Beeline Bike Navigation 4+

Incredible hardware + software - cycling is a pleasure

This is the first review I’ve written on the App Store I’m not normally that enthused by anything but I have to say the folks at Beeline have done an amazing job with how they have constantly evolved the software (in terms of interface, optimum route algorithms which select really the most suitable path for method of travel, link to Strava etc.) I can honestly say that it makes cycling a pleasure it takes all the hassle out of stopping and checking a map app for the direction etc

And if you haven’t already you NEED to get the beeline device which you can do easily attach to your handlebars or stem. Basically it takes the app intelligence and transmits it as a form of digital compass. And by the way the hardware is really incredible - battery life is good and I guess this is not recommended but my mistake I once put my cycling jersey with the device in the washing machine for 1 hour and I could still use it afterwards! So it has some level of being waterproof.

Anyway thank you so much to the team at beeline for the original concept and the hard work to keep on evolving it

Developer Response ,

Hey! Wow thank you so much for this lovely review! It's definitely made our day in the office! We're glad your device survived a wash, definitely not something we'd recommend either - haha!

Picks some lovely roads

It’s taken me a while to break my Garmin Zumo addiction but I’m getting there. Route mode is my tool of choice 99% of the time, whether I just want to get somewhere or if I want to plan a route in detail. Mostly Beeline suggests roads that are a good compromise between bends and speed.

An idea for route mode: almost all of the time the arrow just points forwards - pretty logical since that’s the way the road goes. How about an option where we could swap the functions of the dot and the arrow? Knowing what to do at the next junction is a lot more useful than knowing which way the road goes. Even better, how about an option for the arrow to show what to do at the next turn and the dot to show at the turn after that? At 50, making my eyes switch focus from looking at the road to looking at the little dot is a pretty serious commitment...

Getting worse by the day.

I previously wrote a review about this app and the beeline Moto rating it as two stars because despite the hardware being excellent, the maps were awfully out of date and in dire need of an upgrade. Recent changes seem to have made the app even worse for motorcyclists as the proposed routes it is trying to take me down are exclusively for cyclists (nevermind the issues I previously highlighted about maps being out and date and trying to navigate down roads that are one way systems or restricted to certain traffic types e.g. buses). The speed at which the beeline device updates now is also much slower than it has been, and as a result I find it doesn’t update quickly enough to keep with the pace of a motorbike and I frequently miss turn offs etc. Lastly auto-rerouting is even slower taking up to 10-20 seconds which is making this device almost unusable. I have a feeling that the team are focussing exclusively on the cycling experience now and have forgotten about their previous push to break into the motorcycle market. I am a few bad journeys away from getting rid of this device and looking for alternatives.