All that a die-hard cyclist needs

Cyclists have been saying it for ages: Two wheels are better than four, for the health of the rider and the environment alike. And with cycling’s popularity on the rise, numerous apps have appeared to support the activity.

Strava is perhaps the best known of these - and for good reason, as it is a good all-around app for tracking and analyzing your bike rides. Its excellence begins with its well-designed, minimalist interface, whose readable displays and clear menus make it easy to use.

At its core is a “record” page where, with the touch of a few buttons, you can use GPS to keep track of every bicycle ride you take. Strava shows basic data like distance traveled, average speed and location. That information can be reached with just a few taps and swipes on the screen, perfect if you like to mount your phone on your bike or strap it to your arm.

Strava also has a strong social element, so you can share your performance or time over a certain route with friends using the app and join in with mass social cycling challenges like “ride 100 kilometers in May.” You can even search among the app’s shared routes to see if there are any near where you are planning to ride.

As part of a recent update, Strava even gained some simple Apple Watch interactions like displaying your current ride time, distance and speed.

With a paid upgrade, you can get in-ride updates comparing your segment times over certain routes with other users’, and gain access to other features, like being able to enter your own progress goals. These extras cost $6 (Rs 381) a month or $60 (Rs 3,814) for a year; the basic app is free for both iOS and Android devices.

If you like the idea of Strava but are looking for a simpler ride logger, Road Bike, by Runtastic, is an excellent option. Free for iOS and Android devices, Road Bike does many of the things Strava does, including GPS-based performance tracking, interfacing with some third-party heart rate monitors and providing some real-time and postride analytics about performance. It also has social sharing services, including asking your friends for “cheers to enhance your motivation as you show them how far and fast you’ve gone.

Road Bike’s interface is more cluttered, since it tries to show more information at once. Whether this is a good thing will depend on how you like to use your phone during a ride, and you can configure some aspects of Road Bike’s display to suit your needs. It, too, offers a pro version, which for $5 (Rs 317) gives access to a fuller range of features including live tracking of your progress.

Runtastic has a partner app called Mountain Bike for those who prefer trails to streets. Bikers can, for example, search for off-road routes. Like Road Bike, it syncs with your Runtastic account, so all your two-wheeled exercise on- and off-road can be logged in one place. The main app is free for iOS and Android.

More casual cyclists may prefer MapMyRide, an early cycling app that has been significantly updated over the years to compete with its better-known rivals.

True to its name, MapMyRide shows your real-time cycling progress on a map with some basic speed and distance statistics. This at-a-glance “Where am I?” and “How far have I gone?” style is visually appealing.

After your ride, you can view more detailed information, like calories burned and data on your performance. There’s also support for wireless heart rate sensors and social sharing of your results and overall riding progress. The main part of the app is free for iOS and Android, though if you pay $6 (Rs 381) for the upgrade, you can avoid the ads found in the free version and gain extra features including personalised training plans and analysis of your heart rate.

Lastly, weather is always a critical part of any cycle ride. So riders will certainly benefit from checking the hyperlocal forecasts offered as part of the Dark Sky app before setting off. Dark Sky is $4 (Rs 254) for iOS.