MotionBased and MotionBased Agent
By James Sharp

Data. More and more cyclists are attaching computers, power meters, heart rate monitors and GPS devices to their bikes in order to collect data. Speed, distance, heart rate, elevation, power and more is shown on tiny screens and, in some cases, logged for later viewing. One of the most versatile devices out there for data collection is the GPS. By using satellites the device is able to locate the user in three dimensions, displaying speed, distance, altitude and more. They even log the coordinates of where you’ve been, enabling virtual tracks to be displayed. But what are you going to do with the data? How can it help you be a better rider? How can you share your virtual ride with your friends? This is where MotionBased Technologies comes in.

MotionBased doesn’t make the GPS. They don’t actually make any bike computer or heart rate monitor. What they do is make web-based software that helps to realize the potential of the latest crop of small GPS devices. The software is made up of two parts. The first is the MotionBased Agent that is installed on the users PC. The second part is the website itself. This is where the magic lies. Once your data is uploaded, MotionBased then plots the points to form a trace of where you rode. The background can be aerial photographs, topographical maps, two types of street maps, a base map, contour maps, elevation maps and satellite images—pretty much anyway you want to look at it. My favorite is the aerial photograph background. It really gives a nice feel for the location of the ride.

Another standout feature—there are many of them—is the weather during the ride. This is done solely through the MotionBased website and doesn’t rely on the GPS unit for anything other than location and time. With this information, MotionBased then looks up the closest airport’s weather information for that time and lists it along with the rest of the ride data. Why is that cool? Imagine you have uploaded a nice out and back road ride. You share that ride with your other buddies via a link to the MotionBased site and they see that you were really cooking on the outbound leg, but on the return leg it looks like you ran out of steam. Well, a quick view at the weather will show that you had a 20 mph tailwind on the way out, but that that same wind knocked your speed down on the return leg. Or, imagine that you are looking back at your training rides over the last six months, this will let you know what the weather conditions were like, making comparing rides much easier.

Speaking of comparing rides, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to view multiple rides on top of each other? Well, with MotionBased you can. They call it "dot-racing." Basically, you load more than one "event" and then play them simultaneously. This can be multiple times on the same route, different routes but the same person, or even different people! Compare your old self with the new and improved self. Find out if changes to your bike actually make a difference. See right away where you need improvement—would your laps be faster at the local crit if you work on your cornering? The possibilities are endless.

On the other hand, there is no hiding. Did you stop and rest a lot on that last ride? If so, they will all show up. Every last painful rest break is there with the associated time that you were stopped. Did you feel especially sluggish? It’ll be there.

MotionBased has also partnered with Keyhole, a Google-owned company, to provide flybys of your route. This is a very cool feature that, unfortunately, requires a subscription to Keyhole.

Really, the only downside comes from the GPS itself. Since the GPS works by picking up weak radio waves from satellites it is fairly easy to block the signals with trees, tall buildings, or rocky overhangs. If you are in a deep valley you might not pick up enough satellites to get a good fix. I found, also, that if I am traveling quickly, the GPS will jump from location to location without giving accurate data in the middle. The MotionBased software does a good job of filtering out bad data points, but there is no getting around this very real limitation in GPS technology.

Summary: Data is almost worthless if you can’t organize and utilize it. MotionBased recognized this and stepped in with an incredible software package that simplifies data retrieval and organization. It even comes in two flavors, the feature rich one reviewed here and available for a monthly, or yearly, fee, or a free 'lite' version. The biggest difference is that, with the lite version, you can only access your 10 most recent events. All of your uploads are intact—and available should you decide to pay the fee—but you can’t see them. This is the most inclusive software package on the market for GPS equipped outdoor enthusiasts. It’s capabilities are only limited by the GPS technology. At $11.95/month, or $95.40 for a year subscription it’s a bargain. If you aren’t a power user, though, the free version is really hard to beat. I heartily recommend this for anyone who doesn’t ride in thickly forested areas, for those that do, this will still work, but expect to have dropped signals and missing sections in your routes.

James Sharp is a contributing editor for GearReview.com specializing in road and mountain biking and getting lost near home.

For more information, contact:
MotionBased Technologies
www.motionbased.com
info@motionbased.com