The Best Mobile Apps for Motorcycle Riders

The motorcycle apps market has come a long way in the last few years — you can now do a lot more than just track routes. There are apps that help you find and share great roads, track stats like speed and lean angle, monitor preferred weather conditions, attach videos to rides, handle medical emergencies, and even keep track of your spending. We took a look at some of the best motorcycle apps for all kinds of riding, whether you’re sticking to pavement or venturing off road.

Best Motorcycle Roads

• • Waze , everyone’s favorite alert mapping app now offers motorcycle support! From their blog:
    

    First in the gift pile is our new Motorcycle vehicle type option and two new motorcycle helmet-rocking Waze moods. Open to Wazers worldwide who prefer to ride on two (or three) wheels, this is the third unique vehicle type supported by Waze, and it comes complete with specialized routing to help make finding freedom on the open road simpler and faster.

    In addition to the real-time road updates and alerts, Wazers riding in motorcycle mode will be directed on routes optimized for motorcyclists based on where fellow Wazers-on-wheels are riding and the more you ride in the motorcycle setting, the smarter the routing will become. To sweeten the deal, better routing also means you’ll see a more accurate projected arrival time at your destination.

    This is great news for those of us familiar with the Waze platform. Waze allows you to flag roads for speed traps, obstacles, and traffic. It will then alert you if something has been flagged on your route. Comes in very handy on longer trips. Cost: Free.

• • EatSleepRide: One of the most comprehensive (and fun to use!) apps on the market, EatSleepRide helps you record and discover great routes, track riding data, and connect with other riders. You can track your speed, distance, elevation and lean angle on every turn, and use live tracking to share your ride in real time. ESR also lets you set up private riding groups and connect with other users in your area. Post stories, places, pictures, reviews, and routes to the ESR news stream, and then share them to your social channels. The new Leaderboard feature lets you rank your mileage against other riders, to compete for great prizes. Most recently, ESR hosted the Twisted Throttle Legend Gear challenge. The prizes included a LR1 Tailbag/Backpack and a LA3 Smartphone Bag from the new SW-MOTECH Legend Gear line. Cost: Free.
  • Rever: This app helps you discover new places to ride and people to ride with. You can share rides that you’ve created, post rides you’ve tracked, and share your location with other riders. You can also view ride descriptions, photos, and comments from others. Rever serves as your trip planner and GPS, letting you track your rides wherever and whenever, even on the track. Rever’s premium membership includes a Butler Maps feature, highlighting the best roads in the country right on your mobile device, even when you’re offline. Cost: Free.
  • Best Biking Roads: This user-generated app lets you search the best roads near you or worldwide. You can even download GPX files of each route, to load onto a GPS device. Want to recommend your favorite ride? You can import the route and share comments, photos, and even videos. The app currently has thousands of photos and videos available, with plenty of adventures to discover! Cost: $3.99.

Weather Apps

• • Motorcycle Weather: Not everyone likes to take on Mother Nature while riding a motorcycle — or maybe they do. Either way, the Motorcycle Weather app provides an easy way to decide whether you’re taking the car or the bike. Set your preferences for temperature, rain, and wind, and the app will show you whether the forecast is within your preferred parameters. You can also get detailed hourly forecasts as well as localized weather alerts. Cost: Free.
  • WeatherBug: Check the weather at the base of the Himalayas, or check what’s happening in your own backyard! WeatherBug has access to the largest network of weather stations in the world, with more than 2.6 million locations worldwide. It’s said to deliver the fastest, most accurate real-time forecasts. When severe weather is coming your way, this app has your back with live weather cameras and alerts. If you’ve ever found yourself riding in the mountains during a thunderstorm, you’ll appreciate the Spark feature: minute-by-minute, mile-by-mile lightning proximity alerts. There’s also an interactive map with 17 layers, including Doppler radar, lightning, wind, temperature, pressure, and humidity. Cost: Free.

Motorcycle Safety Apps

• • CrashLight: EatSleepRide’s sophisticated Crashlight app uses the accelerometer, gyroscope, and GPS in your smartphone to detect a crash. If a crash is detected, the technology notifies pre-set contacts with your location and emergency information. A 3-minute timer gives you a chance to cancel the notifications if needed; otherwise, when the timer reaches zero, the app will notify up to three contacts via text message, voicemail, and email. We think you’ll appreciate having CrashLight accompany you on all your motorcycle adventures, not only for yourself but for the peace of mind of all those who care about you. Cost: $7.99/year.
  • Emergency First Aid & Treatment Guide: If you should find yourself off the beaten path and far from civilization, the Emergency First Aid & Treatment Guide app could save you and your buddies from an unfortunate situation. No signal, no problem — the guide runs local on your phone, giving you a quick reference to handle all kinds of medical emergencies. It provides step-by-step videos and guides showing a range of medical procedures to treat conditions like heat stroke, back and neck injuries, animal bites and stings, frostbite, and more. Cost: $1.99.

Camping Apps

• • Camp & RV: Great for a weekend getaway or cross-country ride, the Camp & RV app allows you to check availability at thousands of campsites in the US and Canada. A long list of filters will help you find the amenities, price, and location you’re looking for. What’s more, once you’ve found the perfect site, you can reserve a spot right through the app. Another benefit: Because the app stores data on your phone while using the GPS, many of its features will work offline. It’s usually fast to use, even in remote areas. Cost: $9.99.
  • Star Walk– When you’re relaxing at your new favorite campground, take a moment to look up (and point your phone at the sky). Star Walk displays the stars and planets above you, with detailed information on the history and mythology of the various constellations, stars, and planets. As you move your phone, the star map updates in real time. With Star Walk, you’ll always have a new story to tell around the campfire. Cost: $2.99.

Track Your Ride

• MotoEye: Predominately a ride tracker, MotoEye has some irresistible additional features, including turn-by-turn navigation, GPX export/import, built-in weather forecasting, and ride stats. You can also record videos and take geo-tagged photos during your ride that will be recorded to your activity log. This log can then be shared on all your social pages — great way to make your friends envious. Cost: Free.
• Road Trip: Tracking your ride doesn’t just mean tracking your routes. Make your adventures cost-efficient so you can take more of them! Road Trip makes tracking your bike’s fuel economy, maintenance history, and expenses easy. Remind yourself when regular maintenance is due to prevent expensive repairs later, and track and compare your adventures to see how much money you’re spending. The more you know, the better you can prepare. Cost: $6.99.
• Diablo Super Biker: This app tracks your riding sessions on the road or track with impressive accuracy and a broad array of details. It not only records your road route and lap times, it also detects altitude, lean angle, maximum acceleration, weather conditions — even the type of asphalt you’re on. User-friendly graphics let you visualize telemetry data synchronized with the route map; you can also choose between road map and satellite map views. Create a user profile, and you can share your sessions with friends via social media. Cost: Free.

Tracking Tip:

If you’re a smartphone user, you probably already know that our phones know where we are at all times. Fortunately, our phones’ stalking capabilities come in handy for spontaneous riders who wish they had tracked that last awesome ride. Here’s how:

Android users

1. Get a Google account and stay logged in on your phone.
2. Access Google Maps and choose “My Timeline.”
3. Search by any day, and you’ll see approximately where you ventured.
4. If you use the Google Maps app as a GPS, you’ll see exact routes on “My Timeline.”

iPhone users

1. Get a Google account.
2. Log into your account and click on Google “Maps.”
3. Enable “Location History” at the bottom left of your screen. 
4. Choose “My Timeline” and search by any date to view your approximate ride.
5. If you use the Google Maps app as a GPS, you’ll see exact routes on “My Timeline.”