I've been biking frequently during the past couple of months, and within that time, I have tried out several biking apps available in the App Store. Since there aren't too many apps in this category, I was able to carefully examine each one of them. While not all are worthy of your iPhone's storage, I found a handful of stand-outs, which I have enumerated here in honor of National Bike Month. As May comes to a close, it's a great time to rev up your biking activities with these apps!
1. Runkeeper (Free)
Runkeeper is top on my list of iOS biking apps simplly because it has a 99 percent accuracy rate when recording my biking stats. These include distance, speed, pace, and even calories I've burned from a bike ride. The app works pretty straightforward as well. Just fire it up, tap the "Start Activity" button, and off you go.
The app's geo-mapping feature is one of the best I've tried so far. Runkeeper also lets you upgrade to Elite membership for a fee. This allows you to enjoy more advanced features of the app including live broadcast of your biking activity on social networking sites so your friends and family can keep track of your whereabouts. If you're biking to work and the route you usually take is not yet in the Runkeeper collection of routes, you can add it yourself later on.
2. Strava Cycling (Free)
Strava keeps track of all your bike rides. It lets you monitor tracks you've conquered and analyze your performance during your rides. The app also lets you compare your biking stats with other bikers. I've used Strava a couple of times and found it to be a pretty good biking app.
3. Runtastic Mountain Bike PRO GPS Cycling Computer (Free)
Boasting 10 million users, this app lets you track your rides, races, and training workouts. It records important stats of your mountain biking activity such as duration, distance, altitude, calories, and time spent biking. The app also has live tracking, which enables you to share your progress with friends. The online and offline maps of these apps are also helpful. Runtastic MTB Pro GPS Cycling app is available in both free and paid PRO versions ($4.99).
4. Map My Ride (Free)
Also available in free and paid PRO versions ($2.99), Map My Ride is also a pretty good app to try out. It easily tracks route, speed, distance, calories, time with audio alerts, as well as local routes you may want to try conquering with your bike. The app's PRO version adds live friend tracking, audio coaching, interval training, and other advanced features.
5. Nimbler SF (Free)
The last biking app on our list happens to be the most useful if you're biking to work and you're located in the San Francisco Bay area. It features real-time arrival predictions for BART and AC transit and has point-to-point routing for the entire Bay Area. The app also gives you helpful advisories about major delays and fastest, safest, or flattest routes to your transit station.
I hope you've enjoyed this biking app round-up in celebration of National Bike Month. Whether you're biking to work, biking for relaxation, or for sport, you should find one or two of these apps useful.
