Lake Loop in Cyclemeter

View Larger Map

Here's the Lake Loop recorded yesterday using Cyclemeter. I'm impressed with this program, which costs $4.99 through the Apple App store. I ran the app during the entire ride. The battery went from a full charge to 20 percent during the ride. So figure about 10 hours of battery time when using this application in the background. If your ride is longer than that, you'll need to carry some kind of charger. You can use other applications, such as the camera, while the program is running. The program records the route even when you don't have cell phone service.

A few other Sunday stats from the program:

Started: Aug 29, 2010 6:59:33 AM

Ride Time: 9:00:51

Stopped Time: 0:00

Distance: 131.28 miles

Average: 14.56 miles/h

Fastest Speed: 29.96 miles/h

Climb: 3641 feet

Calories: 8750

While you can start and stop the program during a ride, I choose to leave it running. That gives you the real time for the ride, versus the ride time. I like the way you get a mile-by-mile average of the route, although it sure does make for a funky display until you click through to the full Google map.

The graphs produced by the app are mildly entertaining but not terribly useful. See the screen shot from Sunday's ride.

The app has a calendar function and stores all of your rides. That's an easy way to keep up with your monthly mileage. Also, you can name and store your routes.

Apparently, you can start and stop the program using your headset remote and get audible updates on your speed, mileage, elevation, etc. You can also set the application to automatically update your Facebook or Twitter accounts. When you're done, one click e-mails the map to friends or exports a gpx file.

I haven't tried all of those features yet, but I gotta say for the price of a Moonpie and a couple convenience store sodas, this is a helluva good deal.