Free & ProSuperCycle features a built-in course-following and navigation engine. You can load routes from standard GPX, TCX, or FIT course files, overlay them directly onto your live map display (Google Maps or offline OpenStreetMap tiles), and receive real-time turn guidance with visual banners, distance countdowns, audible beeps, and spoken voice prompts.
⚠️ Common Mistake: Following a Route vs. Importing Ride History
One of the most frequent sources of confusion for new users is trying to load a course using History → Menu → Import. Doing so will display an "Invalid file type" or "Error opening file" message.
- History Import: Intended strictly for importing past completed rides. It requires a recording that includes timestamped telemetry for every second (elapsed duration, speeds, cadence, heart rate, or power).
- Map Route Loading: A planned route or course file (from Plotaroute, Strava, Ride with GPS, or Komoot) contains only geographic coordinates (latitude, longitude, elevation) and optional turn cues—it contains no elapsed ride timestamps or performance telemetry.
The Fix: Never import course files into History. To follow a route, open the Map widget (or full-screen map view), tap the floating Speed Dial button, select Route Options → Load Route, and tap the Download / Import icon in the app bar. (Note: Ride recording must be stopped before loading or clearing a route.)
Supported Route Formats & Creating Courses
SuperCycle supports course files up to 500 kilometers (310 miles) in length across three major industry-standard formats:
- GPX (.gpx): Highly recommended. GPX files offer the most comprehensive support for rich turn-by-turn waypoint cues, custom cue notes, and street instructions.
- TCX (.tcx): XML-based course format commonly exported by Garmin Connect, Ride with GPS, and Strava. Embedded course points are automatically extracted.
- FIT (.fit): Binary flexible course format used by Garmin edge devices and modern cycling platforms.
- Free Edition: If your route file only contains raw GPS trackpoints without embedded turn cues (common with simple trail exports or basic GPX tracks), SuperCycle will still draw the full path on your map with directional chevrons indicating the travel direction so you can follow the line visually. Turn banners and spoken turn alerts will remain silent.
- SuperCycle Pro: When you load a route that lacks turn cues, SuperCycle Pro automatically calculates and generates turn guidance for you upon loading! It analyzes track curvature and heading changes along the coordinate path to produce maneuver icons, distance countdowns, and spoken voice prompts automatically. If the file already contains native turn cues, SuperCycle Pro preserves them.
Recommended Course Builders
You can create route files using any popular online mapping tool and transfer them to your phone via cloud drive, email, or direct download:
- Plotaroute.com: Exceptional tool for cyclists. It makes it easy to plot custom routes, automatically generates turn cue sheets, and lets you fine-tune directions and warning cues before exporting.
- Strava Route Builder: Export any saved route as a GPX or TCX file directly from your Strava account.
- Ride with GPS & Komoot: Export routes as TCX Course or GPX Track files with cue sheets.
How to Import and Load a Route
Loading a route into your active ride takes only a few taps:
-
Open Saved Routes:
Access to your saved routes is through the Map widget:
- Ensure ride recording is stopped (SuperCycle requires recording to be stopped to load or clear a route).
- On your Map widget, tap the floating Speed Dial action button in the bottom-right corner.
- Tap the Route Options icon and select Load route.
- Import Your File: Tap the Download / Import icon (📥) in the top-right corner of the app bar.
-
Select File: Use your phone's file picker to browse to your downloaded
.gpx,.tcx, or.fitcourse file. - Automatic Validation & Storage: SuperCycle verifies the file structure, decompresses the coordinates, indexes the course for spatial fast-lookup, and adds it to your permanent Saved Routes library.
- Select Route: Tap the newly added route in the list. The route will immediately load onto your active Map widget.
Map Route Controls & Display Overlay
Once a route is loaded, SuperCycle overlays the path directly onto your live map display:
- Visual Route Line: Drawn along the entire course path in your chosen route line color and style.
- Directional Chevrons: Small direction arrows are rendered at regular intervals along the route line so you always know which way the route travels—especially helpful when courses loop, cross over themselves, or share the same street on the outbound and return legs.
- Map Speed Dial Actions: Tapping the Speed Dial button opens the Route Options bottom
sheet:
- Load Route: Switch to a different course or import another file.
- Clear Route: Remove the active route from the map without deleting it from your saved library.
- Share Route: Export or share the route file with cycling companions.
- Elevation Profile (SuperCycle Pro): Toggle an interactive elevation and climb profile along the route directly beneath the map.
Turn-by-Turn Navigation & Turn Banners
When a loaded course contains turn cues, SuperCycle activates its real-time navigation engine:
As you ride, a high-contrast green turn banner appears at the top of your map displaying:
- Maneuver Icon: Left turn, right turn, slight turn, sharp turn, U-turn, roundabout, fork, summit, or finish flag.
- Distance Countdown: Real-time distance remaining until the turn (e.g.
150 mor500 ft), updating every second as you pedal. - Street & Turn Notes: The street name or custom instructions embedded in the file (e.g., "Turn right onto Oak Meadow Lane").
You can customize how turn guidance appears and behaves under Settings → Navigation:
- Turn-by-turn navigation: Master toggle to enable or disable visual maneuver banners.
- Show turn notes: Choose whether to display street names and detailed instructions beneath the distance countdown.
Many GPX files downloaded from route-sharing sites, trail directories, or personal GPS logs only contain raw coordinate tracks (latitude and longitude points) with no embedded turn cues or street instructions.
In SuperCycle Pro, if a loaded course file lacks native turn guidance, SuperCycle automatically analyzes the route's path geometry and heading changes upon loading to synthesize turn maneuvers (sharp left, right, slight fork, etc.), display on-screen banners, compute real-time distance countdowns, and speak voice cues as you ride. If the file already contains embedded turn cues, SuperCycle Pro uses those cues directly.
Audible Alerts: Spoken Voice & Beep Chimes
You do not need to keep your eyes glued to your phone screen while riding. SuperCycle provides hands-free audio guidance:
- Warning Distance: Under Settings → Navigation → Warn before turns, choose how far in advance you want alerts (e.g., 50 meters, 100 meters, 200 feet, etc.).
- Voice Prompts: Uses your phone's built-in, native Text-to-Speech (TTS) engine. SuperCycle speaks natural voice instructions aloud, such as "In 100 meters, turn left onto Main Street" or "Turn right". Because the TTS engine runs locally on your operating system, voice prompts work 100% offline without cellular data.
- Beep Prompts: If you prefer clean acoustic tones over spoken speech, enable Beep prompts. SuperCycle will play pleasant audio chimes as you approach waypoints and turns.
Smart Off-Route Detection & Automatic Rejoin Recovery
Older cycling computers and legacy apps often have a frustrating problem: if you make a detour or miss a turn, navigation permanently stops or demands a complex recalculation that requires internet access.
SuperCycle solves this with an intelligent, spatial R-Tree tracking architecture:
- Continuous Progress Tracking: SuperCycle uses an internal spatial R-Tree algorithm to match your live GPS position to your route path in real time, calculating exact distance to upcoming turns and remaining course length.
- Off-Route Notification: If you miss a turn, take an unexpected detour, or stop at a café off the course, SuperCycle detects the deviation, displays an off-route indicator, and speaks "Off route".
- Automatic Rejoin Recovery: As soon as you cycle back toward the course, SuperCycle detects the re-entry, speaks "Rejoined", automatically marks any bypassed turns as completed, advances forward to the next upcoming maneuver ahead, and resumes turn guidance seamlessly—with zero buttons pressed!
SuperCycle cannot plot a new route back to the course. You must make your own way back to the route.
Why doesn't SuperCycle reroute you? SuperCycle is designed from the ground up as a fast, private, 100% offline cycling computer. It has no concept of roads, streets, or street networks—it only understands the loaded route, which is an ordered sequence of geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude points). Because SuperCycle does not embed a massive, gigabyte-sized road-routing topology engine or query internet cloud routing servers, it cannot compute detours through local streets.
Returning to the Course: Simply glance at the live Map widget to see your current GPS marker relative to the highlighted route line and pedal back toward it. The moment your GPS position nears the course, SuperCycle automatically detects that you have rejoined, announces "Rejoined", and immediately resumes forward turn navigation.
Auto-Stop Recording on Route Completion
Have you ever finished a long, exhausting ride, packed your bike onto the car rack, and driven 20 miles home before realizing your bike computer was still recording?
SuperCycle includes a dedicated safeguard under Settings → Navigation → Auto stop recording:
- When enabled, SuperCycle monitors your proximity to the final finish coordinate of your loaded route.
- When your physical GPS location reaches within 30 meters of the finish waypoint, SuperCycle automatically and cleanly stops recording the ride.
Visual Route Customization (Colors & Line Styles)
You can tailor the map display under Settings → Navigation to ensure the course stands out against your terrain:
- Route Color: Choose distinct custom colors for Light Mode and Dark Mode. High-visibility colors like vibrant cyan, bright magenta, or electric orange work exceptionally well on sunny days. (Note: Changing route color requires an app restart to take effect on the map.)
- Route Line Style (Android): Choose between Solid, Dashed, or Dotted lines to easily distinguish your planned route line from your live recorded GPS track. (Note: Changing line style requires an app restart.)
Indoor Smart Trainer Route Simulation & Virtual Training Partner (SuperCycle Pro)
Route following is not limited to outdoor riding. If you train indoors on a Bluetooth FTMS smart trainer (Wahoo KICKR, Tacx, Elite, Saris, etc.), SuperCycle Pro can simulate your route indoors:
When you load a route in an indoor bike profile (or add the FTMS Route widget), SuperCycle reads the elevation profile and transmits real-time target slope and resistance commands to your smart trainer. When the route climbs a 6% hill, your trainer increases resistance to match the real-world incline! See our Smart Indoor Trainer Guide for setup details.
You can also compete against a simulated competitor along your loaded route using the Virtual Training Partner (VTP), complete with real-time distance gap readouts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I follow routes completely offline without internet?
Yes, 100%. SuperCycle's route navigation runs entirely on your phone. When combined with pre-cached OpenStreetMap tiles, you can follow routes, view street maps, and hear spoken turn prompts in deep backcountry or in Airplane Mode without using cellular data. See our guide on How to use offline maps for tile caching instructions.
Why isn't "snap-to-route" (or lock-on-road) available in SuperCycle?
Some automotive GPS navigation units feature a "snap-to-route" or "lock-on-road" mode that artificially forces the vehicle icon and recorded line directly onto the planned road center, masking GPS jitter or lateral drift. SuperCycle deliberately does not snap your position icon or your recorded ride coordinates to the route line. Here is why:
- Authentic Ride Telemetry & Data Integrity: SuperCycle is a high-precision cycling computer. When you finish a ride and export your FIT, GPX, or TCX files to platforms like Strava or TrainingPeaks, your file records where you actually rode. Snapping coordinates would fabricate artificial track data, erasing detours, rest stops, or real-world routing nuances.
- Rider Safety & Situational Awareness: In cycling, roads frequently split into service lanes, frontage roads, or multi-tiered intersections. If SuperCycle artificially clamped your position to the planned course, you would appear on course even if you took a wrong fork or turned onto a dangerous parallel roadway. Showing your true GPS position gives you immediate, honest feedback when you deviate.
- Parallel Bike Paths, Sidewalks & Gravel Tracks: Cyclists frequently ride on dedicated bike paths or trails running 5 to 15 meters parallel to a roadway. Snap-to-road algorithms violently jump between the road and bike path, corrupting headings, turns, and speed calculations.
- 100% Offline Privacy: Road-snapping engines typically rely on massive vector road topology databases or continuous cloud API queries. SuperCycle's lightweight on-device engine operates completely offline without tracking servers or data bloat.
- Internal Progress Tracking vs. Visual Truth: While SuperCycle never distorts your visible location marker or recorded breadcrumb track, its navigation engine does project your progress along the route internally. This ensures distance countdowns, turn cues, and rejoin detections remain pinpoint-accurate without altering your real-world GPS track.
Does SuperCycle reroute me if I miss a turn or go off-route?
No. Once you go off-route, SuperCycle cannot plot or calculate a route back. You must make your own way back to the course line using the map display. This is because SuperCycle has no concept of roads, streets, or road networks—it only understands the loaded route, which is an ordered sequence of geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude points). Because it avoids massive vector street databases and battery-draining cloud rerouting queries, it remains lightweight, fast, and 100% offline. As soon as you navigate back toward the route line, SuperCycle automatically detects that you have rejoined and immediately resumes forward guidance toward the next turn.
Why does my GPX file show the route line but no turn banners or voice prompts?
GPX files can contain two types of information: raw coordinate trackpoints (latitude/longitude coordinates) and course points (turn cues like left, right, summit). If your file was exported from a simple GPS recording or basic mapping tool without cue generation, it contains coordinates only:
- In the Free Edition, SuperCycle will draw the route line and direction chevrons so you can follow the path visually, but it cannot announce turns if the file has no turn cues. You can add turn cues ahead of time using route builders like Plotaroute.com.
- In SuperCycle Pro, turn guidance is automatically generated upon loading! SuperCycle Pro calculates track curvature and heading changes along the route's path geometry to create turn maneuvers, banners, distance countdowns, and spoken voice alerts automatically.
Why did I get "Invalid file type" when importing my route?
You likely went to History → Menu → Import. That menu is exclusively for importing completed ride activity logs with full second-by-second timestamps. To load your route, open the Map widget, tap the Speed Dial → Route Options → Load Route, and tap the Download / Import icon in the top app bar.
Can I start following a route in the middle?
Yes. You do not need to ride to the exact starting point of the route. When you load a course, SuperCycle's spatial R-Tree index locates the closest segment to your current position. Once you start pedaling along the course, it automatically activates guidance toward the next upcoming turn ahead.