Map My Ride (app) by Underarmor, it's ok but has problems

After deciding to live a bicycle-as-my-only-means-of-transportation life, i figured I may as well track how far I go and I have to admit I chose Map my Ride because of the recognizable nature of the UnderArmor logo (I hate it when advertising tactics work on me!)

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So I'll start off by saying that it is incredibly easy to use. They do the usual fishing for personal information that is very easy to circumvent if you simply have one of those spam email address slop boxes like I do and why they need to know my birthday is beyond me especially since I used a fake name. The only information you provide to the app that actually benefits you in any way is your age, height, and weight. Anyway, that part was short enough that I didn't mind it and you don't even have to wait for one of those stupid confirmation emails either. It fired straight up.

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You choose from a variety of exercises such as mountain biking, street biking, and even running and hiking and just hit a button that says "start my workout" and it uses GPS to track your progress - this is nothing new or innovative but I do like that it is easy and after 50 rides, it has always been accurate (as far as distance is concerned.) It has a nice feature where it can automatically pause if you are standing still (such as at a stoplight) so that the standing still doesn't mess up your average speed and what not.

The pic on the right displays routes that other people have taken nearby and the time it took them to do it, so if you are looking for a challenge with a stranger you can turn your bike riding into a multiplayer game if you want to. There is also an area where they have tried to form a community and you could reach out and try to make friends in the local biking community if you wanted to..... I didn't.

Now onto the cons

The advertisements were always going to be there, but they block out the screen and they put the "X" in a different place each time to try and trick you into clicking on it. I hate that but understand why it is there.

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Also, the calories don't have any sort of method to their madness. If i bike 20 km on a 3 speed bike i am going to burn significantly more calories than if I am on my 28 speed bike where unless I want to push it seems almost effortless on the open road. It would be nice if there was a space to indicate what TYPE of bike you are using. I almost never feel out of breath when I am riding and this doesn't seem terribly calorie-intensive to me. I think it gives the wrong impression.

They do have some features such as bluetoothing to a wristband that will also track your heart rate and I do have one of those things but it almost never gives accurate results (the wristband, this isn't Map My Ride's fault). Perhaps that could help to create a more accurate idea of how much exercise you are actually getting. The section where you can connect bluetooth devices seems to me to be an advertising section because unless you have a watch that is made by them or their partners, it wont pair - again, from a business perspective this makes sense but it sucks for the consumers.

TL;DR

Overall, since this app is free i think it is a great way to track how far you go relatively effortlessly. While I doubt the caloric consumption of the results it still does a great job of tracking distance and average speed. The bluetooth section is basically a way to try to get you to buy merch from their partners and doesn't appear to be terribly helpful otherwise.

The advertisements are annoying but only happen at the end of a ride.

I also like the fact that it displays the rides that other people have done nearby you so that you can do "multiplayer" to see if you are faster than your neighbors that you don't yet know.

If you bike, this is a good app and since it costs nothing it is recommended by moi.... adios!