Great for navigation, lacking for metrics
Ride With GPS is pretty great, though is biased more towards mapping and navigation more than metrics and fitness. The route planning and voice-guided navigation is really impressive. While it’s wonderful to be able to connect to my Garmin Varia (which Cyclemeter cannot do), many of the settings menus are only accessible during a ride and not easy to find. It would be nice to have a selection of screens to choose from, as the majority of the screen is dedicated to the map, making few, small font metrics visible on screen. The Apple Watch heart rate connection worked easily. I was able to connect it to my Duotrap (Trek speed and cadence sensor) without an issue, but it seems unnecessarily difficult to get recorded workouts pushed into Apple Health or Strava. For instance, I swore I had enabled to switch for Apple Health, but when I finished my ride the workout did not get pushed. Unfortunately, there’s no way to retroactively get completed workouts sent to Apple Health. And the Strava connection does not occur on the device, only by connecting your RWGPS account to your Strava account online. Incredible potential, needs just a few tweaks. I’m not sure I’m ready to commit to an annual subscription just yet, but I could definitely see subscribing on an as-needed basis for a week/month at a time. The guided navigation was so helpful during a 100 mile ride on a route we’d never taken before.
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Very confusing and frustrating
It seems like this app was just what I was looking for and would be worth the $5.99 per month if worked, but I could not get it to work. The description said voice navigation was available with the basic and premium subscription. I went into the route planner and planned my route from my home by tapping on the map wherever there was a turn. Created a square 2-mile route. I saved the route with a name. I selected the route from my routes library and pressed navigate. Instead of navigating me around my route with voice navigation, my route disappeared from view and the app simply started to record my route - no voice prompts at all.
I played around it it for the better part of an hour trying to get it to navigate my route with voice prompts, or even just visual prompts, but without success. I re-read the help pages several times to no avail. I deleted my route and created new ones, but was unable to navigate with any of them.
Being totally frustrated with the app, I went in and cancelled my subscription and deleted the app. Very disappointing.
I played around it it for the better part of an hour trying to get it to navigate my route with voice prompts, or even just visual prompts, but without success. I re-read the help pages several times to no avail. I deleted my route and created new ones, but was unable to navigate with any of them.
Being totally frustrated with the app, I went in and cancelled my subscription and deleted the app. Very disappointing.
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Response from developer
Rick, sorry to hear you had such an awful experience. We take our navigation very serious and want to help. Email our support team at info@ridewithgps.com with details of the failure. Maybe we can figure out if it was a setting somewhere or if the app had a real failure. Any details you can provide on how you planned the route or started navigation would be greatly appreciated.
This is the one
I set out looking for a cycling app that did three things. 1. Show map and stats on my smartphones. 2. Utilize Apple Watch heart rate sensor. (This requires you to enable the feature in the app settings) 3. Works with my duotrap sensor.
If you want these things, and haven’t found this app yet, you can finish your search. This app is too good. It was annoying that the heart rate on Apple Watch was not on by default, but once I got it turned on, everything works reliably. I pre-paired my duotrap from the Bluetooth settings in the app, then just start a recording and the app automatically pops up on my Apple Watch with the stats. I love it. This is what I want. I am happy.
If you want these things, and haven’t found this app yet, you can finish your search. This app is too good. It was annoying that the heart rate on Apple Watch was not on by default, but once I got it turned on, everything works reliably. I pre-paired my duotrap from the Bluetooth settings in the app, then just start a recording and the app automatically pops up on my Apple Watch with the stats. I love it. This is what I want. I am happy.
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Best app if you want Varia integration
My kid got me a Garmin Varia for Christmas and I wanted and app that integrated it so I didn’t need to switch apps on the fly. Tried Cadence but it wasn’t great. This one is. I want a tool where I don’t need to go to a browser to download routes. It’s a nice option but shouldn’t be the default. I will say that it needs a night mode though. You can dim things down a bit using the hybrid or satellite views but that’s a problem in bad data areas. The map screen is way too bright for night riding without using one of those though. The routing suggestions are excellent and I like the fact you can edit one of theirs on the fly and save it right on the phone as a new route. Learning curve so far has been easy. Most stuff is front and center and intuitive. The social media stuff isn’t so over the top like in Strava lately. The most surprising thing is how well the Varia integration works. The warnings it gives are far more intuitive than what you get from the actual Varia app. I liked it will enough that I paid for it.
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Helped me get to 1,000,000’ climbed
I love this app and only wish I’d started tracking sooner. I bought a fat bike in 2016 and shortly thereafter, I got this app. When I kept forgetting to turn it off after my ride, I realized I could edit those rides if I became a premium subscriber. And so I did and I’m glad I did. Then, I realized in 2020 that I was closing in on 1,000,000 vertical feet climbed. That became my end goal and in late 2021, I hit it! Now, with an eBike, my goal this year is to ride 300,000’. For a roadie, that’s probably not a big goal. But on single track, I think it is - and I’m over 60. I love the heat maps that were added and am trying to figure out how to make my new bike the default bike so I don’t have to go in and change it every time. (The developer got back to me right away with good directions on how to change the default bike, so thanks to whomever wrote back).
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Response from developer
Hello and thanks for the kind words! You can change your default bike on the website by clicking on your profile pic in the upper right corner, then go to Settings, Preferences, then change the dropdown for 'Default Gear'. Select the bike you want to have shown on the ride save screen. Then click the SAVE CHANGES button to set your new preference. If you ever have any questions or feedback always feel free to contact us at info@ridewithgps.com any time.
Consistently the best cycling app
I’ve been using RWGPS since it’s launch on iOS and it’s developed over the years to be the best cycling app ever (I’ve tried a LOT). Easy to use too, which is crucial. The rare times I’ve asked a question of the support team, it’s always been answered quickly and knowledgeably. Thanks RWGPS team!
Disappointing
So far it’s been pretty disappointing. Apps very buggy in my iPhone 12 Pro. Press more in the menu and the app freezes. Have deleted it and reinstalled and no better. Hopefully it’ll improve of else I’ll unfortunately have to go back to Komoot.
RWGPS Sports App
I’m a cyclist and routes are important to me, battery life seems to get shorter every few months but with RWGPS you don’t need energy sapping satellite links anymore as RWGPS still shows route and location in stealth mode. Amazing app and will be using fornTCRNo8 as alerts for turns warnings and much more. Many Thanks TWGPS
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Love the app, wish there was better segment/social networking support
I am so grateful for the RideWithGPS app. I’ve ridden over 7,000 miles with its assistance over the last 2 years. Routing is fairly seemless, though there is some serious memory hogging through the website platform in Safari and Chrome on Mac(save regularly!).
I am recently disappointed by load failures in the segment portion of both mobile and browser platforms. Segment data often does not load, mobile notifications and emails open empty pages in app and browser, and it is difficult to find or create new segments. In a huge cycling community like NYC, it would be great to have better social integration in this regard. PLEASE don’t become Strava or anything so Facebookish, but the segment section is the one area that UI improvement could help connect cyclists riding similar routes, for fun and safety (buddy system for the win!).
Thank you again for such a great app🙏 Final feedback is more for Garmin - make Edge 1030 Plus more seemless with RWGPS; without an internet connection, it is difficult to share routes created in the app and routing through the garmin connect app pales in comparison to RWGPS on mobile🤌
I am recently disappointed by load failures in the segment portion of both mobile and browser platforms. Segment data often does not load, mobile notifications and emails open empty pages in app and browser, and it is difficult to find or create new segments. In a huge cycling community like NYC, it would be great to have better social integration in this regard. PLEASE don’t become Strava or anything so Facebookish, but the segment section is the one area that UI improvement could help connect cyclists riding similar routes, for fun and safety (buddy system for the win!).
Thank you again for such a great app🙏 Final feedback is more for Garmin - make Edge 1030 Plus more seemless with RWGPS; without an internet connection, it is difficult to share routes created in the app and routing through the garmin connect app pales in comparison to RWGPS on mobile🤌
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First time user
I paid for 12 months because I wanted to be able to create and upload routes to my wahoo bolt. Takes a little finessing but the learning curve is simple. Love the fact that I can also include turn by turn directions and points of interest if your off piste. Once you’ve created your route simply pin the route in options and it’s ready to go on the wahoo. Love it.
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