Ascent activity tracker - replacement?

General cycling advice ( NOT technical ! )
Psamathe
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Re: Ascent activity tracker - replacement?

Post by Psamathe »

But still trying to work out exactly what you do want. You've given a few clues about what you don't want and that you want maps and/or satellite imagery but do you want library functionality? What sort of mapping (OSM vs OS)? Contours? and plots (Speed?, Altitude?), etc. It will help with suggestions if you could be clearer about what features you are needing and what would be nice and what you really don't want.

There are a fair number of possibilities but to run through them when they don't meet what you're looking for is just wasting time.

Difficult to meet requirements without being told what those requirements are.

Ian
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Mick F
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Re: Ascent activity tracker - replacement?

Post by Mick F »

Hello Ian.

What I want, is what I've got.
Ascent.

It's finished now, and Rob Bowyer in California with Montebello Software, has stopped doing it, and did do some years ago.
There was a well-established forum with great attendance, a good website as well. Often swapped an email with him, and was a contributor on the forum.

https://www.montebellosoftware.com
I think Rob has sold the website perhaps?

Ascent is no longer supported, but so long as I run an older Mac, it will keep going for me. If I upgrade, or if I go down the iPad route like Mrs Mick F has done, it's the end of Ascent.

............ therefore, I want a replacement.
Nothing too fitness and performance orientated, nothing competitive, always available on my computer not requiring internet access, always having a map and always perfect.
Mick F. Cornwall
Psamathe
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Re: Ascent activity tracker - replacement?

Post by Psamathe »

Mick F wrote: 9 May 2021, 3:26pm Hello Ian.

What I want, is what I've got.
Ascent.

It's finished now, and Rob Bowyer in California with Montebello Software, has stopped doing it, and did do some years ago.
There was a well-established forum with great attendance, a good website as well. Often swapped an email with him, and was a contributor on the forum.

https://www.montebellosoftware.com
I think Rob has sold the website perhaps?

Ascent is no longer supported, but so long as I run an older Mac, it will keep going for me. If I upgrade, or if I go down the iPad route like Mrs Mick F has done, it's the end of Ascent.

............ therefore, I want a replacement.
Nothing too fitness and performance orientated, nothing competitive, always available on my computer not requiring internet access, always having a map and always perfect.
Trouble is, Ascent is not widespread so we don't know what it does. Like if I ask everybody I want a new bike ... I want the same as I've got; do people recommend an MTB, CycloCross, Carbon road bike, etc. I have to give people a clue about what I'm looking for.

Very few contributors will have time or old Mac or inclination to find Ascent, download it, install it, load data into it, establish its functionality all in order to make suggestions as to what you could look at now.

So it will help if you list features you need and features you'd like e.g.:
Need:
  • Load and display gpx over OSM map
  • Display altitude plots
  • Maintain library of gpx tracks
  • Provide week, month and year summaries
Nice to have
  • Select OS mapping
  • Select satellite images
  • Heatmap generation
  • Multiple tracks over same map
etc.

What do features like "always perfect" mean? Technical term I've not come across before.

So I've made a couple of suggestions that have been ignored so I wont be spending any more time going through other possibilities.

Ian
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SimonCelsa
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Re: Ascent activity tracker - replacement?

Post by SimonCelsa »

Why not give Strava another try. You do not have to subscribe and basically it does all you want it would seem - except the offline data bit.

I'm sure there are workarounds to transferring your data from Strava to your hard drive if you are tech savvy and are good with Google.

I am not competitive but record my rides on Strava purely for reference and they are all private. I find it simple to use, amazed it is free and reckon it records ample details if you like analyzing stats yourself.
mikeymo
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Re: Ascent activity tracker - replacement?

Post by mikeymo »

Nessie23 wrote: 8 May 2021, 5:58pm I think you should consider Strava (however I recall that you might not be a Strava fan!). Contrary to common perception, Strava is not just for racing/competitive cyclists. I am purely a recreational cyclist and only use the ‘free’ version which fits my needs. It records lots of data including interactive map with full zoom capability ( just like using Google) shows elevation and speed profiles and I enjoy the ‘segments’ so you can compare your performance over time. This can become quite addictive but if not for you it is easily ignored. The following link explains that all the Strava data files can be exported to pc/hard-drive but I have never used this feature and not sure if it is only available on the subscription service. https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/art ... _site=true
I have the free, non-subscription version of Strava.

I just exported the gpx from a single ride. It opened in GPX viewer just fine.

I also just did a bulk export. You have to request this and they send you a link to a zip file. It downloaded fine, I opened one of the gpx files it contained fine.

So it appears that yes, Strava can be used for nothing, and in such a way that you will still have access to your data, even without Strava.
Mick F wrote: 8 May 2021, 7:29pm Strava is not my favourite idea at all.
It's web based and not on my computer.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it needs a subscription, so if you don't pay, you lose all of your data
Correct or not?
No, incorrect. As above.

Reading your comments about Strava in this thread, you seem to have some antipathy towards it, without having much experience of using it. Perhaps it might be an idea to sign up for a free account, then you could see if it does what you want. Of course you might have to change some of your ways of recording rides.

I don't know if you are worried about "losing" data, and that's why you want to keep it on a local hard drive or external drive. But unless you are a computing professional who is meticulous about data storage, checking the integrity of storage media, and so on, then I'm going to suggest that you are far more likely to lose, or corrupt, data than Strava is. They employ many experienced computer professionals and multiple redundant systems. With all due respect, you're a chap on your own in Cornwall trying to keep an old Mac running:
Mick F wrote: 9 May 2021, 3:26pm Ascent is no longer supported, but so long as I run an older Mac, it will keep going for me. If I upgrade, or if I go down the iPad route like Mrs Mick F has done, it's the end of Ascent.
If you're really worried about Strava losing your data, you could do a bulk download once every so often.

I'm not a sports/fitness cyclist either. It may appear as though that is Strava's target customer. It probably is, I expect those are the sort of people who are prepared to pay the subscription. But as a "ride recorder", which is what you seem to want, Strava works just fine for me, and pretty much ticks all of your boxes below, albeit you'll have to download the data at some point to always have the records on your computer.
Mick F wrote: 9 May 2021, 3:26pm
Nothing too fitness and performance orientated, nothing competitive, always available on my computer not requiring internet access, always having a map and always perfect.
ChrisF
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Re: Ascent activity tracker - replacement?

Post by ChrisF »

Another advantage of using Strava is that you can then also connect to Veloviewer veloviewer.com and get amazing heat maps
Screenshot vv.png
which enable you to point to any line with your mouse to see when you did that ride, and then click to get full details of the ride.
It does cost £10 a year but people writing software do need to be paid occasionally (and there aren't any adverts).
Chris F, Cornwall
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Mick F
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Re: Ascent activity tracker - replacement?

Post by Mick F »

Psamathe wrote: 9 May 2021, 3:48pm So it will help if you list features you need and features you'd like e.g.:
Need:
  • Load and display gpx over OSM map
  • Display altitude plots
  • Maintain library of gpx tracks
  • Provide week, month and year summaries
Nice to have the option of a satellite view and extra stuff in the elevation plot.
Here's one from way back when I had a Garmin Edge70 with cadence and HR and one of fairly recently. I only have a temperature sensor now.
Screen Shot 2021-05-10 at 09.11.19.png
Screen Shot 2021-05-10 at 09.12.31.png
Screen Shot 2021-05-10 at 09.15.33.png
Screen Shot 2021-05-10 at 09.17.55.png

Always perfect, means it's always exactly what I want and runs without an issue.
Mick F. Cornwall
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gazza_d
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Re: Ascent activity tracker - replacement?

Post by gazza_d »

There's plenty of online trackers out there but of based are rare to the point of being almost none. All the development is towards web based services. I'm not normally a fan of cloud services. I have my own music streamer and online file server for example.

Although far from sporty or quick I have used Strava for a long time and have data on going back to 2007.
The segments are really good for me as I can see my personal performance on bits rather than a full ride. The equipment tracking in there is also useful as is the route planning. And as others have said being able to connect to other services like Veloviewer and Wanderer are really cool if that's your bag. Relive is also cool as it lets you create flythrough videos of your rides and does now track them too

Komoot is also good for tracking rides especially for route planning although the free region can be limiting. I scored an offer to get world mapping perpetually for £20.

There's lot of others like endomondo, sports tracker. (originally Nokia)

There is a service called Tapiriik that will.let you sync between different services too although my GPS device (Leyzyne) automatically syncs between Strava, relive, and komoot.

I can also plan routes in Strava or Komoot and can sync to my Leyzyne phone app and then have turn by turn directions on the GPS unit itself.

Even Leyzyne themselves have an activity tracker system on their site (GPSroot) which the devices sync too.
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Mick F
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Re: Ascent activity tracker - replacement?

Post by Mick F »

Thread resurrection alert! :D

Yesterday, I bought a brand new 2022 MacBookAir(M2) from Curry's down in Plymouth. Click and collect, and cheaper than I could find it anywhere reasonably.

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/apple ... 39788.html

https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/buy-mac/m ... -gpu-256gb

These days, the Macs behave like iPhones, inasmuch as you put them side-by-side and the new one mirrors the other. Consequently, my new machine feels and behaves like the old one. I've spent a few hours this morning playing with it and uploading the newest software - Macos Venture 13.1 - and uploading the WiFi printer driver.

So far, so good, and I'm pleased.

Back to the subject in hand:

Ascent will not work with Ventura - I've tried, but the software refuses to even load and has a big "No Entry" sign across it. My old MacBookAir is still ok, and the old iMac is still ok too, so I'm not worried about losing all my rides from 2004 onwards in Ascent. I can (with laborious monotony) export each and every outing as a GPX file, so I won't lose anything.

As for a replacement (modern) program that is NOT web-based, I'll be doing some research regarding the options said on here.
Rubitrack sounds ok, but I want a free trial without spending money out front and then getting a refund.

I want an app, and not a web-based one, and a free trial first.
Mick F. Cornwall
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Mick F
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Re: Ascent activity tracker - replacement?

Post by Mick F »

Ride-sleep-repeat wrote: 8 May 2021, 9:46am I use Strava but a Google found this:-
https://alternativeto.net/software/rubitrack/
I've downloaded Golden Cheetah.
I'll let you know in due course how I get on. I had sort of planned on a bike ride today, but it's not going to happen as I have other things to do ............ which is a pity because the weather is neither frosty nor wet. First day in weeks.

Maybe early next week, and I'll be riding.
Mick F. Cornwall
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Mick F
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Re: Ascent activity tracker - replacement?

Post by Mick F »

PS:
I've downloaded GPXSee too.
Psamathe wrote: 9 May 2021, 11:29am .......Or GPXSee (http://www.gpxsee.org) which does track over a map with elevation and speed plots. Free download for Mac (Windows & Linux available but unsure if you have to build yourself). You can load multiple gpx tracks but does not have the "library" functions.
Mick F. Cornwall
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simonineaston
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Re: Ascent activity tracker - replacement?

Post by simonineaston »

Isn't it annoying when perfectly good software reaches a 'best before date'. I suppose folks might counter, t'was ever thus - all things must pass - but of course software doesn't 'wear out' as such and could potentially last forever.
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
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Re: Ascent activity tracker - replacement?

Post by rareposter »

simonineaston wrote: 22 Jan 2023, 9:57am Isn't it annoying when perfectly good software reaches a 'best before date'. I suppose folks might counter, t'was ever thus - all things must pass - but of course software doesn't 'wear out' as such and could potentially last forever.
Well it sort of does - with older software you open up all sorts of security flaws, it develops an inability to 'talk' to any newer hardware or software and the functionality/speed falls off a cliff compared to newer software running on faster hardware.

I know it's a bit chicken and egg - the hardware has to be better because the software has got more memory-intensive so you get batter hardware and then because you have that you can cram in more functionality on the software... and you go round and round in an ever-developing circle just to stand still.

I'm still struggling to understand why you'd want a stand-alone programme on a single PC than a web-based system that you can use / access anywhere in the world from any device though?! I suspect RideWithGPS and Strava both offer the functionality that you're after on a 'Freemium' system - most of it is free but the higher end stuff you have to pay for - but for whatever reasons you seem to be quite anti-Strava? :roll:
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Mick F
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Re: Ascent activity tracker - replacement?

Post by Mick F »

Single PC?

I have Ascent on two Macs, and I'd have it on a third (this one) if I could. I could instal it on as many Macs as I want, as I have the serial number and the rights to use it on multiple machines.

When I've been away riding, I take my MacBook with me so I don't need a web based thing.

These days, I'm out for an hour or three, then home.
Mick F. Cornwall
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Mick F
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Re: Ascent activity tracker - replacement?

Post by Mick F »

GPXSee wasn't very good, so deleted it fairly soon after uploading it.
GoldenCheetah, I had a go at, but it's FAR too complicated as well as being too fitness orientated.

I'm now considering paying dosh for Rubitrack. At least if I don't like it, I'll get refunded.
Mick F. Cornwall
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