Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Hi, everyone,

we have confirmed this post with Christopher before posting. Our team is developing an app for bike lovers which is called Lovetrack. I would appreciate if you share your opinion about the idea, what additional features would you like to see in it while it's being developed.
This app will be free.

We worked very hard on this video presentation to give a bit of look and feel how Lovetrack works.
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If you want more information, please visit our website: http://www.lovetrackapp.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
or email me directly: hello@lovetrackapp.com

Thanks!

WIth the name, I assumed that it involved music - like a soundtrack.

After watching the video I was also considering if most people would use it in this way or whether you would have cyclists on longer bike rides who would use this - and this leads on to how the GPS route can be used forexample with strava.

Cheers
Christopher

Not quite so sure why I need to track every ride?? Mostly I just use my GPS for finding my way.


Does it work with phones other than IPhone??

I don't want to sound negative but...

Do all hipsters ride bicycles and want to share the ride data and photos with each other???? I don't think so.

-Applications like Instagram work well because they allow all types of people to share their entire lives with each other through photos, not just what they do while out for a cycle which in reality they might do only on the weekends.

-Applications like Strava allow people to map their rides and compete with each other, who have no need to stop, smell the roses, and take photos while using the application every single day.


Integrating the two is a clever idea, though It in my eyes targets a very small niche, who may turn out to not be regular riders which may in-turn mean low usage of the app and in time the users may forget they have the app.

Thank you for your feedback.

Basic idea is to give people opportunity to share nice cycling experience through pictures and show the route of short (1 or 2 hour) bike rides. So the main focus is on pictures and basic statistics (miles, avg speed and time) is only complementary feature. Yes, it won't work for long rides because GPS "eats" battery a lot.

Would you like to share your cycling experience through pictures on the route with your friends on Facebook?

This app is being developed for iPhone users at the moment, but after that we will make Android version as well.

Mrfenejeans:
We will try to target people who now use the bicycle app just for total distance, time spend on a bike or show the route. They don't use it for sport purpose. You can use it on daily basis without making photo when going to work or simple route. We also target people who don't use bicycle app now at all, but want to share their cycling experience with friends on Facebook or Twitter.

Thanks again!

Have you scoped out your competitors?

There are a plethora of bike apps on iTunes already, most do tracking and many have social media integrations.

What is going to be your point of difference? And how are you going to get your app noticed?

I search iTunes for new bike apps from time to time, but there are so many it's difficult to find which are worth looking at.

So it's routes with pics rite?

It's actually a good idea but i see it being more of a backend service. Other than viweing the rides back and following others routes.

Cameras have geotagging, there are a plethora of routing tools on the market, and fumbling with apps on the go is generally a bit of a pain. Having a webservice where you can upload some generic route data and pics, then it pull the exif geotags and presents comment boxes where you can add notes post-ride might be useful.

Users can overlay their pics at similar locations if selected and rides can be rated on more categories...i.e. scenery, lanmarks, activities nearby. So the end game is that you can flip open your phone and select a ride someone else has done in the area based on say...... most parks and chocolate shops......that might be useful.

http://blog.strava.com/strava-instagram-5584/

Looks like Strava and Instagram liked the idea.

It seems to be missing that competitive edge that made Strava much better than (say) MyTracks.

What you should do is make sure the app won't start until you take a photo of the participant rider and his bike, then you can give an "epic-ness" rating. Based largely on things like beard length (bonus points for something cool like a neckbeard, minus for heavy metal style goatee or anything euro-pro roadie looking, like stubble or gold chains), whether the bike has mud guards, less points for drop bars, more for north roads etc.

Then the tricky part - judging the rest of the bike relative to the epic-ness of the ride, things like gearing (fixed / single / hub geared), obviously less points for anything with a derailleur. Width of tyres needs to be considered.

Then you need to grab the weather report - the ride is more epic if the weather really sucks. Then you need to take into consideration the nature of the ride - is it part of an overall epic journey of self discovery or just a trip to pick up chicks with hairy armpits?

On this basis, let's say Nathaniel Neckbeard rides a girls 20" wheeled Huffy (with fixed conversion) 30km to a brew pub in a howling storm with stops on the way to photograph plastic bags swirling in the breeze to show to girls, that would be epic points. Anybody trying to get the "epic-of-the-course" rating (rather than just a personal best) would need to do it on a unicycle in a category 4 hurricane while filming a documentary on the life cycle of the common house fly to show to other neckbeards.

I think I would install the application if I could peruse those sorts of epic rides.

Mrfenejeans wrote:http://blog.strava.com/strava-instagram-5584/

Looks like Strava and Instagram liked the idea.

Ding.

And sorry, but I think the idea is... put it this way... I wouldn't invest my own money into it.

From what I can see, you're creating your own social platform (dime a dozen) for a very tight nichey market. Certainly not lowest common denominator. Social platforms are only as good as the community they are able to create.

I can't see this creating a community.

You would have been better to tie your app in with other platforms, such as Strava or Instagram, but they've beaten you to the punch. Facebook is perhaps an option for integration "I rode 25km and took these 3 photos" type status updates.

As for monetization, I can't see how you'd do that without cheesy banner ads... Which would detract from the experience.

If I were you I'd cut my losses and dream up a new idea.

boss wrote: Facebook is perhaps an option for integration "I rode 25km and took these 3 photos" type status updates.

Facebook owns Instagram.

Mrfenejeans wrote:

boss wrote: Facebook is perhaps an option for integration "I rode 25km and took these 3 photos" type status updates.

Facebook owns Instagram.

Well, derrrrrrr. It is, however, a distinct platform.

I think defining the audience would help.

For example on a leisurely cruise of a daily route, it would be an exception for me to photograph anything. If I was in the city then I may do more though more so because I spot something rather than because of the bike.

Where however such a concept can be more interesting is in a tourist situation, I am overseas - can track my route (and also find out where I am). Could possibly navigate based on other peoples photos and as a tourist have a bigger reason to be snap happy. I guess overseas roaming charges are a in this case a challenge where may would turn it off though I think you still get some GPS capabilities just being in the network without having to roam.

AUbicycles wrote:Where however such a concept can be more interesting is in a tourist situation, I am overseas - can track my route (and also find out where I am). Could possibly navigate based on other peoples photos and as a tourist have a bigger reason to be snap happy. I guess overseas roaming charges are a in this case a challenge where may would turn it off though I think you still get some GPS capabilities just being in the network without having to roam.

That app has already been published. It's called Track My Tour and it's very good.

A sister app is Warm Showers - a bicycle version of Couch Surfing.