The apps and websites below are to help you on your next adventure bike trip – map your bike ride, record your ride, play it back as video, find a warm shower and place to stay, keep an eye on the weather and more…

Bike Tracks

Think Strava, now remove most of the social media stuff from it. If you just want a fully feature bike tracker – no likes or comments – this is the one for you. There is a companion version for skiing too. The app backs up to the developer’s cloud and allows you to import and export ride data ie. as KML and GPX files. Apple watch’s health app will pick up data from Bike Tracks.

Strava

Strava is designed for tracking and sharing physical activities, particularly cycling, running and hiking. It uses GPS data from smartphones or smartwatches to record your workouts, providing detailed stats such as distance, speed, elevation and route maps. Users can record their daily activities, set personal goals, track their progress and analyze performance over time.

Strava also has an optional strong social component, allowing users to “follow” with friends, compete in challenges, give and receive “kudos” (encouragement) and share achievements. You can share your actives or just keep them to yourself. Segments, which are user-defined sections of a route, enable friendly competition with leaderboards to see how you rank against others who have completed the same stretch.

Ride With GPS

Ride with GPS is a cycling-focused app designed to help users plan, navigate, and analyze their rides. It allows cyclists to create detailed route maps with turn-by-turn directions, which can be followed using a smartphone, GPS device, or printed cue sheets. The app also tracks key data such as distance, speed, elevation, and ride duration, helping users review and improve their performance.

Unlike some apps, Ride with GPS emphasizes route planning and navigation, offering tools for creating custom routes, discovering new paths, and sharing routes with friends or fellow cyclists. It also provides offline navigation options for use in areas without cellular service, making it a valuable tool for cyclists exploring unfamiliar or remote regions.

Relive

Relive is a phone app that backs into your other fitness apps, gets path information and then animates it for you in 3D with a profile graph and way points. The basic app is free. Pay to unlock more features and controls. The video below was made on an iPhone using iMovie and a collection of videos outoutted by Relive.

My Maps

My Maps is a Google property, see https://mymaps.google.com. MyMaps sit underneath Google maps and is a place where you can build your own maps. Specifically you can:

• import KML and GPX files (open source files specifically from location data)
• add your own pins to a map
• add descriptions, icons and colour code pins
• then you can share your map/s with other Gmail and website users…. these functions are especially handy if you travel a lot

Here is an embedded example, The Great Taste Trail in Nelson

Warm Showers

Warmshowers is a community of touring cyclists and those that support them. WS is a registered non-profit organization based in Colorado. Their website and app provides the technology for reciprocal hospitality for cyclists and hosts – sort of like AirBnB for cyclists.  What once started as a spreadsheet of names is now a community of more than 185,000 users across the globe. 

Metservice

This is the NZ government’s official metrological service and app. Possibly the most useful feature of the app is the rain radar – essential to check before you head off into the bush. The weather warnings are good too, giving plenty of time in advance. You can swap your location manually if the app is not set to allow access to your location. The inn app ads can be a little annoying.
Pro: official NZ service app. Shows approaching fronts clearly.

NZ Great Rides

NZ Great Rides is the companion app to the NZ Cycle Trail website. The app divides up NZ’s 23 great rides and allows you to download a single trail’s information before you depart and thereafter it is available offline – very handy when you are out of cell range. The app can:

• To track your position along the trail using your phone’s GPS.
• Showing key stops on the trail with photos and descriptions.
• Providing information about trail sections with elevation profiles.
• Identifying bike-related services to help you along your ride.

Pro: official app, works anywhere

Trail Forks

The Trailforks app is a map based database of 400,000 cycle trails. Riders can contribute their ride data and then local trail associations have the control to approve & curate the data.

The base app is free but limited to one trail area you select. The is a $3NZ monthly charge if you want the “Pro” version which opens up worldwide trails and features.

The Trailforks app is the mobile companion to the http://www.trailforks.com website.
Pro: its easy to get lost in a bike park as you get turned around a lot. Trailforks will locate you on a map… show you the way to the carpark.