Poor Mans GPS Nav, GPS Speedometer with No Cell Service

John Phoenix · 06-30-2021, 11:28 PM

Are you like me, just spent you last dime on a bike, don't know if your China Scooter speedometer is accurate or cannot afford a Garmin GPS navigation system or even Cell Phone service? Well now you can have nice tools like GPS Navigation or GPS Speedometer with trip counter (even if your bike doesn't have a trip counter) almost for Free with No Cell service! Actually you could have had this years ago but I post about it here because it's something most people Don't know about.

All you need is any old smart phone no matter how old the operating system is. Most people have one or two of these lying around. If not, you can get a free cell phone from many places that donate older smart phones to needy people. Do a DuckDuckGo Search. You may even be able to get an old smart phone from a friend of family member. Once you have the smart phone all that's needed is to find any GPS Navigation App or Speedometer app that is made to work Offline and find a way to get it into your smart phone. These work without paid cell service because they use the phones built in GPS system that works via radio waves. All smart phones have this feature built in mandated by the American government. Even if you do have cell service these offline apps may come in handy if you are traveling and lose cell signal.

I connected my smart phone to my home wifi that I already pay for and let the phone download the apps through the wifi connection. If you don't have home internet service, you can use free wifi from some place like McDonalds but you probably have home internet since you are reading this. There are loads of free apps that work offline you can use for GPS Navigation or as a digital Speedometer with trip counter. Here are a couple of each I found that work well:

GPS Speedometer and Odometer
DigiHUD Speedometer

GPS Nav, try MapFactor GPS Navigation Maps
Sygic GPS Navigation & Maps

I use one of each attached to my bike on either side of the speedometer. No Phone Holder? I got you covered. I used large tie straps to make a harness. I used 6 for each harness. Essentially you want to put a couple of tie straps around your handlebar (may need to connect two together depending of how thick your handlebar area is) and inside of these make horizontal loops that are snug enough for you to slide your phone in and out of but tight enough where the phone will not fall out. I make two horizontal loops one for the top of the smart phone and one for the bottom of the smart phone. Just grab a bag of large tie straps from your local dollar store and you'll have a great temp phone harness until you can afford something better.

I hope you've enjoyed this fun tip I discovered!

06-30-2021, 11:28 PM	#1
John Phoenix Join Date: May 2021 Posts: 14	Poor Mans GPS Nav, GPS Speedometer with No Cell Service Are you like me, just spent you last dime on a bike, don't know if your China Scooter speedometer is accurate or cannot afford a Garmin GPS navigation system or even Cell Phone service? Well now you can have nice tools like GPS Navigation or GPS Speedometer with trip counter (even if your bike doesn't have a trip counter) almost for Free with No Cell service! Actually you could have had this years ago but I post about it here because it's something most people Don't know about. All you need is any old smart phone no matter how old the operating system is. Most people have one or two of these lying around. If not, you can get a free cell phone from many places that donate older smart phones to needy people. Do a DuckDuckGo Search. You may even be able to get an old smart phone from a friend of family member. Once you have the smart phone all that's needed is to find any GPS Navigation App or Speedometer app that is made to work Offline and find a way to get it into your smart phone. These work without paid cell service because they use the phones built in GPS system that works via radio waves. All smart phones have this feature built in mandated by the American government. Even if you do have cell service these offline apps may come in handy if you are traveling and lose cell signal. I connected my smart phone to my home wifi that I already pay for and let the phone download the apps through the wifi connection. If you don't have home internet service, you can use free wifi from some place like McDonalds but you probably have home internet since you are reading this. There are loads of free apps that work offline you can use for GPS Navigation or as a digital Speedometer with trip counter. Here are a couple of each I found that work well: GPS Speedometer and Odometer DigiHUD Speedometer GPS Nav, try MapFactor GPS Navigation Maps Sygic GPS Navigation & Maps I use one of each attached to my bike on either side of the speedometer. No Phone Holder? I got you covered. I used large tie straps to make a harness. I used 6 for each harness. Essentially you want to put a couple of tie straps around your handlebar (may need to connect two together depending of how thick your handlebar area is) and inside of these make horizontal loops that are snug enough for you to slide your phone in and out of but tight enough where the phone will not fall out. I make two horizontal loops one for the top of the smart phone and one for the bottom of the smart phone. Just grab a bag of large tie straps from your local dollar store and you'll have a great temp phone harness until you can afford something better. I hope you've enjoyed this fun tip I discovered!
	2