Scheduling a motorcycle trip seems easy until you get started. Choosing your path, finding out about traffic, stops for gas, scheduled rest areas, and even if a particular route is worth taking: that’s all before you hit the open road. For a quick jaunt through the city, a standard map is fine. But for a serious road trip, it’s your road buddy, an app.
Motorcycle Road Apps of Today These days, there are apps to do just about everything and more than a few are designed for motorcycle riders. There are apps for motorcycle routes, for real-time traffic reports, for motorcycle community connections and even for helping you find the perfect weekend riding destination. While not every app is worth it, the right motorcycle riding app can be a huge assist at many points of your ride.
5 Apps That Can Make Your Next Ride Easier
Every rider uses an app for different reasons. A daily commuter might prioritize traffic and fast rerouting. A weekend warrior might be more interested in discovering fun roads. We’ve put together a list of five apps that might help with different aspects of riding.
1. Riding Verse – For Riders Who Want More Than Navigation
Riding Verse just does navigation a little differently. RidingVerse not only considers how to move a rider from one place to another, but it also considers the riding experience more broadly. For an individual rider, it can be helpful if you’re interested in building out the community aspect of motorcycling: finding rides, connecting with others who ride, and so on. It has a more relevant feel when the ride is the activity, not just the purpose of the activity.
What RidingVerse offers you:
- Finding and managing motorcycle rides
- Connecting with like-minded riders
- Finding ways to incorporate social riding into your adventure
- Planning rides – individual or group
- Getting to know the motorcycling community a little more
This type of platform can be particularly useful for motorcyclists who are newer to riding, allowing them to quickly find ways to connect with others who are doing the riding thing. And for the more experienced riders, it’s an additional tool to find rides and connect with the community.
2. Google Maps – A Reliable Option for Everyday Riding
Not all rides require a specialised motorcycle app. Sometimes all you need is to get to a new cafe, find a petrol station, or simply navigate your way through an unfamiliar area of the city. Google Maps remains useful for exactly these scenarios.
The biggest benefit is the amount of info available about one location. You not only get your directions but can see what’s around along the way, all without switching through apps.
It can be of assistance to riders to:
- Find petrol stations before the fuel runs out.
- Check for traffic before heading off.
- Find cafes, restaurants, hotels, and other stops.
- Share live location with friends or family.
- Find alternative routes if the existing route isn’t an option.
Along the way, riders can also use it to find possible places to stop before they start. It may not be designed for the motorcycle rider experience, but its day-to-day usability makes it a worthwhile app to have on the phone.
3. REVER – For Riders Who Enjoy Exploring
There are riders who don’t necessarily care to stick to the shortest route there is. If the ride is interesting enough, you can add a couple of extra kilometres for sure. REVER is more targeted at this kind of rider, then. This app is all about motorcycle travel, ride discovery, and logging your rides, so it’s great for adventure and weekend trips.
Some of its features that come in handy are:
- Planning motorcycle routes before heading to any destination.
- Discovering interesting routes that can make your trip more exciting.
- Logging your rides when you’re done.
- Getting to know new places instead of revisiting the same one repeatedly.
- Sharing your ride experiences with other riders.
These points make the app more relevant when your purpose of travel isn’t the destination itself but, rather, the reason you’re going out (that is, riding).
4. Waze – Helpful for Busy Roads and Changing Traffic
Experienced bikers who ride around major cities are aware of how much the roads can change in a single day. What may seem like a straightforward route one morning could be totally different in the afternoon if something like an accident, road work, or traffic occurs.
Waze is a great app because it is extremely targeted towards real-time road conditions and information provided by other users. You can use it to:
- View live traffic conditions before leaving
- Receive reports about current incidents
- Find alternative routes
- Keep up with travel time estimates
- Navigate your daily city route without looking at the map all the time
The app isn’t really designed with motorcycle riders in mind, but it’s another way to extend your commuting setup. If you know your daily commute perfectly, then you’ll probably prefer to use a dedicated navigation app, but for people who spend a lot of time on the road, it’s good to know what’s happening a few kilometres down the line.
5. Calimoto – When You Want to Enjoy the Route
The fastest way is not always the best way. For some riders, a straight highway might save the most time, but a fun and challenging road through a National Park might make your trip more fun. Calimoto is designed around these ideas. As a dedicated motorcycle route planning app, it’s helpful for riders who just want to get out and enjoy themselves without needing to get somewhere.
This can help:
- Create specific routes for motorcycle outings.
- Find roads that are more fun.
- Plan weekend motorcycle rides.
- Save your finished rides.
- Save previous ride history.
This can be especially helpful when planning out a day trip. Riders could spend a little time working out a route instead of just throwing one together five minutes before heading out on a ride.
Conclusion
There isn’t an all-in-one, perfect app for every rider. For the rider that also enjoys the social aspect of motorcycling, Riding Verse is another way to connect with the community. When it comes to daily commuting, riders tend to prefer Google Maps or Waze, while weekend warriors often utilize a more motorcycle-oriented app like REVER or Calimoto.
The bottom line, you should use an app that suits your style of riding. That’s what makes these apps a useful tool in the first place. They’re meant to cut down on planning time so you can get more seat time.
