no bike computer? but a smart phone?

[JennK13]

I have a Droid incredible, and I use CardioTrainer. It has GPS, maps my average speed, slowest and fastest speeds, gives me a break down mile by mile on what my speed was for each mile, tells me my elevation gain, and I can upload to mapmyfitness to get a full elevation profile. I can change it for hiking, walking, jogging - pretty much any activity I want.
The coolest thing I find is that when hiking in the backcountry of the Rockies where cell service is sketchy at best, the GPS still records my route. While it may not show a map view when I'm in the mountains, as soon as I come back to civilization, it shows me where I was. I've even had my phone "force close" and restart in the middle of a route, and once it turns back on, it picks up my route again as though it never dropped.
As for battery life, if I have a full charge when I start, it usually lasts me about 4 hours to run this program (map and GPS).

[OakLeaf]

FWIW, mapmy (ride/run) has free apps for Android and iPhone. I've installed the Android app but haven't really used it since I'm flush with Garmins.

[hebe]

My dh uses a smartphone application for geocaching which works great. I have a Garmin Dakota that I use for geocaching, and I recently realised that I could just put it in a pocket and take it on the bike too. It doesn't give me cadence etc but does record where I went, max/avge speed, altitude etc, I can upload it into mygarmin and get all proudly geeky at the combination of cycling and IT skills. I wish I'd had something similar in my fell-running days.

[badgercat]

My dh uses a smartphone application for geocaching which works great. I have a Garmin Dakota that I use for geocaching, and I recently realised that I could just put it in a pocket and take it on the bike too. It doesn't give me cadence etc but does record where I went, max/avge speed, altitude etc, I can upload it into mygarmin and get all proudly geeky at the combination of cycling and IT skills. I wish I'd had something similar in my fell-running days.

Sorry to go off-topic, but... My boyfriend has a Garmin eTrex, which is also not designed specifically for cycling, but he was able to buy a bike handlebar mount from Garmin's website. Just something to consider if you ever want to keep it out and not have to stow in a pocket while you're riding. I think it only cost him about $10 USD.

[hebe]

Thank you! I think I shall ask Santa for one, as I didn't lock the screen on it today and it consequently switched itself off without me knowing.

Sorry for the hijack.

[klesko]

I use Cardiotrainer on my Droid, but now would like cadence, so I have asked Santa for a Garmin.