A GPS speedometer app makes a good second trip meter for a motorcycle. Reset it when you fill the tank and it tells you how far you’ve gone on this tank, even if your bike has no fuel gauge. Tap Stop to pause at breaks, and save each leg before you reset so you keep a record. It runs separately from the bike’s own odometer and trip meters, so you can use both for different jobs.
Here’s how to set it up, how to work out your fuel range, and where GPS distance needs a safety margin.
Why riders use a phone as a trip meter #
- No fuel gauge. Plenty of motorcycles, especially older, custom and off-road bikes, have only a reserve light or a reserve position on the fuel tap. Riders refuel by distance.
- A fiddly trip meter. Small buttons are hard to press with gloves, and some bikes reset the trip meter when you don’t want them to.
- Two counters at once. Keep the bike’s trip meter for fuel and use the phone for today’s ride, or the other way round.
- A broken or missing speedometer. A GPS trip meter keeps counting when a cable or sensor has failed.
How to work out your motorcycle’s fuel range #
Range is tank capacity multiplied by fuel economy. Then keep a reserve, because economy drops with speed, headwind, a passenger and luggage.
| Tank | Economy | Full-tank range | Refuel by |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.0 US gal | 50 mpg | 100 miles | about 75 miles |
| 3.5 US gal | 45 mpg | 157 miles | about 120 miles |
| 4.5 US gal | 40 mpg | 180 miles | about 140 miles |
| 13 litres | 5.0 L/100 km | 260 km | about 200 km |
| 20 litres | 6.0 L/100 km | 333 km | about 260 km |
The economy figures are examples. To learn yours, fill the tank to the brim, reset the trip, ride normally and fill up again. Economy is the distance divided by the fuel you added. Do it over a few tanks, because one fill-up can mislead you.
Setting up Speedometer GPS as a trip meter #
- Mount the phone in a vibration-dampening mount before you ride, and plug it in if your bike has a USB socket.
- Open Speedometer GPS and wait for the GPS pill to read GOOD or EXCELLENT. Choose mph or km/h, and distance follows in miles or kilometres.
- At the pump, tap Reset and confirm, then tap Start.
- Ride. Keep the app on screen, because it only tracks while it’s open. Keep-screen-on is enabled by default.
- At breaks, tap Stop to pause. Tap Start when you ride off and distance keeps adding to the same total.
- At the next fill-up, tap Save to keep that tank in your history, then Reset and Start again.
Do all of your tapping while stopped. Nothing on this list needs doing while the bike is moving.
Start, Stop, Reset and Save: what each button does #
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Start | Begins counting distance, top speed, average speed and time, or resumes after a Stop |
| Stop | Pauses the trip. Nothing is cleared |
| Reset | Clears the current trip after asking you to confirm. Saved trips aren’t touched |
| Save | Stores the trip in Trips with its route, stats and speed chart |
Two details are worth knowing. Trip time runs from when you first pressed Start, so it includes your breaks, while moving time and average speed only count while you’re actually moving. And the free version occasionally shows a full-screen ad after a reset. A one-time purchase in Settings removes all ads.
Tracking separate legs of a trip #
On a multi-day tour, save each day as its own trip. The Trips screen keeps up to 100 of them, each with distance, top speed, average, time and a thumbnail of the route. Open one to see the route drawn full size (Apple Maps on iPhone, a sketch from your own recorded points on Android), a speed chart, and buttons to export a GPX file or share a card with the numbers. The lifetime odometer at the top adds up every saved trip.
A simple split that works well: the bike’s trip meter counts fuel, and the phone counts legs. Or reverse it if the bike’s trip meter is the easier one to read. For more on keeping legs separate, see reset vs save for multi-leg trips.
If the app closes or the phone dies mid-ride #
The app autosaves the trip in progress every few seconds. If it gets closed, or the phone runs flat and you charge it back up, it offers to resume the trip the next time you open it, as long as that’s within 12 hours. Resume it and you pick up where you left off rather than starting from zero on a half-used tank.
How accurate is GPS distance for fuel planning? #
On open roads, GPS distance is close to true. It’s often closer than the bike’s own odometer, which counts wheel rotations and drifts as the tire wears. There are two exceptions, and both make the app under-count:
- Long tunnels. When the signal returns, the app discards any jump of more than 200 m as unreliable, so a long tunnel’s length is missing from the total.
- Slow riding. To stop GPS drift adding phantom distance, the app ignores movement under 5 m between one-second fixes. Below about 18 km/h (11 mph), in heavy traffic or on slow trails, it can under-count.
For fuel, under-counting is the risky direction: you’ll have ridden further than the app says. After a lot of slow riding or tunnels, refuel earlier than the table above suggests.
Mounting and battery #
Apple warns that vibration from high-power motorcycle engines can degrade the iPhone camera system and recommends a vibration-dampening mount for lower-vibration vehicles. It’s on Apple’s vibration support page. Our motorcycle phone mount tips cover placement and cabling. A fix every second plus an awake screen uses real battery, so for long days see our battery tips for long motorcycle rides.
Frequently asked questions #
How do I know when to refuel a motorcycle without a fuel gauge? #
Track distance since your last fill-up and refuel well before your known range. Work out range from tank size times fuel economy, measured over a few tanks, and plan to stop at about three-quarters of it. Knowing where your reserve position or light kicks in adds a second safety net.
Does pressing Stop reset my trip? #
No. Stop only pauses the trip. Distance, top speed and average are kept, and tapping Start continues from the same totals. Only Reset clears the trip, and it asks you to confirm first.
Can I track two trip distances at once? #
Yes. Use the bike’s trip meter for one, such as fuel, and the phone for the other, such as today’s ride. They count independently, so resetting one doesn’t touch the other.
What happens if my phone dies mid-ride? #
The trip is autosaved every few seconds. Charge the phone and open the app within 12 hours and it offers to resume the trip with its distance intact. Anything you rode while the phone was off won’t be counted.
Is GPS distance accurate enough for fuel range? #
On open roads, yes. Leave extra margin after long tunnels or slow riding, where GPS apps tend to under-count, and treat the reserve on your tank as the last line rather than part of your plan.