Best Android Apps for Cyclists - The February 2014 Roundup

Whether you are a mountain or road bike rider, tracking your performance is important. Having an Android phone coupled with one or more of these free applications can give you valuable insights from your training.

All of these apps can turn your Android smartphone into a powerful bike computer, so without any further delay, here is the February 2014 roundup in no specific order.

Endomondo

Endomondo Sports Tracker was one of the first apps I installed when I started mountain biking. Working with almost any GPS enabled phone, it allows you to track the speed, duration and distance out of the box. You can attach an optional heart rate belt to track your HR. The only thing I did not like about this app was that the calorie count was showing a bit more calories then I think I was burning (compared to my Garmin Edge 510 bike computer). But all in all Endomondo is a great app that I still use whenever I am without my Edge 510, plus I am still importing all my rides on the website directly from my Garmin.

Strava Cycling

Strava is an app for the more serious bike riders. Allowing you to track your rides it also features a great competitive / social aspect enabling you to view your performance on different segments mostly focused on climbing. Moving up the ranking can be a great motivation to push yourself harder and perform better each time you are riding a specific section.
Calorie count is more conservative here and in my personal experience closer to the real amount of calories you are burning on your rides.

MapMyRide

MapMyRide allows you to track route, speed, distance, calories and more statistics for your rides, but the area where this app really excels is the feature that allows you to find new routes near you or a place you are planing to visit. Similar to Strava, you can track your performance on popular climbs and rides and see your rank on the leaderboards.

Sports Tracker

Sports Tracker for Android is another app that can replace your cycling computer, tracking speed, distance, duration, calories, elevation and more. It also has an option to track the progress of your friends like Endomondo and Strava, plus an optional HR monitor can be added for improved calorie burn count and heart rate monitoring.

Runtastic Mountain Bike / Road Bike

Runtastic Mountain / Road Bike are actually two separate apps optimized for the kind of bike you are riding. The apps allow you to track all the aspects of a ride and also come with a collection of routes you can explore. A feature that is worth pointing out and honestly I would like to see it on other Android cycling apps is "Offline maps".  This can be extremely useful when you are riding abroad and do not want those silly roaming charges for using the cellular data.