Take a gander at our FTC disclosure opus here. The following article was last updated on Nov 28, 2025 ...

Goodbye My Tracks, Hello Ride With GPS

It's tough to tell exactly when they made the announcement. Apparently, there was some mention toward the middle of the 2016 riding season followed by whispers across the niche motorcycling blogosphere. I myself only learned of our issue recently because fellow rider and writer John Saporta wrote animatedly worried wording.

“Ride With GPS recording keeps the ride rolling after My Tracks calls it quits, with simple buttons, clear maps and solid track logs.”

John cried foul when his copy of Google's free but proprietary "My Tracks" Android app announced that not only would support for its operability soon come to an end but the app itself would cease to function altogether. Apparently Google never intended the app for our use. We've leaned on it religiously to record curve-'o'-licious twisties all over the world.

Google is abandoning said app in favor of its fitness-centered "Google Fit." Walking, jogging and cycling apparently eliminate all things motorbike. Obviously, a replacement would demand immediate research and I'm reporting back to say that, well ... the alternatives are numerous and there's really no problem.

Option one is our go-to app for custom route navigation, namely the ever-developing, open-source OsmAnd. This megalith development in experimental GPS "good happy fun time" riding has an optional plugin that's self-installing and allows for direct-to-GPX route recording. That may work for some but safety being a priority, a small number of big, dumb buttons fares better, whereas OsmAnd's are tiny and intricate.

Other prospects made themselves known through review comparisons in the Google Play Store. Our decided favorite comes from a source we've relied on many times prior: the Ride With GPS recording mobile app. We build many of our pre-planned (not recorded off the cuff) sport-touring motorcycle maps on their multi-format web interface. They've been good to us. We maintain that their route planner is the finest on the web (until we release ours, prospectively in 2017, hint-hint).

For more info on the tech specs, see our tutorial revamp on how to record motorcycle routes on-the-fly using your smartphone, updated to make use of the very same Ride With GPS recording process.

What's Your Favorite GPS Track Recording Smartphone App?

There's a lot of great software on the market. Which downloads have you tried? What do you like about them and why? Your input is invited. Leave a comment and/or write an article!