# Smartphone map that doesn't require cell reception



## the_law_man01 (Oct 13, 2015)

Hello all,

Can anyone recommend a smartphone trail mapping app in which regional maps (or better) can be saved onto the phone then used with the GPS without cell service?

I was impressed that the MapMyRide app loaded in town, GPS tracked me to and all over the trail, then saved the workout and loaded it when I got back to cell service. However, I had no mapping while on the ride.

I can't afford to spend a lot of money on a bike gps right now so this is my only option.

Thanks for any help!


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

mtbproject

It doesn't do tracking at all. The whole point of it is navigation. And it does so without cell connection. It really never NEEDS a cellular connection, if you're willing to download trails over wifi. To be fair, it does not save the basemap (Google Maps or whatever). What it saves are the actual trail maps, descriptions, and I think even the photo thumbnails. You download trails on a statewide level.


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## breaks911 (Aug 16, 2005)

Gaia gps is a great mapping program that allows you to download several different maps. You can also import gpx tracks into the app so you'll have everything you need for your ride.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

breaks911 said:


> Gaia gps is a great mapping program that allows you to download several different maps. You can also import gpx tracks into the app so you'll have everything you need for your ride.


not sure you can fit regional or larger areas with detailed maps though. not with the way tiled maps work


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## breaks911 (Aug 16, 2005)

You can choose as many tiles at 24K as your phone has storage to hold. And choose from multiple basemap sources.

Here's what that looks like:


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

breaks911 said:


> You can choose as many tiles at 24K as your phone has storage to hold. And choose from multiple basemap sources.


And that's the crux of the matter. My point being that at the detailed local level, you're not going to be able to fit regional areas onto your phone. It's just too much space.

It's why Garmin has the limits it does on the amount of raster maps you can load. They're WAY more resource-intensive than vector maps.


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## the_law_man01 (Oct 13, 2015)

I had MTBproject but I'm gonna have to be the one to put most of our trails in, apparently. It only brought up maybe 5 (would have to verify, just an estimation) trails in the state. I'm fine with this though. Gives me an excuse to go ride more trails. You know, a for the greater good type of undertaking.

On Gaia GPS, can I select (via a drag box) a certain area within which I know I'll be riding and then have it track me so I can save trails in that area?


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## breaks911 (Aug 16, 2005)

Yes you sure can. You can save the maps to your phone and it will save the routes you ride to gpx format.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

the_law_man01 said:


> I had MTBproject but I'm gonna have to be the one to put most of our trails in, apparently. It only brought up maybe 5 (would have to verify, just an estimation) trails in the state. I'm fine with this though. Gives me an excuse to go ride more trails. You know, a for the greater good type of undertaking.
> 
> On Gaia GPS, can I select (via a drag box) a certain area within which I know I'll be riding and then have it track me so I can save trails in that area?


Content submission is uneven around the country for that app. It's an option, though.

And despite my criticisms of GaiaGPS, it's probably going to be the best one for showing basemaps. I'm just making it clear that downloading detailed maps at a regional level might be asking a bit much. The example above doesn't even show a whole county, for example. On MTBProject, I have about half a dozen whole states loaded on my phone. FWIW, I have the whole US loaded into my Garmin with trails for most of those states.


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## breaks911 (Aug 16, 2005)

Unfortunately they are no perfect solutions out there I've seen. It all ends up being a mashup of different tools that best fit the individual's requirements.


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## the_law_man01 (Oct 13, 2015)

Nice. A Garmin is a goal for the future. Just trying to make due for now.

I have about 22GB available on my phone SD card so I should be able to download a few maps of areas I'll ride which don't have cell coverage.

Now to just figure out how to do it.


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## tex22 (Dec 15, 2012)

On Android, I like Locus Pro. Can even edit tracks with it. They also sell decent maps for use offline but can cache internet based maps as well. On my GDMBR ride this summer, I used a Garmin 1000 for ensuring I was on course (low power usage compared to my nexus 6!) And had locus pro running to alert me when near key points as it is a total pain to manipulate POI on garmins, especially with no computer.
I have used locus pro enough now that I would consider skipping the Garmin if I had a phone with a display that uses less lower.


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## bitflogger (Jan 12, 2004)

Gaia GPS is awesome but not just a few $, and offers much more power than many might want.

I will track your bike rides. What's really cool is how many types of maps you can use and download for off line use. For trail building I'll use old school topo, modern digital, apply photos as waypoints. Much more simple for a bike ride. When I'm out of the country I'll download Google Maps ahead of time and have navigation without international roaming.

https://www.gaiagps.com/gallery/
https://www.gaiagps.com/apps/ios/
https://www.gaiagps.com/apps/android/


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## the_law_man01 (Oct 13, 2015)

So, on Gaia how much useable app do you get for the $20? How much more do you have to spend on downloading additional maps?

I guess the same questions go for Locus for the $7.48 price tag.

How much do you REALLY get, and how much do you have to pay for add-ons for our type of use?


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## canadaka (Jun 25, 2010)

Trailforks released it's mobile app this September. It has offline trail maps and a huge array of other features, with more coming.

Trailforks Mobile App

Trailforks is the largest database of mountain bike trails in the world and growing fast. Some areas in the US are still spotty with trail coverage, but Trailforks makes it easy to add the missing trails with a range of tools on the website.

The app & website are all free with no advertising. All money is optional donations that go directly to local trail associations.


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## breaks911 (Aug 16, 2005)

I don't see a feature in TF that enables offline maps. Can you explain how to do it ?


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## canadaka (Jun 25, 2010)

breaks911 said:


> I don't see a feature in TF that enables offline maps. Can you explain how to do it ?


It works similar as mtbp which Harold described above. You download all the trail data for a region (state,province,country) before hand, then that data is available offline. But the background Google map is not 100% offline. It does caches extremely well using the native Google SDK and since they are vector tiles the scale nicely.

The trail gps tracks, all the meta data for the trails, points of interest, routes, bike shops, and riding areas are stored offline in a local database on your phone.

We have been working for almost a year on our own Trailforks basemap of the entire world! It will have global contour lines and terrain shading. This will be replacing the Google map on the website and be an option in the app. We eventually plan to allow the optional download of this map for offline use in the app, like the UI posted above, the user would draw a rectangle for the area they want to download. But this would only be an advanced option, most people don't need it. It makes the download for a region go from a couple MB to hundreds of MB. The Google terms of service prevent download of their tiles for offline, that is why we have gone this route. We also want to make a custom basemap specific for mountain biking! But is a huge amount of data to deal with and a lot of complex process.

Some of the features in the app do require a data connection, like viewing photos & videos of trails, for which we have by far the largest collection of. Other features like routing to a trail or adding a trail to your wishlist also require a connection.

Updating of new trails added to the region are done in the background when data is available, the syncing is queued up. Its very small incremental downloads of data, not re-downloading the entire region like mtbp does. This also means if a new trail is added or changed on the website, you can get that update right away in the app, not a week later by re-downloading the entire region.

Trail status & conditions are sycned in the background when data is available using very small data packet. So you always have the latest info.

Submitting a trail report from the app can be done offline, it will queue them all and try sending them when the app finds a data connection later. Similar how Strava works in syncing your ride.

This is only our first release, so its not 100% offline, but for most use cases this is all the offline capability people need. And if you are somewhere with no data plan, the map will still function showing the trails and your location, you just might not have a pretty basemap.


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## breaks911 (Aug 16, 2005)

Thx for the info. I look forward to a version with full offline maps. It's a capability I frequently need.


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## the_law_man01 (Oct 13, 2015)

canadaka said:


> Trailforks released it's mobile app this September. It has offline trail maps and a huge array of other features, with more coming.
> 
> Trailforks Mobile App
> 
> ...


Thanks. I just downloaded it. I'll check it out. Are there any videos on how to use it as far as waypoints, predetermined trails that aren't part of the database, etc?


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## breaks911 (Aug 16, 2005)

the_law_man01 said:


> So, on Gaia how much useable app do you get for the $20? How much more do you have to spend on downloading additional maps?
> 
> I guess the same questions go for Locus for the $7.48 price tag.
> 
> How much do you REALLY get, and how much do you have to pay for add-ons for our type of use?


What's included in the purchase price is pretty much it. I think there is a premium service for more base maps, but out of the box you'll get the common ones that are all you need.

Just take a look at what's included in their premium service to see if you would need to upgrade. I doubt it.


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## the_law_man01 (Oct 13, 2015)

Awesome! Good info from all!


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## Loch (Apr 29, 2011)

I normally use my Garmin while riding, so I don't have a lot of experience with these apps. Anyway I've played with two apps, Oruxmaps and PDF maps. Both programs are free and allow offline maps. 

PDF maps uses geotagged PDFs. Orux can use a variety of different maps, I have found that it works okay with garmin topo maps (img files) from gpsfilesdepot.com.

Orux has A LOT of features. You can work with tracks, waypoints, heart rate monitors, etc. PDF maps is more basic.

I've only really just played around with the programs, someone using them exclusively might have a better opinion of them. Oruxmaps I like the best of the two.

Couple options anyway to look at.


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## thecanoe (Jan 30, 2007)

I use Runtastic Mountain bike pro. It's free on the iPhone and uses open street maps. All the trails are shown so that you can see where one would lead too. Once the app is started I use airplane mode so that it saves the battery and only uses the GPS signal. Looks like this after its synced. 








Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## brankulo (Aug 29, 2005)

viewranger is great app with downloadable maps, tracking, route following etc. or you can use avenza pdf map viewer and use any georegistered map. usgs is good source for those


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## homeslice (Jun 3, 2008)

pm sent.


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## the_law_man01 (Oct 13, 2015)

homeslice said:


> pm sent.


PM sent to who?


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## willtsmith_nwi (Jan 1, 1970)

the_law_man01 said:


> I had MTBproject but I'm gonna have to be the one to put most of our trails in, apparently. It only brought up maybe 5 (would have to verify, just an estimation) trails in the state. I'm fine with this though. Gives me an excuse to go ride more trails. You know, a for the greater good type of undertaking.
> ...


I've made two MTBProject Trails in my area. It's very rewarding. Gotta do the same trails on Maprika.

BTW, for all the tracks that Garmin has recorded, I'm kinda shocked that they don't have comprehensive trail info in their maps.


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## thecanoe (Jan 30, 2007)

Check out Maprika. It has open cycle maps, works in airplane mode and has tracking. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## the_law_man01 (Oct 13, 2015)

Well, I tried MTB Project and was sorely disappointed. I had limited-to-no service where I rode today. MTB continually crashed and closed. And, when it wasn't crashing and closing, the "saved map" wasn't showing the route. Good thing the trail was marked ok. 

I'll probably keep it and pay around with it. Maybe some settings need attention, or it might work better in airplane mode. Maybe it was trying to use what limited cell service it could catch and that was screwing it up.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

the_law_man01 said:


> Maybe it was trying to use what limited cell service it could catch and that was screwing it up.


Probably. It's been solid in airplane mode on my phone, a Droid Bionic. Which is an old POS and practically every app crashes on me periodically (including the phone dialer and texting). I won't say that MTBProject doesn't crash, but no moreso than any others. And substantially less than most.


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## Daniel de la Garza (Sep 5, 2015)

You can download Google maps offline and then turn on the GPS with cellphone reception off and it should do exactly what you need. 

Enviado desde mi C6906 mediante Tapatalk


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## rpet (Jan 27, 2004)

Motion X is excellent.


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## RSAmerica (Aug 24, 2012)

With Runtastic MTB Pro you should download the map area and then use offline maps. That way you do not need cell service but still have the map to refer to during your ride.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## RSAmerica (Aug 24, 2012)

Maprika's great too, I use both. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## tex22 (Dec 15, 2012)

I still prefer Locus Pro on Android to other apps. This week found it could show strava heatmaps as an overlay on a map. Looks like it can cache the heatmap for a given area offline as well.


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## canadaka (Jun 25, 2010)

tex22 said:


> I still prefer Locus Pro on Android to other apps. This week found it could show strava heatmaps as an overlay on a map. Looks like it can cache the heatmap for a given area offline as well.


I posted to Locus on their Google+ page about this. They are breaking the Strava TOS doing this, ripping the heatmap tiles directly from their CDN by masking the requests as if they came from strava.com (I took a peak at their code). This will probably get this feature shut down, Strava has shutdown others who have used their heatmap tiles in the past.

Trailforks has it's own heatmap, but we haven't made it public. We're still not satisfied with filtering out the illegal trails from it (something Strava does not do).
Ridelog Heatmap | Trailforks
We are getting closer to making this feature available, probably early 2016, just added a feature to allow entire regions to opt-out of the heatmap if they wish.

However we use our heatmap data to create a "trail popularity" layer on our normal maps, which color codes the trails as if it were a heatmap.
Example: Green Valley Trail Map | Trailforks (St. Georges)

I already sync this data to our app, but haven't added a way to toggle it from the UI, that will come with the next update.

I also own and use Locus Pro on Android, I like it, its a great app. But for most mountain biking cases Trailforks is better suited. It has so much more than just the line on the map. Lookup trail details, photos, videos. Get the current status and conditions and read other rides first hand reports. But the main thing I love for riding a new area is viewing other users ridelogs on the map in the app, to get an idea of a route I should try.


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## ghettocruiser (Jun 21, 2008)

Locus says they "offer in-app purchases". If they are actually *selling* the heatmap panels as a map, then yeah, Strava should kick their ass. If it's part of free functionality, then I'd feel differently... but I'm no lawyer.....

While strava's heatmap does indeed show *unsanctioned* trails around here, it does show on a relative basis... that is to say, there are so many road guys lighting up the roads and main trails that *secret* trails are basically too faint to see. If they were used enough to light up, they would be no secret to anyone. 

Out of town I think it could be much more of a problem.


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## tex22 (Dec 15, 2012)

It's not something they charge for see http://www.locusmap.eu/strava-heatmap-in-locus-why-not/?utm_source=application&utm_medium=Locus Pro


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## watts888 (Oct 2, 2012)

I use Google Tracks on my 5 year old phone that doesn't have any wireless signal. Only thing I use the phone for is playing music and the map program on rides. Synced through wifi at home and the ride is copied over to my new phone with google tracks on it. Downloaded the offline google map for my area, and it seems to pick up the map fine when I'm out in the woods. It is OK for tracking where I've been, pace, time, etc... It does not let me edit them , and I can't find an easy way to copy them over to google maps or google earth for multi-layer comparison.


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