Got Another App You Love,

There are more cycling apps for Android and Apple phones than ever, ranging from highly analytical training tools to simpler social apps and useful navigational resources. For some — Google Maps, for instance — you’ll need to have your device on the handlebars to take full advantage. For others, like Strava, you can just press start, put your phone in your jersey pocket, and go. Here are our picks of the best Android and iPhone apps for cycling. Some are free, some are not, and some are free up front with an option to buy more bells and whistles. Fair warning: any GPS-based app will tax your phone's battery, so these are generally better suited to shorter rides — or carrying extra batteries! While you can use Strava like a cycle computer on your phone, most riders use a Garmin to record and upload their rides and then use the app to see what their friends are up to. All rides uploaded to Strava deliver automatic rankings of your times over popular stretches — known as segments in Strava-speak — of road and trail, with a GPS map of where you rode.

The premium edition facilitates decent post-ride analysis, too, with the ability to map out future rides and get real-time feedback. The real-time feature, which tells you how fast you are tracking on a selected segment, such as the local hard climb, works on smartphones but also newer Garmin Edge computers, too. BikeRadar is on Strava. Strava’s special sauce is the slick social component. Much like Facebook, you can follow your friends and see where and how hard they’re riding, leave comments and give kudos on their rides, and post photos with your own rides. That we would include our own bike repair app, co-authored by Haynes and BikeRadar’s finest tech minds should come as no surprise! The Road Manual App app features dozens of videos, hundreds of images that clearly illustrate steps and more than 40,000 words detailing every workshop task you can think of. Better still, more tutorials will be added every month.

While not a downloadable app, MyWindsock is a properly nerdy, mobile-compatible web app that will delight KOM-hunting Strava nerds the world over. The app pulls weather data from the cloud and overlays a heat map of where you are most likely to encounter head, cross and tailwinds over a Strava segment or ride. This allows you to focus your efforts on segments that will have the most advantageous wind, or, if you’re a real TT-freak, alter your setup for a race depending on the conditions. Totally nerdy, totally brilliant. A coffee and cake stop is a cycling tradition, but making sure you get a decent cup is key. Beanhunter was started in Australia but now covers cafes in pretty much every corner of the world. Perhaps the biggest draw of this app is the fact that it plays nicely with others. It pairs easily with Bluetooth sensors such as heart-rate monitors, speed sensors and progressive power meters, including Stages.

If you’re an engineer, or just a data hound, you’ll love the number-heavy presentation of the app, too, with eight customizable pages of data on speed, power, heart rate and more. Plus, there’s a GPS map — though it burns through the battery pretty quickly. The app can also be used indoors — with the Kickr power trainer, a best-in-class indoor trainer. With an internet connection, a trainer and device compatible with the app, riders across the world can ride with and even race each other inside the world of Zwift. As well as being a highly functional training tool, the game promotes social interaction and is a great way to break up the tedium of indoor riding. There is currently no Android version of the app, but it is in the works. Cyclemeter turns your iPhone into a great cycling computer — if you’re down with putting your iPhone on your handlebars that is.