Think You’re a Smooth Rider? Yamaha’s SmartRiding App Will Prove It

Yamaha has released a new app that records and evaluates riding habits. The free Yamaha SmartRiding app (available now in the App store) uses the Apple devices sensors to measure basic telemetry to evaluate how smoothly you handle curves.

The app requires the device to be firmly fixed to the motorcycle in either a vertical or horizontal arrangement (the app is compatible with iPhones, iPods and iPads, though I’m not sure how many people will mount a tablet to their motorcycle). Internal gyroscopes and the GPS processor measure acceleration and deceleration as well as tilt angle to measure how smoothly a motorcycle moves through a corner.

The information may not be as accurate as a MotoGP racer’s telemetry data, but it’s not supposed to be. The whole point is to evaluate how smoothly you ride, not help determine the best racing line to take on your way to work.

The data is processed and the app assigns a score out of 100 rating how smoothly the rider went through a corner. The app will gather data from every turn in a given ride and plot that data along a map of the route.

The data can also be displayed on a color-coded scatter-plot graph to show an overall evaluation of a journey. The app can also record video of the ride, matching the data with a visual recording of the ride. Data can be logged for personal reference, or shared over Twitter.

At the moment, the app is only designed for use in Japan, but it’s possible the SmartRiding app may work in other regions (the instructions and other text will likely be in Japanese though so being able to read the language will help). If you live outside of Japan and have tried the app, leave a comment below and tell us how it worked.

[Source: Yamaha, App Store]

By Dennis Chung