Website for tracking bike rides?

[ny biker]

I had been uploading my ride data from my Garmin Edge to the Garmin Connect website. I don't use the site for much, but it's helpful to see some data that I can't see on the device itself (like average moving speed which is different from the average speed the device shows since it keeps unpausing while the bike is stopped at rest stops). And I like to add up the totals for the year.

But, Garmin has apparently hired some idiot designers to totally change the site, and it is now incomprehensible for people who are too busy living their lives to stare at the screen trying to figure out how the hell to cut through a UI that looks disturbingly like windows 8 to get the simple information that they want. And they now expect us to install special software on our pcs in order to upload the data. Which is not going to happen, because I already have enough problems with my pc without adding unnecessary software to muck it up.

So, I"m looking for a replacement. What website will allow me to upload my ride data, see the ride on a map, get basic reports, and be easy enough to know how to use it immediately without having to think? As an indicator of how little time I have to deal with this, I am just now uploading all of my rides for 2015.*

I have no interest in sharing my data with others or comparing myself to others. I don't even compare my rides to other rides that I've done. I don't need bells and whistles.

Is there anything out there I can use, or should I just go back to the old days of looking at the small amount of information on the device after I finish a ride and then deleting it?



* p.s. my totals for 2015 are pathetic. Not enough miles and too slow. I really hope this year will be better.

[ny biker]

Update, a friend recommended using the Ride with GPS site, and it's a winner! I'm already using it extensively to plan rides. I had uploaded one ride back in 2014 -- a route that had been planned by someone else that seemed pretty hilly, so I wanted to see the elevation gain. After that I didn't bother to upload anything else because I had been using garmin connect.

But I just uploaded all my rides from last year, with no trouble doing the upload, editing the descriptions and viewing the rides in different ways (list, calendar view, etc). And I was able to restrict the accessibility of them, choosing "just friends" for most. I especially like the calendar view with the weekly totals.

It looks like I need to upgrade to a basic membership in order to get an annual total, but that's okay because I've been meaning to upgrade to a paid membership on this site anyway. It is so useful, they have definitely earned it. Thank you ride with gps!!

[Blueberry]

Thanks for posting this! I have used Garmin connect for years, but I hate, hate, hate the "modern" version. For now, my old classic link is still working - but when it stops, I will be looking up ride with gps.

[ny biker]

Yeah the "modern" garmin site was so clearly designed by people who will never actually use it.

I have a major problem with sites that are designed to look pretty with no thought to how hard they are to use. Especially when the old version worked just fine.

[zoom-zoom]

I have been using RunningAHEAD.com since it was in its infancy...before Garmin integration. I can't imagine ever leaving. It's primarily a running site, BUT the log is so flexible that I can track everything there...running, cycling, XC skiing, strength-training. It's a great motivator and I've made some incredibly close friends over the years via the forums/user groups. I never would have stuck with running so long without RA and likely wouldn't have taken to cycling so solidly, either. This Spring will mark 10 years since I first started training for a 5k.

[Crankin]

I don't use any tracker (last time I did, it depressed me to see how slow I was compared to others, even though I know a lot who are slower than me). I log my miles and all exercise in a paper training diary. Of course, I have data in my Garmin, but I only look at the miles. I look at average for a ride right after the ride, but not cumulatively. Anything else, well, don't care. My cadence is extremely consistent. So is my average, for for various rides, except when I really push myself :).
DH does upload his rides into Ride With GPS, but I have everything I need either right in my Garmin or on paper, where I also log my weight and which route I am riding.

[emily_in_nc]

We have used bikerides.com in the past; it's very simple and only for bike rides. We enjoyed it in 2014 (our "big year" of cycling) as it pushed us to keep our mileage up since it ranks you against other cyclists. For the year, DH came in #2 overall, and I came in #7 (plus #2 among women). That said, it is a very small group -- I think only around 200 cyclists sign up each year. We didn't sign up in 2015 as we knew it would be really depressing to be way down somewhere in the middle of the rankings. We always have fun looking at the cyclist's profiles who log ONE ride for the year and then never return. Often their profiles say something like "I'm really looking forward to getting back into cycling this year!" Uh..... :D

[Crankin]

That's funny, Emily. I surprised myself this year. Although I have a Garmin, I barely use it for anything more than a regular bike computer. I do know how to download other's rides, though. Anyway, around the beginning of November, I was upset a bit as I thought I wouldn't make my barely acceptable goal of 2,500 miles before the end of the season. I add them up in my journal, without ever looking at the cumulative total on the Garmin. So, when I actually looked at the data, I had passed my goal maybe a week or 10 days before I looked. My addition or what i remembered to write down was off by 150 miles, at least. I ended up at 2,850, which is close enough to the 3,000 I really wanted to get. Of course the warm fall helped. I should have just pushed myself out of the door for 4-5 of those times I wimped out. So, 3,000 doesn't seem so impossible for this year, as I feel I didn't ride that much.

[Aromig]

I hate the new Garmin Site too. I usually just keep my rides/runs in Strava (I don't care how I compare to people, it's easy for me to use and intuitive as well), but unfortunately Strava stopped supporting uploading directly from my garmin devices and just now connects to the Garmin Connect Site. Luckily, its been working but I still have to have the garmin plugins on my computer.

I have plotted rides in Ride with GPS and downloaded them to my garmin. I'll have to check out uploading rides there too, maybe I'll like it better than Strava (and not have to deal with all of the plugins).

[nkfrench]

Strava for reviewing rides, Ride with GPS for mapping new routes, and Garmin Connect for device interface.
A lot of people in my area upload to Strava including several of my friends. I get to see how and where my peers are riding and track my personal performance.
I'm a numbers girl and enjoy the post-ride stats analysis.

[OakLeaf]

I hate the new Garmin Connect, too. For the time being, you can still use the Classic interface for everything except Workouts, but I don't know how much longer they'll support it.

IAE, for my training log I've been using SportTracks since forever, like since it was true shareware. Their desktop app (Windows only - it's the only thing I use in Windows) can be used independently of their cloud service. Really like it, highly customizable, can view all the data from a Garmin watch including some that Garmin's own site won't show me, lots of plug-ins available.

RideWithGPS for mapping new routes, also.

[Blueberry]

For the time being, you can still use the Classic interface for everything except Workouts, but I don't know how much longer they'll support it.


Yep. They keep threatening to kick me off. When the old site absolutely stops working, I guess I'll move (probably somewhere other than Garmin). Until then....

[OakLeaf]

The only reason I started using Garmin Connect at all is because when I was working with a coach two years ago, that's the site he uses. Then when I got a watch with wireless upload, it's not only really convenient to hit that button at the end of a workout; it's also reassuring when I travel to a race without my laptop, to be able to upload it via my phone right away, rather than worrying whether I might physically lose the watch or have a software issue lose the record of the race, before I get home.

[Geonz]

I downloaded the Ride With GPS app to my phone - but the Garmin is what I've got a handlebar mount for until I figure oiut something for the phone (and we'll see what it does battery-wise but there may be some creativity happening there, too).

[OakLeaf]

You can upload and download to/from RwGPS to a Garmin device.

Used to be you had to crunch a route through BikeRouteToaster to get it into the multi-sport watches for navigation purposes, but it's been so long I don't even know if that's the case any more.