Polly Track

Track recording

The app records the road you actually ride and, with the phone's sensors on the mount, lean angle, braking and acceleration too. After the ride you go through it on a coloured map and four linked charts.

What it does

While recording you see time, distance and speed. The ride goes into "My tracks" with distance, moving time, average and top speed, climb and descent. If the ride has telemetry, the report opens.

Free ride on the topo map: recording bar with 04:12 and 1.7 km, pause and stop buttons and the large red MARK button.
A free ride being recorded.
Ride recording sheet: 08:25, 3.5 km, 28 km/h, Pause and Stop and save buttons, the SOS by SMS button, trip 3.5 km and sensors showing lean 24 degrees right.
The live sheet.
Ride report for 21 October at Rocchetta di Vara, 13 km in 18 minutes: track coloured by speed, average 44 km/h, top 74, lean 37 degrees left and 28 right, braking 0.28 g.
The report, track coloured by speed.
Report charts: speed, elevation, lean and acceleration with the vertical cursor on the same point, 28 km/h and 213 metres, and the matching dot on the map.
The cursor moves on every chart and on the map.
Ride to Varese Ligure, section by section: share of the plan followed, times off route and km off route; first section with planned and actual distance, time and dirt.
Planned and actual, section by section.
  • Telemetry: the app reads the accelerometer and gyroscope about 50 times a second and saves one sample per second: speed, lean, braking, acceleration, lateral acceleration, pitch and altitude. With no sensors it still records, with estimates from GPS.
  • Report: colour the track by speed, lean, brake/throttle or surface. You get highlights (max lean, hardest braking, top speed) and four charts linked by one cursor.
  • Planned and actual: if you record while navigating, the ride keeps the planned line. You see how much of it you followed and where you left the route.
  • Ride diary: notes with photos, pinned to a point of the ride if you want. Location data is removed from the photos.
  • My roads: each recorded ride updates the list of roads you have already ridden. It powers roads you have never ridden.

When it helps

When you want to keep the track of a ride you made up as you went, to ride it again or pass it on. At home it shows where you leaned most and where you braked hard. If you had a route, you see where you left it and how much longer it took.

If the app closes or the phone switches off, the ride is not lost: on restart you get "Recover recording" with date, distance and duration. At most you lose the last stretch, 200 m or 60 seconds.

How to use it

Home screen › ☰ menu › "Record a free ride". While navigating: ☰ menu › "Record". The report: "My tracks" › the ride › "Ride report".

  1. Put the phone on its mount and start recording.
  2. At the first 2-second stop, with the bike still and upright, the app learns how the phone is mounted. You can redo it with "Calibrate the mount".
  3. Tap the red bar for "Pause" or "Stop and save".
  4. Open the ride in "My tracks" and tap "Ride report". From there you export GPX with telemetry or CSV, one row per second.
Ride diary: a note with a photo at km 23.2 about a dirt road closed for logging and a note about the rear tyre.
The ride diary.

Good to know

  • Lean is measured by the phone on the handlebar, not a certified frame measurement. At low speed and in tight bends it can be a few degrees off.
  • Braking and acceleration are filtered from vibration. They are not ECU data.
  • The app drops positions with more than 30 m of error and impossible jumps.
  • Tracks and telemetry stay on the phone until you export them.

How does it compare with Calimoto, Kurviger, OsmAnd, DMD2 and other apps? See the feature-by-feature comparison.