The AllSport GPS route and mapping program allows you to track and map your bike rides, runs and other outdoor activities, including distance travelled, average speed, calories burned, etc.
Using a additional subscription application for your cellphone, your route can be automatically mapped via GPS and uploaded to your computer. Previous routes you've created and/or routes made by others can also be downloaded to your phone to use in determining the days' run or ride.
A Cool Concept . . .
If you're like me, you've probably spent some time on various mapping and route planning websites, recreating rides you've done and mapping new ones to find potential distance.
Clicking here and there, trying to lay the little red lines along straight and sometimes not-so-straight sections of road, marking little flags for start and stop. Sometimes it can get a little tedious. So that's why I was keen to try out the AllSport GPS application, especially the subscription tool for your phone that uses it as a GPS device to automatically map your route as you go, uploading it at the end with accompanying data on speed and distance to your personal page on the website.
That part is cool, and works very well. It's nice to be able to throw your phone in your pocket and forget about it until the end of the ride, when you can immediately see your route data and have it at the same time uploaded wirelessly to your computer, accessible from anywhere with an internet connection. You can then view the route as a street map, aerial view or topographical map as well as analyze it with views that depict elevation changes over the course of your ride and plots your varying speeds during that time on a graph.
Routes may be made public or kept private, and you can scout for routes created by others either where you live or in different cities and states if you are travelling and want to view prospective runs or rides at your destination.
. . . But Difficult to Execute
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While these are nifty features, the reality of cellphones is that they still do not translate well into many kinds of mapping features that are only really feasible to use on a full-size computer screen.
For instance, it is true that you can download routes created by others to your phone using the AllSport GPS. However, these are not cue-sheet style directions, nor is it the same as the real-time GPS like you find in cars that say things like "turn left at Route 151 in 100 meters" and adjust themselves relative to where you are regarding your destination.
What you get instead are static maps that are barely readable on your phone's little screen. Especially when you consider bicycling and how many routes are 50 or 100 miles or more, this means the maps are depicted on a scale that are nearly useless to you for any sort of navigation as the only features are dots for cities and lines for major roads like interstates and state highways. And there is no way to zoom in on the map and no realtime feedback showing where you are.
Given the need for accurate directions if you are going on a ride of any distance, especially in a strange place, you are not going to be able to use this program to download a map to your phone and take it with you to guide yourself on a long ride where you've never been before.
Other Concerns
I had a couple of other concerns with the AllSport GPS application for cell phone that you should be aware of.
The first is a reality of the GPS technology that it uses, in that it can take some time to acquire the satellite signal and begin tracking. For instance, I took a ride of about an hour when testing this out that registered on my bike odometer as approximately 18.6 miles at the end, yet the AllSport GPS tracked it as only 17.3 miles. Of course, I wanted to know why, and in reviewing the route, noticed that the program did not begin recording until it picked up the GPS signal, 1.3 miles down the road. Sure, you can stand around and wait to see if it is recording before heading out on a ride, but like you, I'm used to hitting "start" on whatever device I'm using to record my time at the moment I'm ready to go and assuming it is on and working.
Additionally, when using the AllSport GPS application on your phone to track a ride or run, if you need to make or receive phone calls, you have to put the program in suspend mode, which means it is not recording any motion at that time. Not a big deal, but not the same thing either as having it minimized and still chugging away in the background, tracking your progress while you yack away at your buddy about how great you feel at mile 60.
My Recommendation - Yes for the Tracking, No on the Maps
So will you like the AllSport GPS program? The basic website functionality is useful and about the same as what you get on Mapmyride.com and other route mapping sites. You will like the AllSport GPS tool if the approximately $5.99 monthly subscription is worth it to you to have your routes automatically tracked as you run or ride and uploaded to your computer. That part is good.
You will not be happy with this if you are planning on using this to guide you on new and wonderful routes via your cell phone. The technology is not yet there to represent the maps in a useable fashion nor does it give specific directions to help you find your way as you go.
Other things to know - you can use the website tools for free; it's the cellphone subscription that requires sign-up and monthly fee.
Most higher-end cellphones with data plans can handle the AllSport GPS application. The list of phones and supported networks can be viewed here.
