Free & ProWhether you are riding through backcountry mountain roads, deep valleys with spotty cellular coverage, or traveling abroad without an international data plan, SuperCycle allows you to navigate and view full map displays completely offline.
Because your smartphone's GPS receiver communicates directly with satellites orbiting the Earth, GPS location tracking and ride recording work anywhere with zero cellular connection. To see streets, trails, elevation curves, and landmarks without internet, SuperCycle uses an intelligent OpenStreetMap (OSM) tile caching engine that stores map imagery directly on your device.
How Offline Maps Work in SuperCycle
When you view an OpenStreetMap map while connected to Wi-Fi or mobile data, SuperCycle downloads small 256×256 pixel image squares known as map tiles. Instead of discarding them, SuperCycle automatically saves every viewed tile into a local storage cache on your phone.
- 90-Day Retention: Cached map tiles remain stored locally on your device for 90 days before expiring.
- Zero Data Usage on Repeated Rides: When you ride routes in areas you have already viewed, SuperCycle loads the tiles directly from phone memory, saving battery life and cellular data.
- Why No Bulk "Download Entire Country" Button? OpenStreetMap is a volunteer-driven, non-profit foundation that provides map data to the world for free. To protect their volunteer servers from prohibitive bandwidth costs and overload, OSM enforces strict tile usage policies prohibiting bulk scrapers. SuperCycle's dynamic route-caching approach respects OSM server policies while ensuring you have 100% of your planned riding territory available offline.
Choosing Your Map Service
Open Settings → Map → Map service to choose which map provider SuperCycle uses:
- OpenStreetMap (Recommended): The standard global map layer. Highly detailed, regularly updated, and supported by high-availability global caching servers.
- CyclOSM: A bicycle-oriented map style that highlights designated bike routes, bike lanes, surface types (paved vs gravel), and cycling points of interest.
- OpenTopoMap: A topographic rendering that features contour lines, shaded hill relief, and forest boundaries, ideal for mountain biking and trail riding.
While CyclOSM provides great bike-specific visual styling, its community-hosted tile servers frequently experience downtime, high server loads, or prolonged outages. If map tiles load slowly, fail to download, or display blank grey grid squares, switch to standard OpenStreetMap or OpenTopoMap under Settings → Map. The standard OpenStreetMap foundation servers maintain enterprise-grade worldwide uptime and fast downloads.
Step-by-Step: How to Pre-Cache Maps for an Offline Ride
Follow these quick steps at home or anywhere you have a reliable Wi-Fi or cellular data connection before heading out:
- Verify your map service: Go to Settings → Map and verify that OpenStreetMap (or OpenTopoMap) is selected.
- Open the Interactive Map: Return to the SuperCycle dashboard and tap the map widget (or the map button) to open the fullscreen Interactive Map.
- Set your preferred riding zoom level: Zoom in to the magnification level you intend to view while riding (typically zoom levels 15 to 17 for street-level navigation and trail forks).
- Pan along your planned route: Slowly pan your finger across the entire route from start to finish, including surrounding roads and trail junctions. As each section of the map renders on your screen, those tiles are automatically downloaded and saved to your device's persistent cache.
- Cache additional zoom levels (Recommended): Map tiles are unique to each zoom level. If you plan to zoom out for a high-level overview during your ride or zoom in close for complex intersections, zoom out one or two levels and pan the route again.
How to Verify Maps Before Leaving Home
You can verify that your route is fully cached in seconds without stepping outside:
- Enable Airplane Mode on your phone (or temporarily turn off both Wi-Fi and Cellular Data).
- In SuperCycle, open the Interactive Map.
- Pan across your planned route at your chosen zoom levels.
- If roads, trails, street labels, and contour lines appear sharp and clear, your map tiles are successfully saved in local memory.
- Disable Airplane Mode, or leave it on during your ride if you want to maximize battery life.
Following Routes (GPX, TCX, FIT) Offline
SuperCycle's route follower is completely self-contained and does not require an internet connection:
- Local Course Storage: When you load a GPX, TCX, or FIT course file, all GPS coordinates, elevation profiles, and turn points are saved directly inside SuperCycle.
- Visual Route Overlay: The colored route line is drawn directly on top of your cached OpenStreetMap tiles.
- Turn-by-Turn Audio & Voice Prompts: If your course file includes turn cues, SuperCycle provides visual banner countdowns, audible alert chimes, and spoken voice guidance using your phone's built-in offline Text-to-Speech (TTS) engine.
- Off-Route Warnings: SuperCycle continuously compares your live satellite coordinates to the course line and alerts you if you take a wrong turn, even miles away from cell towers.
Managing Device Storage & Clearing the Cache
Map tiles are compact compressed images. A typical 50-mile (80 km) cycling route cached at two zoom levels occupies only 15 to 40 MB of storage space.
SuperCycle automatically deletes tiles that have not been accessed for 90 days. However, if you want to free up storage space immediately or force fresh tiles to download after local road changes, you can clear the cache manually:
- Open Settings → Advanced → Map.
- Tap Clear Cache.
- Tap OK on the confirmation prompt. All stored offline map tiles will be deleted immediately.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does phone GPS work in Airplane Mode?
Yes. Airplane Mode disables transmitting radios (Cellular, Wi-Fi, and sometimes Bluetooth), but it does not disable your phone's GPS receiver. GPS chips are passive listening devices that receive satellite broadcasts. You can track rides, view speed, follow routes, and view cached maps in Airplane Mode while saving substantial battery power.
Why do I see grey blank squares on the map during my ride?
Blank squares appear when the map is displayed at a zoom level or in a geographic area where tiles were not pre-cached while connected to the internet. To prevent this, always pan your route at the zoom levels you plan to use before leaving home, and test your coverage using Airplane Mode.
Does ride recording or Strava export need internet?
No internet is required during your ride. All GPS points, sensor metrics (power, heart rate, cadence), speed, and elevation are stored safely in SuperCycle's local database on your phone. When you finish your ride, you can save and review it immediately offline. If you finish your ride without an active internet connection, automatic upload cannot reach Strava at that moment. Once your phone reconnects to Wi-Fi or cellular service, open the ride in History and tap the upload button to manually sync your ride to Strava or TrainingPeaks.