The Chainlink

How do you track your miles?

Hello cyclists!

Besides the obvious of just countingr or checking your routes via google maps, how do you keep track of your bike miles? I'm curious if a fitbit or something similar might be a good investment for this purpose. GPS on my phone typically kills the battery and is not always terribly accurate for tracking miles.

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Permalink Reply by daWillinChi on January 16, 2015 at 2:46pm

I second Moves, especially if you carry your phone all the time with you. Best of all, it does this all the time, in the background.

The app does track in the background. It's especially well on iPhone 5s and up, but it does shorten your battery life by a lot.

I haven't found any dedicated activity tracker wearables that features as much tracking as this app does.

Two caveats, though:

1. If I'm riding my bike, it will think that I'm on car (driving) if I go too fast, or revert back to running or walking if I go slower.

2. There's no easy way to export your data to say .tcx , .gpx, or .kml format

d34dfish said:

Moves does a great job if your phone supports it. It's very good at automatically knowing if/when you travel by foot, bike, or transport. Maps everything as well. 

It's the only app that does this that I know of and it's pretty accurate. It's also really easy to change the activity if it gets it wrong. Manual entry is a thing of the past. 

https://www.moves-app.com

Permalink Reply by Bob Jarosz on January 16, 2015 at 4:30pm

I setup an excel page for day, week, month and year on my computer.  My cycle computer can keep track of 2 different wheel sizes. Also broken down by bike (I have 2). I try and keep track daily if not weekly.  Been doing this for at least 20 years.  This year I stopped doing daily, weekly and monthly, just yearly.  

Permalink Reply by Irvin Steinert on January 17, 2015 at 1:03pm

I don't keep track of miles. I don't base my pleasure in riding on arbitrary data points. To me it's like enjoying a meal based on the amount of calories in it.

Permalink Reply by Chitown_Mike on January 19, 2015 at 2:50pm

I, and I am sure others, don't keep track of my rides for "arbitrary data" but so I can know what intervals I need to make adjustments or if I need to take the bike into the shop, give them accurate mileage so they know.  Also so I can keep track of how often I need to grease my chain or the miles I can get on a pair of tires.  And so I can improve my fitness.  YMMV of course.


Irvin Steinert said:

I don't keep track of miles. I don't base my pleasure in riding on arbitrary data points. To me it's like enjoying a meal based on the amount of calories in it.

Permalink Reply by Tandemonium on January 19, 2015 at 7:52pm

You are correct sir. That and curiosity..

Tracking miles has no effect on my riding pleasure. In reality it helps me better maintain our household bikes, ensuring more riding pleasure in the future.

Chitown_Mike said:

I, and I am sure others, don't keep track of my rides for "arbitrary data" but so I can know what intervals I need to make adjustments or if I need to take the bike into the shop, give them accurate mileage so they know.  Also so I can keep track of how often I need to grease my chain or the miles I can get on a pair of tires.  And so I can improve my fitness.  YMMV of course.


Irvin Steinert said:

I don't keep track of miles. I don't base my pleasure in riding on arbitrary data points. To me it's like enjoying a meal based on the amount of calories in it.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on January 20, 2015 at 6:30am

Maintenance is a significant motivator for me to keep a combined mileage/maintenance log.  No relation to riding pleasure. It's just a side note.

Tandemonium said:

You are correct sir. That and curiosity..

Tracking miles has no effect on my riding pleasure. In reality it helps me better maintain our household bikes, ensuring more riding pleasure in the future.

Permalink Reply by Noah Weiss 1.2 km on January 20, 2015 at 8:03am

I keep track of my miles using the cyclocomputers on my bikes, but during the winter, may have to use the MapMyRide GPS app, since the computer tends to not take data well when it is cold.

When I got my current bike (about 2 years ago), it came equipped with a lemon cyclocomputer, which I finally discarded earlier last year, as I was often having to recall my route and use MapMyRide to get the "exact" distance... unless it was a route that I have done a bazillion times (such as to-and-from-my-apartment-on-the-work-route).

I like keeping track of my miles for things such as the National Bike Challenge, as well as for my own reference.

Permalink Reply by Irvin Steinert on January 20, 2015 at 8:59am

I maintain my bikes quite well without knowing mileage. Riding conditions and type of use will dictate maintenance requirements as much or more than mileage. But I'm glad you don't base your riding enjoyment on total time or distance. I'm sure most folks don't, even if they like to "one-up" their buddies with time and or mile numbers.

Personally I use a computer on my roadbike to keep track of speed on known route locations to challenge myself.... unfortunately it just seems to just get worse with age ;-)

Tandemonium said:

You are correct sir. That and curiosity..

Tracking miles has no effect on my riding pleasure. In reality it helps me better maintain our household bikes, ensuring more riding pleasure in the future.

Chitown_Mike said:

I, and I am sure others, don't keep track of my rides for "arbitrary data" but so I can know what intervals I need to make adjustments or if I need to take the bike into the shop, give them accurate mileage so they know.  Also so I can keep track of how often I need to grease my chain or the miles I can get on a pair of tires.  And so I can improve my fitness.  YMMV of course.


Irvin Steinert said:

I don't keep track of miles. I don't base my pleasure in riding on arbitrary data points. To me it's like enjoying a meal based on the amount of calories in it.

Permalink Reply by Patti Haare on January 21, 2015 at 8:46am
Garmin GPS! My Fitbit will record the number of active minutes but I like my Garmin overall for everything.
Permalink Reply by daWillinChi on January 21, 2015 at 8:56am

OP was asking what we use to track, not why we track. 

If you don't do it for your own reasons, keep it to yourself, or open a separate thread. No need to be shaming others that want to do.

Permalink Reply by daWillinChi on January 21, 2015 at 9:04am

On a separate note, I like the idea of Garmin Edge 200. It doesn't track cadence, but only mileage and GPS based speed calculation, so you can always use it even if you have multiple bikes. I may just go and buy this.

I don't know if the device itself has multiple bike profiles, but I'm sure you can always change that when you upload your data. 

Since it is a separate device, it won't use up your phone battery.


JustWill said:

OP was asking what we use to track, not why we track. 

If you don't do it for your own reasons, keep it to yourself, or open a separate thread. No need to be shaming others that want to do.

Permalink Reply by OLB 0.1 on January 21, 2015 at 11:37am

Yes, you can specify which bike from your profile the ride was on when you upload through Garmin. You can also link your Garmin and Strava accounts (don't know about others), but I don't think the bike specifics carry over.

JustWill said:

On a separate note, I like the idea of Garmin Edge 200. It doesn't track cadence, but only mileage and GPS based speed calculation, so you can always use it even if you have multiple bikes. I may just go and buy this.

I don't know if the device itself has multiple bike profiles, but I'm sure you can always change that when you upload your data. 

Since it is a separate device, it won't use up your phone battery.


JustWill said:

OP was asking what we use to track, not why we track. 

If you don't do it for your own reasons, keep it to yourself, or open a separate thread. No need to be shaming others that want to do.

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