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The not-so-ultimate guide to tracking cycling

I’ve been thinking about buying a new bicycle recently, so naturally my next thought was how to track my cycling time. I did some research to find the best apps for tracking cycling, and these are what I found.

If I missed your favourite cycling tracker, let me know on Twitter or via email.

There’s been some exciting new cycling tech released recently, too, so I’ve included some interesting gadgets you might find useful.

Apps to track your cycling

The easiest way to start tracking anything is generally to grab an app for your phone. Before we get into fancy (and expensive) hardware, let’s take a look at some popular apps for tracking cycling.

Velopal, iOS

Velopal is designed to work like a stopwatch. It sports a super-simple interface with big buttons to start and stop tracking, and a goal meter that you can set based on distance, time, or calories burned.

Velopal includes simple charts and breaks down your data into manageable bites, like your best, worst, and average times, and your average speed. It also includes a colourful calendar view to help you explore past exercise.

Strava, iOS, Android, Web

Update: Exist now has a Strava integration! You can sync your workout data from Strava to your Exist account to see how workouts affect (and are affected by) your eating and sleeping habits, your mood, the music you listen to, and more. Get started by creating an Exist account.

Strava is designed to track both running and cycling using the GPS in your phone. As well as tracking your own activities, it includes social features so you can challenge your friends and share photos from your activities. (I always wondered how people manage to take photos while running or cycling. Do you actually stop exercising to take your phone out of the arm band, snap a pic, then bundle it up again to keep running? Seems like a lot of effort to me.)

Strava has some interesting “extra” features, like letting you keep tabs on your bike maintenance (and shoe life, if you’re a runner), discovery of local routes for riding, and segment competition—that is, you can compete against locals for the best time on a particular strip within your route.

MapMyRide, iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Web

If you’re looking for a cross-platform app, MapMyRide certainly has you covered. As part of the MapMyFitness family, MapMyRide belongs right alongside similar apps like MapMyWalk, MapMyHike, and MapMyRun.

MayMyRide uses GPS to plot your ride on a map, and saves duration, distance, pace, speed, and elevation stats in a training log so you can look back over your progress later.

Cyclemeter, iOS, Apple Watch

For in-depth charts, graphs, and recording a wealth of data, Cyclemeter is a great choice. It’s available on iOS with an Apple Watch counterpart that lets you start and stop rides and keep track of your speed while riding.

The iPhone app is built for more than just cycling—you can use it for running, walking, and even skiing. The app has built-in training plans for running, automatic stop detection for cycling, and even supports interval training.

Some features require an upgrade to “Elite”, but if charts and data are your thing, or you want an app that covers all of the sports you enjoy, you can try Cyclemeter for free to see if it suits you.

Moves, iOS, Android

Moves is your go-to app if you want to track all your activity without putting in any effort. Though it’s known for being a battery hog, if you can wear the drain on your phone’s charge you can track where you go and how you get there on a timeline without telling the app what you’re doing all the time.

Moves includes walking, running, cycling and transport (train, bus, car, etc.) tracking and automatically detects each one. It shows you time, distance, and calories burned.

Hardware to track your cycling

If an app’s not enough for you, one of these hardware choices could upscale your bike to cover cycling tracking and much more.

Connected Cycle pedals

The smart pedal from Connected Cycle focuses on two main objectives: tracking your riding stats, and preventing bike theft. The pedal was funded on Indiegogo, but is available in limited countries due to the built-in SIM with unlimited data. This means the pedal doesn’t need to talk to your phone to connect to the internet, but so far it’s only feasible for customers in the U.S., the EU, Switzerland, Russia, China, Israel, and Norway.

Beyond being self-reliant for internet connection and battery, the pedal uses GPS to track the location of your bike, tracks riding stats including route, calories burned, speed curve, and incline curve, and notifications if anyone touches your bike while it’s parked.

The Copenhagen Wheel

The Copenhagen Wheel was initially designed at MIT in 2009 to turn any bike into a smart hybrid electric vehicle. It’s now being pre-sold by Superpedestrian. The wheel is a red hub that fits onto the back wheel of any standard bicycle and includes a built-in motor and battery. This hub stores energy through a regenerative braking system that can be used to give you a boost of power when you need it.

The wheel can track riding stats like distance travelled, calories burned, and elevation climbed, and locks itself when you leave your bike to prevent theft.

COBI

The COBI system is more complicated than a single wheel or pedal attachment, but it packs in a lot more features, too.

It starts with a mount that includes a headlight (available in four designs to match your bike: mountain-biker, racer, city cruiser, and urban minimalist) and phone dock for the centre of your handlebars. The dock doesn’t just hold your phone, though—it charges it for you.

There’s also a thumb controller to add to your handlebars so you can adjust your music without taking your eyes off the road.

Finally, there’s a light for the back of your bike that includes an automatic brake light and light-up turn signals.

Other built-in features include a motion-sensitive theft alarm, turn-by-turn directions, and ride stats including cadence, calories burned, distance, elevation, speed, and heart rate.

Valour

Or perhaps you want a whole new bike. If so, why not buy a connected bike, rather than adding additional hardware?

The Valour bike has built-in sensors to track and record your distance travelled, speed, best times, calories burned, and more. The bike has a matching app for iOS, Android, and Pebble to help you keep track of your data.

Like most of these hardware options, the Valour bike also has some functionality beyond tracking. The network of Valour users can help you locate your bike if it’s stolen, by alerting you when your stolen bike is close to another Valour (only useful if there are lots around you, I’d say). It also has haptic feedback built-in to help you notice obstacles or other vehicles in your blind spots, and it has LED indicators to signal to other vehicles when you’re turning.

The Valour was crowdfunded on Kickstarter, and the latest update says the bikes should start shipping in July 2015.

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I’m pretty excited by all the new hardware available for cyclists, but I think I’ll start by just trying out an app for tracking my rides.

If I missed something that should be on the list, let me know by tweeting at @ExistApp.

Image credits: MacRumors, Strava, Ciudadano, TheAppleGoogle, Vanhawks, Connected Cycle, inhabitat, iCradle, Inc., Top Apps, Alexander Shustov