Top 7 apps for recording your motorcycle rides

To record your motorcycle rides, seven apps stand out: GeoRide, Calimoto, Polarsteps, Rever, Nousmotards, Memopocket and Waze. GeoRide is the only one of the group to capture every ride automatically, with nothing to start, thanks to a unit fitted to the motorcycle. The others each shine on a specific front: navigation, travel journal or community. Here is how to choose according to your priorities, and why some of them combine very well.

How do you choose an app to record your motorcycle rides?

It all depends on what you want to keep from your rides: a faithful, automatic trace, a route to ride again, a story to share, or a protected motorcycle on top. Four criteria really make the difference: does recording start on its own, is the data complete (speed, weather, elevation), can you export and share easily, and does the app add anything on the safety side?

One technical point to keep in mind before deciding: all these apps, apart from GeoRide, rely on your phone's GPS. You have to remember to launch them, let them run in the background and accept that they will use battery for the whole outing. A dedicated GPS tracker fitted to the motorcycle has none of those constraints.

GeoRide: how good is automatic ride recording?

It is the only solution in this comparison where you literally have nothing to do: the GeoRide unit, fitted to the motorcycle, captures the ride as soon as you set off, and the replay is waiting for you when the motorcycle is parked. No app to launch, no button to press, no phone battery sacrificed.

That density of points changes everything about the quality of the trace: every bend is rendered faithfully. On the ride screen, you find distance, duration, average and maximum speeds, elevation, towns passed through, the number of bends and even weather synced to the route. With the GeoRide 3s, lean angle is measured every second through bends, a visualisation with no equivalent for mountain pass fans. And since the July 2026 update, the 3D replay brings every ride back to life in relief view, with a camera that follows the road and anticipates the bends.

"When you have done a big day of road-tripping, you get home in the evening, settle on the sofa and watch your ride back. That feeling is amazing." (Thomas, GeoRide founder)

For sharing, the app generates a video directly on your phone: animated trace, distance, duration, weather and top speed overlaid, with your own clips filmed along the way, as the GeoRide team describe in the video above on their return from a ride in the Pyrenees: "It is genuinely dead simple, it takes a few seconds and I can post it straight to Insta." The format is ready for Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts or Facebook. You can also export your rides as GPX from the web interface to rework them in Garmin, Komoot or MyRouteApp.

Finally, GeoRide is not just a recorder: it is first and foremost protection. Real-time alerts at the slightest suspicious movement, 24/7 post-theft Assistance in mainland France, and crash detection that automatically calls the emergency services in under 2 minutes if you do not respond. On price: rental at €9.99/month (GeoRide mini) or €14.99/month (GeoRide 3s) with no commitment, or purchase at €199 or €299 with a €5/month subscription. A demo mode in the app lets you try everything free of charge, even if you are not a customer.

Your rides record themselves, and your motorcycle is protected at the same timeA unit fitted in 5 minutes, and every ride waiting for you in the app.

Protect my motorcycle

Calimoto and Waze: how good are the navigation apps?

Excellent for guiding you, more limited for keeping a record. Calimoto remains the reference for riders looking for twisty roads: its algorithm builds routes according to how many bends you want, maps can be downloaded for riding without coverage, and the app records your outings with distance, duration and elevation. GPX import and export let you exchange routes with other GPS devices. Risk zone alerts and several advanced options, on the other hand, are reserved for the Premium version.

Waze plays in another category: its motorcycle mode and community alerts (accidents, slow-downs, hazards reported live) make it a very good urban co-pilot, entirely free. But let us be clear: Waze does not record your rides. No statistics, no history, and a permanent internet connection is required. It is an everyday navigation tool, not a road trip companion.

Polarsteps, Rever, Memopocket: which travel journal should you choose?

These three apps put memories before data. Polarsteps is the most polished: it traces your movements via the phone's GPS, even offline, and automatically builds a logbook you enrich with photos and comments. It will even print your trips as an album. In return, there is no guidance, no alerts, no feature designed for riding.

Rever is aimed at riders who like telling the story of their outings: GPS tracking of the ride, the essential data (distance, duration, average speed) and sharing within a community of enthusiasts. No crash detection or anti-theft assistance, though. Memopocket, finally, works as a retrospective journal: your rides, photos and videos are sorted chronologically so you can relive your road trips afterwards. No real-time tracking, but genuine simplicity for archiving your memories.

Nousmotards: how good is the French community app?

It is the app to choose if the pleasure of riding is above all about other people. Nousmotards combines recording and route creation with a genuine French-speaking social network: private messaging, group discussions, route sharing between members. You discover other people's rides, organise group outings and keep control of your data thanks to the export. Its offline features remain limited, and riders after in-depth technical analysis will be left wanting, but for turning a solo outing into a shared adventure, it does the job very well.

Should you combine several apps?

Yes, and it is even the best approach: no app covers every need perfectly, but they coexist very happily on the same handlebars. The most logical pairing: GeoRide in the background, capturing every ride and protecting the motorcycle without you thinking about it, and a navigation app on top, Calimoto for long twisty rides or Waze for urban journeys. Storytellers add Polarsteps to document their long-haul road trips.

For planning beforehand, take a look too at our comparison of motorcycle route apps and our guide to creating a motorcycle road book in France: preparing your route well and recording it well are two complementary pleasures.

What GeoRide brings here

On the specific ground of ride recording, the GeoRide ride app brings what no app on its own can offer: a dedicated GPS tracker on the motorcycle, and therefore automatic, reliable capture with no impact on your phone. Every outing becomes a 3D replay, a video to share or a GPX file to ride again.

And while your rides are recording themselves, your motorcycle is protected: real-time theft alerts, crash detection with an automatic emergency call, and live position sharing with the people close to you through a simple web link, with no app for them to install. That is the whole difference between an app that notes where you went and a solution that watches over the motorcycle, the ride and the rider.

Frequently asked questions

Which free app should you use to record motorcycle rides?

Polarsteps is the best entirely free option for keeping a record of your outings, followed by Rever and Nousmotards in their basic versions. On the GeoRide side, a free demo mode in the app lets you explore every feature, including ride replay, without being a customer.

Is a phone app enough, or do you need a dedicated unit?

An app is enough for occasional use, but a dedicated unit quickly becomes essential if you want capture every single time. With an app, you have to remember to start recording every time you set off and accept the battery drain; the GeoRide unit captures everything automatically, even with your phone switched off, and adds anti-theft protection.

Can you export your motorcycle rides in GPX format?

Yes: GeoRide lets you export every ride as GPX from its web interface, to edit in Garmin, Komoot or MyRouteApp, ride again in reverse or share with riders who do not have GeoRide. Calimoto also offers GPX import and export for its routes.

Can the recorded speed be used against me?

No: the GeoRide unit is not a certified speed measuring instrument, and the recorded speed can never be used against you. It is a personal, confidential statistic, made for analysing your rides, not for keeping an eye on you.

How do you share a motorcycle ride on social media?

The simplest way is GeoRide's automatic video export: the app generates a video on your phone with the animated trace, the distance, the duration, the weather and the top speed, into which you drop your own clips. The format is ready for Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Facebook.