BikeOtterFind POIs along the whole route new to the category
Pick a category and search the whole route at once, not just what’s around you — stops come back in the order you’ll reach them.
The feature book
Nine chapters. Each one opens with the thing it describes, then lists what else lives there.
Stops that matter
Find the water, coffee and food along your whole route — and whether it’ll still be open when you get there.
“Will it be open when I get there?” new to the category
Every stop is checked against the time you’ll actually arrive. Move your start time and the answers move with it.
What the stop actually costs new to the category
How far the detour really is, and which side of the road it’s on.
The caveats that would waste the detour new to the category
Seasonal, fee, customers only — and the good news too: repairs, a pump, free water. Water you can’t drink never makes the list.
Fifty-five stop categories, not just the common five
Water, food, coffee, viewpoint and generic are one tap away, and fifty more sit behind a searchable page.
Plan & carry routes
Draw a route on the map, browse what your bike computer already carries, and keep a library on your phone.
Draw a route in the app new to the category
Tap waypoints on the map, pick trekking, fast bike or shortest, and see distance and climbing before you commit.
A library that lives on your phone new to the category
Your routes stay on your phone, searchable and sorted by recent or nearest. A ride you finished can become a route you ride again.
Browse the routes on your bike computer new to the category
See the routes your bike computer is already carrying, and tap one to pull it into your library.
Take the route offline new to the category
Download a route’s map — hillshade and contours included — plus its stops, so the whole thing keeps working with zero signal.
Bend the route
Add a place to the route you’re already riding, without redrawing the rest of it.
Splice a place into the route two ways new to the category
Pick a place and either re-plan from there to the finish, or take a there-and-back that rejoins where you left off.
Type an address or a business name new to the category
“Marktplatz Stuttgart”, or just “bakery”, finds real places near you — or share a pin straight in from Google or Apple Maps.
Send it to the bike computer
Phone to device over Bluetooth, stops intact, cue noise under your control.
Push a route over Bluetooth, no cloud new to the category
Straight from your phone to the bike computer — no cloud, no cable — and the unit starts navigating the moment it lands.
Your stops ride along new to the category
The stops you marked travel with the route and show up on the device as you ride past them.
Thin, strip or re-time the turn cues new to the category
An imported route is mostly cue noise. Keep every cue, keep only the turns that need a decision, or strip them for a clean line.
Rides come back
Every ride in one list, pulled off the bike computer over Bluetooth and uploaded to Strava on its own.
One list, wherever the ride is. new to the category
Every ride in one list, whether it’s already on your phone or still on the bike computer.
Download rides off the bike computer. new to the category
Pull finished rides across over Bluetooth — one, or all of them at once.
It tells you when you forgot to un-pause. new to the category
Pause at a junction, ride on, and your bike computer records an hour of nothing without a word. BikeOtter puts a message on its screen.
Strava auto-upload that survives the real world.
Opt in and your rides upload themselves, oldest first.
Weather, Sun & Rain Radar
The forecast for where you’ll be when you get there — and a sunscreen reminder that follows the sun.
And the full report: temperature range, wind verdict, the wet stretch.
The forecast where and when you’ll actually be there. new to the category
Headwind and tailwind for the direction you’ll be riding, at the hour you’ll be there — not the wind at the car park, now.
The start-time advisor. new to the category
It looks across the next 12 hours and tells you the best time to set off. One tap moves your plan to it.
Ride it the other way for the wind. new to the category
Headwind out, tailwind home? It offers to flip the route — one tap, no refetch. Quiet when the wind’s already at your back.
Rain radar, on the elevation profile’s own timeline. new to the category
Two hours measured, four forecast, under your route. Drag the profile and the rain moves with your thumb — so you see whether it gets there before you do.
Warnings pushed to the bike computer’s screen. new to the category
Rain, headwind, gusts and temperature swings — on the screen before you ride into them.
Storm risk on the road ahead. new to the category
On the screen while there’s still a junction to take it at, pinned to where the risk starts. From the forecast, so a heads-up and not a lightning detector.
A sunscreen reminder that models the sun. new to the category
Set your skin type and the bike computer nudges you to reapply, on a clock that follows the UV and only runs while you’re out in it.
Rules that speak up
Your own alerts on the screen in front of you — and quiet when you’re descending fast.
—and the preview shows the exact words that land on the screen.
A trigger→message engine that writes to the bike computer’s screen. new to the category
Alerts of your own on the screen in front of you, with presets for drinking, eating, heart-rate zones, weather and sunscreen. On Android, phone notifications can ride along too.
Build your own rule, or retune one you have. new to the category
Choose what sets it off, what the device says, and how often it may repeat.
It won’t distract you riding downhill. new to the category
Above 40 km/h on a descent nothing interrupts you — messages wait and arrive once you level out. Rain and gust warnings still come straight through.
Let them follow along
A live link friends can follow for the whole ride — and message you back on.
Group rides: everyone on one shared map, live.
“Let them follow along”, straight from your phone. new to the category
Flip the switch and friends open a link — no account, no app — and watch your ride move on a map. It expires by itself after six hours.
They hear that you got there. new to the category
Whoever you sent the link to gets a note when the ride ends — distance, time, when you got in. Optionally one before you arrive.
Progress that can’t run backwards. new to the category
A wrong turn or an out-and-back can’t rewind it, and a rider who stopped shows PAUSED rather than a dot that quietly went still.
A tunnel, a restart or an expiry doesn’t kill the link. new to the category
A long valley costs you the valley and nothing more, and a session that ran out mid-ride comes back on the same link.
Group rides. new to the category
Ride together and see everyone on one map — join by link or QR code, ten riders for twelve hours. Made for event day, with your people at home watching too.
Nobody gets left behind. new to the category
Group-ride companions show up on the bike computer’s own map, not just the phone. Those up the road are tagged markers — JB, JB2 if shared; those beside you stay off it. ROAM and BOLT, V1 and V2.
Your bike computer lost the ride? Rebuild it from the live track. new to the category
While you share a link, your phone keeps its own copy of the ride — so a unit that comes back empty isn’t the end of it. Rebuild it into your history, ready for Strava.
Friends can message you mid-ride, not just watch. new to the category
Anyone you allow gets a message box on your tracking page. A fresh message reaches the bike computer’s screen; the rest wait in the app.
Intervals
Structured efforts a bike computer can’t run — placed only where the road holds them, cued on its screen.
Placed where the road can hold them new to the category
Set reps, effort and recovery; each lands only on road steady enough to ride it — no descents, no hairpins — and the plan says so, honestly, when they don’t all fit.
Cued on the bike computer’s own screen new to the category
As you reach each effort the unit shows it on its screen — a heads-up, the start, the end — a structured workout on a device that can’t run one.
So much more
Not everything earns a chapter. These ship all the same — and the last word goes to you.
Find my device.
Make the unit buzz when it’s under the café table or in the wrong jersey pocket. Works on a Garmin too.
Your ride survives the bike computer that recorded it. new to the category
While the unit records, your phone keeps its own copy — so a flat battery or a crash doesn’t cost you the ride. Free, because losing a ride is not a thing to charge for.
Share a ride as the file the other end wants. new to the category
GPX for the line, FIT for the workout — power, heart rate, laps.
Your RideWithGPS library, in the app.
Browse your saved routes and pull one straight in — with its turn-by-turn cues, which a route imported from Strava can’t carry.
Open a GPX or FIT from anywhere.
Tap a route file in a file manager, or share it in from any app, and it opens in the editor ready to ride.
An arrival estimate that reads the road ahead. new to the category
Rather than dividing what’s left by your average speed, it works out what the climbs still to come will cost you.
See the surface before you ride. new to the category
Paved, gravel or rough — drawn along the route and the climb, with a breakdown. Works whether you draw the route in the app or bring one in from anywhere.
A full weather report for the whole ride. new to the category
Temperature range, the worst of it pinned to a time and a place, and wind named head, tail or cross for the way you’ll be going.
Share a route as a group ride, not just a file. new to the category
Share the whole plan instead of a file — the route, your start time, even the forecast. Everyone who joins gets it in their own library with one tap.
Only the apps you chose reach the bars. new to the category
Pick which apps get through — messengers on, the parcel tracker off — and calls always come through.
Pick the route now, send it whenever the unit turns up. new to the category
Queue the route and BikeOtter sends it the moment your bike computer next connects.
Your wish goes here.
Half of this book started as somebody’s request, and we are eager to hear what you are missing. Put it on the wishlist, or vote on what other riders have asked for.
Open the wishlist →Also in this release
Two things taking shape alongside the rest, and one thing left out on purpose.
Structured workouts, built on the phone.
Build intervals by time, distance or open-ended, with power, heart-rate or cadence targets, then send the workout to the bike computer.
A second head-unit family, now in beta: Garmin.
Sending a route to an Edge 540 works today, along with pairing and making the unit beep. Ride download, workouts and on-screen alerts are on their way.
Two things deliberately left out.
No live dashboard on the phone — the bike computer is the instrument, and a phone is the worst place to repeat it. And no segments, until they can be done properly.