Google My Tracks

Posted: April 25th, 2011 | Author: saldarji | Filed under: bicycling | Tags: bicycle, cycling, GPS, My Tracks | No Comments »

I tried using Google’s My Tracks, available for the Android platfrom, for a training ride this weekend. I was running the application on my T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S “Vibrant” phone with a custom ROM (Bionix-v 1.3.1 by Team Whiskey). I liked the application, though it has some shortcomings.

It was fairly easy to share the map and the results of my ride with other people. If you save it out as a “my map” on Google Maps, you can even embed it into your blog.

View 2011-04-24 15:40 Blue Hills in a larger map

If you get to the detailed level on the map, you can see that the GPS coordinates are an overlay on the map, with no correction. That means if the GPS coordinate I received was off by 10 meters, and it put me off the path, the path on Google Maps was not corrected. A good feature to have in the future would be auto-correct to fit a line that is appropriate to the activity.

The elevation map on Google Maps:

Also, there is a summary of the ride/run/walk available both on the device and embedded into the map:

2011-04-24 15:40 Blue Hills (End)
Updated 11 hours ago
Created by My Tracks on Android. Total Distance: 39.58 km (24.6 mi)
Total Time: 1:42:58
Moving Time: 1:40:00
Average Speed: 23.06 km/h (14.3 mi/h)
Average Moving Speed: 23.74 km/h (14.8 mi/h)
Max Speed: 104.40 km/h (64.9 mi/h)
Min Elevation: -67 m (-221 ft)
Max Elevation: 183 m (601 ft)
Elevation Gain: 1111 m (3645 ft)
Max Grade: 36 Min Grade: -43
Recorded: Sun Apr 24 15:40:10 EDT 2011
Activity type: cycling

The information is approximately right and generally matched what I was showing on my inexpensive cyclocomputer (Cateye Micro Wireless), with a few exceptions. First, there is no way I was descending at 65 mph. Second, my knees would crumble into dust if I tried climbing a 36% grade.

My friend Duncan Gross has a high-end Garmin cyclocomputer with GPS. His results seem to have similar anomolies in his rides. Also, his cyclocomputer keeps track of temperature, cadence, and heart rate. Some of these stats would be available for My Tracks, if you purchase Zephyr Bluetooth accessories.

The application does drain battery, so make sure the phone is charged before you take it on a ride with My Tracks on. It would be a luxury to have the type of tracking that is possible with a higher-end GPS-enabled cyclocomputer. For now, I take my phone on rides anyways, so I can see myself using this more often to track my routes.

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