Cycling Apps Round Up
We know a lot of our customers live an active lifestyle, cycling in particular. That is why we offer specific accessories geared just toward that sport. In fact, we even sponsor several races as Team Rokform. As an avid cyclist, having the right gear, like a Rokform BikeMount, is important, but having the right apps makes the complete package. To give you a head start here is a round-up of some useful bike-centric apps for iPhone. Some are more popular than others, but if you have more suggestions, feel free to give us a shout on Twitter @Rokform.
Strava
Like many top cycling apps, Strava allows riders to track their rides with the iPhone’s built-in GPS. While riding, a real-time map displays progress and important information like distance, speed, elevation, and calories are accessible. If you have ANT+ or Bluetooth sensors, Strava will connect with them, displaying heart rate, power, and cadence data. Exploring the next ride location is also an option by viewing popular segments in a given geographic location.
Stay social with the leader board functionality. Monthly challenges are posted to push riders further and let them compare with friends, people in the area, or even professional riders. Ride information is also shareable through social media.
Strava is a free download, but to get more, a monthly or annual subscription is necessary. Additional features include tracking friends who are currently riding, instant verbal feedback, and power zone analysis.
Cyclemeter GPS
As a fitness app designed for running and mountain bike tracking, it is interesting Cyclemeter GPS is a universal app for both iPhone and iPad, syncing information across iCloud to keep information matching. The larger iPad screen is useful for analyzing workouts with information populated from the iPhone during a walk, run, or ride.
Cyclemeter records heart rate, bike speed, bike cadence, and power with the right sensors. Customizable stat pages provide views of graphed information and mapping locations. An in-app calendar keeps workouts organized by date, route, and/or activity. It also allows for data to be manipulated by day, week, month, year or overall.
Voice over option provides configurable feedback on milestones, including distance, time, speed, elevation, and heart rate. The announcements are automatically triggered, but can also be accessed on demand through the headphone remote. Voice over is helpful when racing against previous workouts or an imported workout from a friend. Announcements expand to include progress against the other ghosted rider.
To keep you honest, share a work out schedule with those people who motivate you, coaches, family, and friends. They can send back messages, which are read through voice over on the ride or activity. Sharing to social media is built-in, along with full import and export features. Although there is no continual subscription fee, the app is available for $4.99 download.
Map My Ride+
Another contender in the mapping category is Map My Ride+. Clocking in at a lower cost, the + edition eliminates ads, includes GPS camera, and offers iPod controls within the app. Tracking work outs is geared toward cyclists, but also includes 600 additional activities.
Tracking includes speed, map routing, distances, calories, elevation, nutrition with food diet and weight, and real-time stats during workout. Voice over prompts announce progress during the activity and ANT+ Bluetooth sensors are compatible for items like cadence, heart rate, etc.
Local courses will populate in the app and track achievements for overall statistics and leader boards in a given area. Additionally social, posting workouts to social media is an option, but not a requirement. All of the data is stored through the Map My Ride online database, which means information retention requires an account. Map My Ride+ is available for $2.99 in the App Store.
Runtastic Road Bike
Like those mentioned above, Runtastic Road Bike PRO, maps and tracks cycling information during workouts. GPS tracking and history is viewable, including time, distance, speed, elevation, and calories. Stats are viewable on a customizable dashboard, which can be configured to only provide rider preferred information at-a-glance. Live tracking is an option through the velo route function to share rides with friends. If finding a route is tough, a built-in search shows the way.
The app is compatible with velo hardware, like the Speed and Cadence sensor, bike case, armband, and Runtastic branded heart rate monitors. Being velo focused, the dev team argues to offer “the ultimate performance measurement tool for every ride.” If there is any hesitation, a basic version is available for a test run. Otherwise, Runtastic Road Bike PRO is available for $4.99.
Bike Repair
With all of the riding, something is bound to break. With Bike Repair, save money and fix things yourself. Over 300 studio quality photographs walk users through 64 detailed repair guides. If a problem is not covered in-app, ask the community of other Bike Repair users, who can help direct your solution. Search and compare retail store pricing for 13 different locations is built-in to save money on hardware. 87 cycling problems covered and answered to keep riders healthy, like ways to eliminate knee pain.
For the hardware, store information about bike parts, service history, and add reminders for future action items. Additionally, logging information like weather and clothing is optional. Matching proper clothes to weather conditions is important and tracking biking garb in-app provides a way to rate each article for given weather conditions. Pick up Bike Repair in the App Store for $3.99.
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Allie Decker
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