Bike Hub
The latest version of the Bike Hub cycling satnav app for iPhones and Androids locates the nearest British Cycling clubs as well as finding the quickest or quietest cycle routes in UK and Ireland. The new function that has been added to version 3.3 of the app is to support the Bicycle Association/Bike Hub sponsorship of Go-Ride, British Cycling's youth cycling programme.
The Bike Hub app was released in 2010 and has always been able to geo-locate your nearest bike shops and navigate you there.
We’ve recently reported on a cyclist routed on to the M3 motorway by a satnav app. This was probably because the cyclist was using a car-centric app. Bike Hub is cycle-specific. The cycle routing is done via Cyclestreets of Cambridge. This A-to-B bicycle journey planning website uses mathematical graph theory algorithms to work out bike routes quickly. It uses OpenCycleMap, a cycle-specific map based on the community-generated OpenStreetMap.
The Bike Hub satnav uses roads and cycle paths, including Sustrans’ off-road bike routes. The app – provided free of charge by the bike industry – features turn-by-turn navigation, with voice instructions and vibrating alerts. Bike Hub recommends a user operates the app with a handlebar smartphone cradle. These are now widely available in bike shops and in gadget stores.
To download the app go to the Bike Hub website or iTunes.
Mat has worked for loads of bike magazines over 20+ years, and been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. He's been road.cc technical editor for eight years, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a past winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer.