Best 23 Cycling apps & links

5th May 2023 – 1829 words

In this post, I want to give you an overview of the apps and websites I use for cycling. I will try to keep this post updated in the future. If you have any suggestions, please let me know via Mastodon/Twitter/Mail.

Route planning

bikerouter.de

▶ Der wahrscheinlich beste Fahrrad-Routenplaner der Welt! Kostenlos und datenschutzfreundlich. City, MTB, Rennrad, Gravel, Trekking uvm.

The meta description is quite on point. For an OpenSource app it has a extremely sophisticated Routing algorithm, that has sometimes a lot of tuning options. Mostly use “Trekking Fast Wet” or “Rennrad (weniger Verkehr)”

Komoot | Find, plan and share your adventures

Turn your next ride, hike, or run into an adventure with komoot. Get inspired by tapping into shared community knowledge and recommendations, then bring your adventures to life with the easy route planner.

A good planner, but slower than bikerouter. On the other hand, I use it mainly to upload the gpx files from Bikerouter to my Wahoo.

Bike Route Planner - Ride with GPS

The number one bike route planning tool on the web. Fast, easy, and powerful. Plan your next bike ride and use voice navigation with offline maps.

Seems to be very popular in US, never used it though.

If you ride for more than a couple of kilometres, you might want to plan your ride ahead. Mostly, I use bikerouter.de/brouter.m11.de, which uses OpenStreetMap data and a sophisticated OpenSource routing engine called BRouter. It offers tons of different ride profiles to weigh the different road types. You can also add custom OSM layers, such as Garmin’s heatmaps or Google Satellite:

BikeRouter additional Layers

Weather planning/forecast

Knowing the weather forecast can make the difference between a nice ride and a miserable one - Should I take the rain jacket, should I head back through the woods because of headwind etc.

YR.no Today's weather forecast for your location

Weather forecast. Hourly, long term and precipitation map from NRK and Meteorologisk institutt.

The Norwegian weather forecast which works world-wide, to check for rain probs and wind directions before rides.

Epic Ride Weather

A unique approach to weather forecasts for cyclists, for your ride, with your route, at your pace. Official supplier to Team Jumbo-Visma.

(paid) app to check your tomorrow’s route for headwinds, rain etc.

Windy as forecasted

Weather radar, wind and waves forecast for kiters, surfers, paragliders, pilots, sailors and anyone else. Worldwide animated weather map, with easy to use layers and precise spot forecast. METAR, TAF and NOTAMs for any airport in the World. SYNOP codes from weather stations and buoys. Forecast models ECMWF, GFS, NAM and NEMS

Great ui to get a feel for the general wind directions

Tracking

I am a data nerd and like to see my progress, heatmaps etc. For that, I recommend using a dedicated GPS device, or GPS watch. That’s mainly to save your phone battery. I used to use a Garmin Edge 520 before, but, for a couple of years, I primarily use Wahoo Bolt. Additionally, for shorter rides or runs, I use an Apple watch.

Strava

Strava connects millions of runners, cyclists, hikers, walkers and other active people through the sports they love – all on our mobile app and website.

Central hub for all (GPS-based) activities - Apple Watch, Garmin/Wahoo tracking

All of that data will be synced to Strava as my main hub. Strava is still a good app, even very usable with the Free Tier. Currently, I am still paying for the Premium tier, but I will probably stop to renew it in 2024, because of a recent price spike. There is not so much value for me in the Paid tier features, such as using the Route planner (Using Bikerouter), or the Beacon feature (Using Wahoo built-in), weather info, goal tracking, training analysis and more.

Challenges & After-Ride Analysis

Because Strava has a relatively open API policy, there are a lot of apps that can connect to it. Most of them will get your rides immediately after uploading them. Some of them will enhance the ride description, such as Weather information, new roads travelled and more.

myWindsock - The home of Cycling Weather

We believe you should track key weather metrics, just like you do Speed and Elevation. Connect your Strava to myWindsock, to collect your valuable weather data.

Klimat

Automatic weather and air quality tagging for your training log.

Paid for extra app, that adds weather description comment

Additionally, you can use Challenges. These are primarily for motivation, to try out new routes and discover your neighbourhood. “Wandrer” for example tells you how many per cent of all the roads and paths in a particular country you already have visited. Squadrats and Statshunters tell you about visited “Squares” on a map.

Get more out of your Strava activities with heatmap, statistics, badges and more...

With StatsHunters you can connect your Strava account and show all your bike-rides and added photos on one map. Show extra statistics about your rides, filter on your gear and more..

Free software to calculate biggest squares, heatmaps etc.

Wandrer.earth

Wandrer is the outdoor game where you win by going places you've never been before

Ride ALL roads and paths of your community and track your progress.

Squadrats

No more boring rides. Turn your activities into thrilling missions!

The whole Biggest Square game on steroids - With differnt levels of Square sizes and great UI.

Maintenance tracking

You can also use apps to track the usage of your chain, tires etc. I used to use these more extensively but stopped it some time ago. I just change it regularly anyways.

ProBikeGarage - Bicycle maintenance tracker app

(paid app) Tracking maintenance of bike components semi automatically (by connecting strava for distance). Has information about common components and the intervals.

mainTrack.app - Bicycle and Components Maintenance Tracker

Create a maintenance plan for your bicycle and components based on usage, keep track of all services executed on an elegant and easy to use interface.

Not tried yet

Calculators

Geometry

When you plan a new bike, there are a couple of nice small apps, that help you with comparing different frame sizes.

Bicycle Geometry Terms – 99 Spokes

Descriptions of bike geometry terms and measurements, visualized and explained.

Bike Geometry Calculator

Web app made for recording and comparing bike fits and frame geometries.

Very simple and easy to share via URL. No user account needed, but also no models included.

Geometry Geeks

The world's biggest open geometry database. Find bikes by name or numbers. Easily compare bike geometry side-by-side.

Great for comparing different frames side by side

Other Calculators

Bicycle - Bartosz Ciechanowski

Interactive article explaining the physics of a bicycle.

Graphical Gear Calculator for Bicycles

Graphical gear calculator for bicycle gearing systems. Includes derailleur gears and internal gear hubs. Grafischer Ritzelrechner zur Berechnung der Entfaltung von Fahrradschaltungen.

SRAM | Tire pressure guide

Der optimale Reifendruck ist ein wichtiger Faktor, damit du schneller fahren kannst. Dieser Reifendruckrechner liefert empfohlene Reifendrücke für Zipp Laufräder.

Indoor cycling

Virtuelle Trainings-App für Indoor-Radsport und - Laufen – Zwift

Zwift ist virtuelles Lauf - und Radtraining. Übertriff deine Ziele und messe dich mit anderen Sportlern aus der ganzen Welt. Mit strukturierten Workouts und Gruppenfahrten mit Anderen.

No.1 app for indoor.

Best Virtual Indoor Cycling Training | Virtual Cycling App - MyWhoosh

MyWhoosh is the best virtual cycling app for cycling at home. With Virtual Cycling, experience real-life cycling routes from around the world and take your indoor cycling experience to the next level.

A new contender, financed with Saudi money. Also usable on free account.

Trainer Day - App

Workout Sharing Platform

The successor to ERGdb. yYou can search for work outs, adjust it to your FTP, download onto your Wahoo (Garmin probably, too), and then ride indoors with ERG-mode without all the Zwift/indoor training subscription apps.

Zwift seems to be the standard goto option, but I find it relatively pricey – Same price as Netflix or Youtube Premium for a mediocre video game with 2009 graphics, which I play twice per week for 2 hours. So, I also tried a new app MyWhoosh, which has a free tier as well. In the past, I also used Sufferfest (Now Wahoo Systm), Rouvy, Kinomap and BKool, but none has a good total package IMO – ok graphics, some other riders, interesting routes, useable free tier or cheap subscription for low usage.

Alternatively, you can just use your Head-Unit: In the past, I also just made custom workouts or downloaded them for free from TrainerDay (formerly known as ErgDB). You can upload these workouts onto your Garmin or Wahoo device and use them to control your indoor trainer via ERG mode.


Let me know, if you have any suggestions for other apps or websites!