Any ideas for a new cycling app / electronic gadget?

[quilkin]

This doesn't quite seem to fit into either the computing or the GPS sections so it's going here.
I'm a retired comuter engineer who needs a new 'hobby' project to keep me busy, since my travels this year have been curtailed. I have experience in designing small battery-operated devices (e.g. tiny dataloggers) and have recently designed a few simple smartphone apps (a couple of which 'talk' to the other devices via bluetooth, and store data on a remote server). One of these tracks my position while I'm out riding, and enables my other half to see where I am at any time (yes I know this has now been done loads, but I wrote it ages ago and at least I can keep my data private!).
I'm after ideas for something cycling-related which hasn't been 'done' already - could be a gadget, or an app, or even a cycling website. Ideally it wouldn't depend on 3rd-party devices (e.g. Garmins) which can change quickly. If a smartphone app it would ned to be Android in the first instance (if it became popular I could  spend some money getting set up for iPhone.)
So, what's your wishlist?

[trekker12]

Extending your personal GPS tracker in which you keep the data private would be nice. Some means of logging distance ridden over a ride/week/year and knowing how far a particular bike/equipment/wheelset etc has travelled for servicing purposes. With some kind of backup output file for storage on a home computer/cloud service

I know Strava etc does all of that but I'd rather not have to rely on the web and another company for the information (who are using that information to their advantage or asking me to pay for 'upgraded' services). I don't subscribe to the 'if it's not on the web it didn't happen' social media viewpoint all the big companies have. Perhaps I'm a luddite.

[Tim Hall]

Extending your personal GPS tracker in which you keep the data private would be nice. Some means of logging distance ridden over a ride/week/year and knowing how far a particular bike/equipment/wheelset etc has travelled for servicing purposes. With some kind of backup output file for storage on a home computer/cloud service

I know Strava etc does all of that but I'd rather not have to rely on the web and another company for the information (who are using that information to their advantage or asking me to pay for 'upgraded' services). I don't subscribe to the 'if it's not on the web it didn't happen' social media viewpoint all the big companies have. Perhaps I'm a luddite.

OSMand does that if you enable the correct plugin. AFAIK it's all kept on the phone until you tell it to save to Google Drive/Whatsapp/Email/Dropbox

[JStone]

One gadget I've always fancied is an 'audax progress indicator'.

This would entail a simple 1-line display, possibly bar mounted, showing current time in hand / behind time based upon distance travelled and time taken. So if I'm 15 minutes ahead of schedule it would show 0:15 (perhaps in green / with an 'up' arrow?), and 20 minutes behind schedule would show 0:20 (flashing red / 'down' arrow?), where 'schedule' means getting to the finish exactly on the time limit. Push a button to see the result, then time out to save the battery. Would save all the mental arithmetic in the cold, dark hours.

Requirements -
1. ability to track elapsed time and distance travelled since the start, and compare them with total distance and time limit to calculate progress.
2. some way to enter total distance, 'nominal' distance, time limit - or to select from default distance / BR / BRM / custom options. For example, a 208km ride under BRM regs would have a time limit of 13hr20min based on the 'nominal' 200km at 15km/hr, but would get an additional 32min (8 km @ 4min / km) under BR regs.
3. battery life of at least 40 hours (to get through a 600km event) - option to market a special PBP / LEL device for longer events.

[Kim]

Why not go the whole hog and do a proper routesheet app?  (I've postulated this before, but I reckon the overlap of people who prefer traditional routesheet navigation and those who eschew smartphones and associated technology is large enough to make it almost^[1] pointless.)


_{[1] There is, after all, the London Sightseer.}

[Ben T]

I'd actually quite like an app that tells me, via my watch, how far away any other cyclists are on the road, in what direction they're travelling, and how many there are ( so I know, for instance, whether it's worth hanging back/speeding in order to draft them).
And, if there aren't data privacy issues, WHO they are, so if I don't like them I can avoid them.

[Ben T]

One gadget I've always fancied is an 'audax progress indicator'.

This would entail a simple 1-line display, possibly bar mounted, showing current time in hand / behind time based upon distance travelled and time taken.

I've sometimes thought about that , but when you think about it, it's non trivial distinguishing between distance traveled along the route, and distance traveled the wrong way...

[TimC]

Why not go the whole hog and do a proper routesheet app?  (I've postulated this before, but I reckon the overlap of people who prefer traditional routesheet navigation and those who eschew smartphones and associated technology is large enough to make it almost^[1] pointless.)


_{[1] There is, after all, the London Sightseer.}

Doesn’t RideWithGPS do that?

[SoreTween]

One gadget I've always fancied is an 'audax progress indicator'.

This would entail a simple 1-line display, possibly bar mounted, showing current time in hand / behind time based upon distance travelled and time taken.

Garmin devices provide this with their virtual partner function so long as your tcx/gpx is correctly formed. Both formats allow for a time to be specified for each GPS point, cycle.travel used to make these points at exactly 15kph. When you run the course your virtual partner follows the course at exactly the specified (relative) time at each point. There's two markers on the map or worm line display, your position and your vp. Best of all, one screen shows your distance and time ahead or behind your virtual partner. So as devices go Garmin has you covered but a phone app to replicate this would be more widely useful.

'Correctly formed' is where there's room for improvement. Cycle.travel now varies the track speed according to surface, if there's a stretch osm says must be walked it gets 5kph I think. What about audaxes where the minimum isn't 15kph? Before you start you can tell your Garmin to run the vp 10, 20, 30 etc % fast or slow but that's not a lot of use.  Complex tcx fettling is needed, I have a crude program to do this but it wouldn't be usable for others. Obviously a virtual partner app for ahead would need to work at a definable speed but if it could also export a modified course for Garmin owners that'd be very handy.

I've sometimes thought about that , but when you think about it, it's non trivial distinguishing between distance traveled along the route, and distance traveled the wrong way...

Yeah, it needs to be a GPS device. The Garmin VP merrily continues following the prescribed route while you go off piste for an extra water stop. When back on route your VP ahead/behind times get updated. You couldn't do that with a distance only device such as one listening to a speed sensor.

Please, publish on f-droid not the gurgle store.

[JStone]

One gadget I've always fancied is an 'audax progress indicator'.

This would entail a simple 1-line display, possibly bar mounted, showing current time in hand / behind time based upon distance travelled and time taken.

I've sometimes thought about that , but when you think about it, it's non trivial distinguishing between distance traveled along the route, and distance traveled the wrong way...

Agreed. But I'd happily settle for something cheap & cheerful, with minimum feature-bloat, that assumes I'll use it correctly.

[quilkin]

Thanks for ideas so far. Some interesting ones.

One gadget I've always fancied is an 'audax progress indicator'.

I should have made it clearer that, although I have designed standalone gadgets, putting them into production is quite costly. Crowdfunding (.e.g. Kickstarter) for popular ideas is possible, but I wonder if the number of Audax riders is a big enough market? On the other hand purely phone-based apps can be made and distributed for almost zero cost (apart from development time) so could cater for very small audiences.

Why not go the whole hog and do a proper routesheet app?

Explain a bit more please?

I'd actually quite like an app that tells me, via my watch, how far away any other cyclists are on the road, in what direction they're travelling, and how many there are ( so I know, for instance, whether it's worth hanging back/speeding in order to draft them).
And, if there aren't data privacy issues, WHO they are, so if I don't like them I can avoid them.

That would be great, but all other cyclists would need the same app running as well. I think Strava (and others?) lets you track riders that you 'follow' online

Extending your personal GPS tracker in which you keep the data private would be nice. Some means of logging distance ridden over a ride/week/year and knowing how far a particular bike/equipment/wheelset etc has travelled for servicing purposes. With some kind of backup output file for storage on a home computer/cloud service

I know Strava etc does all of that but I'd rather not have to rely on the web and another company for the information (who are using that information to their advantage or asking me to pay for 'upgraded' services). I don't subscribe to the 'if it's not on the web it didn't happen' social media viewpoint all the big companies have. Perhaps I'm a luddite.

Interesting idea. Be careful though because if the app has access to the internet (for you to save you data) it could also provide your data to oothers without you knowing (of course I would never do that 

My responses are probably sounding a  bit negative so far, but I hope they will help to show the sort of things that are practical/possible and those that are not.

[cygnet]

Thanks for ideas so far. Some interesting ones.

One gadget I've always fancied is an 'audax progress indicator'.

I should have made it clearer that, although I have designed standalone gadgets, putting them into production is quite costly. Crowdfunding (.e.g. Kickstarter) for popular ideas is possible, but I wonder if the number of Audax riders is a big enough market? On the other hand purely phone-based apps can be made and distributed for almost zero cost (apart from development time) so could cater for very small audiences

Would it need to be a separate device? A phone app (using phones GPS to determine distance left to ride from a GPX / preloaded track) with a simple display, or possibly made capable of sending such a display or value to a linked watch?

(Personally, doing those calculations in my head occupies some of the time spent on the dull bits of road  )

[Greenbank]

One gadget I've always fancied is an 'audax progress indicator'.

This would entail a simple 1-line display, possibly bar mounted, showing current time in hand / behind time based upon distance travelled and time taken.

I've sometimes thought about that , but when you think about it, it's non trivial distinguishing between distance traveled along the route, and distance traveled the wrong way...

If you have your current position (via GPS) and a tracklog of the expected route then calculating your progress against it is easy (it's made a bit harder if the route overlaps itself or is a cloverleaf style affair with multiple visits to a single control, but that's far from insurmountable).

[Lightning Phil]

There are electronic  shelf edge eink displays that update via Bluetooth. So you could easily have a phone app updating a Bluetooth eink display on the handlebars. So it could do routesheets or it could just do turn directions. The phone just needs a list of directions or route sheet instructions and their coordinates for a version 1.

[Ben T]

One gadget I've always fancied is an 'audax progress indicator'.

This would entail a simple 1-line display, possibly bar mounted, showing current time in hand / behind time based upon distance travelled and time taken.

I've sometimes thought about that , but when you think about it, it's non trivial distinguishing between distance traveled along the route, and distance traveled the wrong way...

If you have your current position (via GPS) and a tracklog of the expected route then calculating your progress against it is easy (it's made a bit harder if the route overlaps itself or is a cloverleaf style affair with multiple visits to a single control, but that's far from insurmountable).

Yeah it's not rocket science but it's quite a bit of leg work.
For me it'd not be the difference between could do it and couldn't do it, but it would be the difference between could be arsed to do it and couldn't be arsed to do it.

[Kim]

Why not go the whole hog and do a proper routesheet app?

Explain a bit more please?

Something that would do something useful when fed a traditional routsheet as, say, a CSV file.

I suppose that's mostly displaying the next couple of instructions, scrolling automagically according to distance travelled.  A "I'm at this instruction now" button to reset the odometer when you go off-route, basic time/distance stats, that sort of thing.  The main advantage would be that it's a backlit (presumably) waterproof display, and can beep at you to warn of an upcoming instruction, rather than pieces of paper you have to find somewhere to mount and keep turning over.

But I don't really think it's worth the effort, as - given a routesheet and no GPX file from a luddite organiser - that effort is generally far better spent creating a GPX route to follow, and an actual map (perhaps with the odd annotation for weird stuff like cycle infra) is superior in most ways.

[Greenbank]

For me it'd not be the difference between could do it and couldn't do it, but it would be the difference between could be arsed to do it and couldn't be arsed to do it.

If I was retired many things I couldn't be arsed to do would suddenly find the time/inclination/tuits to be done.