Cycle satnav app now finds British Cycling clubs as well as bike shops

The Bike Hub cycling satnav app for iPhones and Androids finds quickest or quietest cycle routes in UK and Ireland. It was released in 2010 and has always been able to geo-locate a user’s nearest bike shops (and navigate them there). The latest version of the app – version 3.3, released last week – now also locates the nearest British Cycling clubs. This is to support the Bicycle Association/Bike Hub sponsorship of Go-Ride, British Cycling’s youth cycling programme.

The media has recently reported on cyclists routed on to motorways. This is probably because the cyclists were using car-centric satnav apps. 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 quickly work out great bike routes. 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 industry organisation, the Bicycle Association –- 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.