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Getting Started

Install

Download Cycle Log from the Play Store. (Link coming soon)

When you start your first ride, the app will request location permission. Tap While using the app — that is all Cycle Log needs. Android 13 and newer will also ask permission to show notifications. Allowing it lets you see the recording indicator, but declining does not affect recording.

While a ride is recording, Cycle Log keeps a notification in your status bar. That notification is what lets recording continue with the screen off or the phone in a bag. It starts when you start a ride and disappears the moment you pause or stop, and Cycle Log has no background-location permission — so when no ride is recording, the app cannot see your location at all.

Your first ride

  1. Add a cycle from the Cycles tab if you haven't yet — your first cycle automatically becomes the active one.
  2. Open the Ride tab. The active cycle's name is shown at the top — tap it to ride a different cycle. (You can also set the active cycle by opening a cycle on the Cycles tab and tapping Set as Active.)
  3. Tap Start to begin recording.
  4. The dashboard shows your current speed, distance, elapsed time, elevation, and gradient. Swipe left for the live map and more metric pages.
  5. Tap Pause to pause the timer mid-ride and tap Resume to continue — or enable Auto-pause in Settings to have this happen automatically when you stop and start moving.
  6. Started on the wrong cycle? Tap the cycle name at the top during a ride to reassign the ride in progress. The ⋮ menu lets you mark a point of interest or send a check-in message to your emergency contact.
  7. Tap Stop to finish the ride. The ride is saved automatically.

Make the dashboard yours

Every ride page's metric tiles are customizable. While not recording, tap the edit icon on the Ride tab to choose which metrics appear — including odometer, calories, clock, and battery.

Adding cycles

  1. Open the Cycles tab.
  2. Tap the + button.
  3. Enter the cycle name (required) and any optional details: brand, model, type, weight, serial number, year, acquisition date, purchase price and location, retired date, and notes.
  4. Tap Save.

You can add as many cycles as you like. To pick which one you're riding, tap the cycle name at the top of the Ride tab.

Log entries

On each cycle's detail page, tap Add entry to log anything you want to remember about that cycle — a service or repair, a new component, an upgrade, or any other note. Each entry has a title, optional notes, and the date it happened, so you can keep a running history for each cycle.

Connecting Strava

To upload rides to Strava:

  1. Open Settings → Strava and tap Connect with Strava.
  2. Authorize Cycle Log in the browser that opens.

Once connected, open any ride in the History tab, tap the export icon, and choose Upload to Strava.

Importing rides

  1. Open the History tab.
  2. Tap the import button in the lower right.
  3. Select one or more .gpx or .fit files (Garmin/Wahoo), or a .zip containing them, using the system file picker.

Single files show a preview before importing; bulk selections show a per-file list where likely duplicates — rides you already have — are flagged and unchecked automatically. You can also share a ride file to Cycle Log from any other app and it opens straight into the import screen.

Lossless round trip

GPX files exported by Cycle Log carry everything the app knows about a ride — title, notes, cycle, commute flag, ride timer, points of interest, heart rate/cadence/power, and elevation details. Importing one of your own exports restores the ride exactly as it was, so GPX files double as a per-ride backup or a way to move individual rides between devices.

Emergency contact

In Settings → Emergency Contact, save a phone number to enable the mid-ride check-in. During a ride, choose Send status update from the ⋮ menu — it opens your SMS app with a pre-filled "checking in" message that includes a map link to your current location. Nothing is sent until you press send.

Units

Go to Settings and toggle between Imperial (miles, mph, feet) and Metric (km, km/h, meters). The change applies everywhere immediately.

Backing up your data

Cycle Log keeps everything on your device — there's no account to create and nothing is uploaded automatically. Because your rides live only on your device, it's worth backing them up regularly:

  1. Open Settings → Data → Back up database. This saves a copy of your database that you can share or store wherever you like (a cloud drive, email, another device).
  2. To restore — for example on a new device — use Settings → Data → Restore from backup and pick a saved file.

The Home screen reminds you to back up once you've recorded several rides since your last backup. You can adjust how often it reminds you, or turn it off, in Settings → Data → Backup reminder.