routes and date. Statistics will be summarized by month.

-This app works outdoor only. After you launch Cycle Watch, wait for good GPS reception before start.
-Track your ride – including your path, speed, time and elevation with very accuracy.
-Dynamic GPS filtering.
-Ride your existing routes. Compare your current exercise to your best, median and worst.
-No worries about draining the battery: you can run the app with the screen turned off.

$1.99/Download here

cyctastic GPS cycle computer for racing, road and mountain biking

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cyctastic iPhone App – your personal sports and health assistant for all kinds of exercises (cycling, mountain bike, running and many others).

Features:
✔ Track exercises via GPS: automatically record time, distance, calories consumption, speed, elevation and more
✔ View your current position and route on a map
✔ Training diary: history of your exercises
✔ Sexy voice feedback in English and German
✔ iPod integration: listen to your favourite music during training
✔ Competitions: challenge your friends and let the voice feedback tell you if you are the leader. Attention: HIGHLY ADDICTIVE!
✔ Sharing: Publish your activities on Facebook, Twitter and on the runtastic sports portal
✔ Indoor sports: manual data input offers you the possibility to keep track of your exercises such as gym training, treadmill or yoga

You can upload all these activities to the runtastic sports platform www.runtastic.com. There you get a perfect overview about your personal sports diary and can view detailed statistics and analysis of your exercises.

$5.99/Download here

Joanne Carter, creator of the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website— TheAppWhisperer.com— TheAppWhisperer platform has been a pivotal cyberspace for mobile artists of all abilities to learn about, to explore, to celebrate and to share mobile artworks. Joanne’s compassion, inclusivity, and humility are hallmarks in all that she does, and is particularly evident in the platform she has built. In her words, “We all have the potential to remove ourselves from the centre of any circle and to expand a sphere of compassion outward; to include everyone interested in mobile art, ensuring every artist is within reach”, she has said. Promotion of mobile artists and the art form as a primary medium in today’s art world, has become her life’s focus. She has presented lectures bolstering mobile artists and their art from as far away as the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea to closer to her home in the UK at Focus on Imaging. Her experience as a jurist for mobile art competitions includes: Portugal, Canada, US, S Korea, UK and Italy. And her travels pioneering the breadth of mobile art includes key events in: Frankfurt, Naples, Amalfi Coast, Paris, Brazil, London. Pioneering the world’s first mobile art online gallery - TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com has extended her reach even further, shipping from London, UK to clients in the US, Europe and The Far East to a global group of collectors looking for exclusive art to hang in their homes and offices. The online gallery specialises in prints for discerning collectors of unique, previously unseen signed limited edition art. Her journey towards becoming The App Whisperer, includes (but is not limited to) working for a paparazzi photo agency for several years and as a deputy editor for a photo print magazine. Her own freelance photographic journalistic work is also widely acclaimed. She has been published extensively both within the UK and the US in national and international titles. These include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Popular Photography & Imaging, dpreview, NikonPro, Which? and more recently with the BBC as a Contributor, Columnist at Vogue Italia and Contributing Editor at LensCulture. Her professional photography has also been widely exhibited throughout Europe, including Italy, Portugal and the UK. She is currently writing several books, all related to mobile art and is always open to requests for new commissions for either writing or photography projects or a combination of both. Please contact her at: joanne@theappwhisperer.com

12 Comments

  • Mark

    Are there any GPS apps for iPhone (or other hardware) that provide simple TTS (spoken turn instructions) for on-bike navigation rather than for fitness, tracking etc. ? It just has to say “turn left onto Mountain Road” as you approach the junction — no need for map or tracking.

    • Clayton

      I came across your comment looking for spoken turn instructions for iOS. Have you found an app for this? I’ve been looking also with no success.

  • richard

    Endomondo doesnt seem to allow you to plot a route and then receive the turn by turn instructions thru an earpiece. any app that masters this will be a winner. if anyone knows of one please could you let me know.

    • Pieter

      I use the TomTom app. Used it for noumerous trips accross europe. You can select bike routes. Expensieve though.

      • Adri Bimmel

        I have TomTom also om my iPhone but I haven’t found the option to import pre defined tracks.
        Please inform me if anyone has found it.

  • Sam

    Mark brill question. I have been looking for one for ages and only just found one. Nav free seems to work 🙂

  • dfaro

    I just installed it on my iphone and gonna b usimg it to navigate downtown Chicago.. I’m hopin it works as well as it looks!! I’ll let’cha know how it works out 4 me. When you said complex roadways, that’s EXACTLY why you want/need an ap like that!! I’ll keep ya post’d

  • Pearl

    I’m looking for something for long distance touring that will let me plot a route ahead of time and then show elevations and directions for that route. Any ideas?