ProBikeGarage - mobile phone app

Equipment
1

I’ve mentioned this on a few threads, but following the latest podcast and the chat about waxed chains I thought I’d create a standalone post.

ProBikeGarage is a mobile phone app that can be used to make bike maintenance really easy. I’ve been using it for around a year now.

You sync it to Strava, and it pulls through all of your ‘gear’ (bikes). All rides assigned to those bikes will add to the distance, time etc spent on that bike. Once the sync is complete you can add ‘components’ to each bike and then you can add any ‘parts’ to any components that you wish. Then, for each component or part, you can add a maintenance schedule (in fact you can add several if you so wish). Then as you use your bike the app will flag when maintenance is required.

Here is an example:

For my new road bike I have the following components set up with their parts and schedules:

Brakes (component) >
Front disc brake pad (part) > service at 2,000km (service interval) - I just use this as a guide to check the pads and reset if okay. You can add comments for each service.
Rear disc brake pad > service at 2,000km
Front rotor > service at 5,000km
Rear rotor > service at 5,00km
Bleed hydraulic system (service interval - on the component)

Front wheel > check hub and bearings (service interval) @ 2,500km & check spokes and true (service interval) @ 1,000km (just a visual check unless more necessary)

Rear wheel > same as above

Cassette > check wear (service interval) @ 3,000km

Chain > Hot wax service @ 800km, Drip wax service @ 125km, Check wear service @ 2,000km
(all service intervals)

Chainring > Check wear @ 10,000km

Front tyre > Sealant @ 180 calendar days
Rear tyre > Sealant @ 180 calendar days

With all of these I can just ride my bike and then I get a notification whenever something nears or exceeds my service intervals. With waxed chain and tubeless, this is effortless once setup. I don’t have to write on my tyres when I applied sealant, I don’t need to keep track of how many miles I’ve cycled each week - I just get told when to do it. I run two waxed chains. So when I hit the 800km interval, I change the chains over and then re-hot wax every 1,500-1,700km. I make a note of what I’m doing so it’s very easy to see if I lose track.

I have a lot of things set up for my new road bike, because I want to keep everything nice and keep everything in it’s best condition. On my other bikes it varies. I have a lot, but not everything, setup for my winter bike and then fewer for my gravel bike. MY gravel bike recently had a new headset - so I added that component but no parts or service intervals, just so I can keep track of when things have been replaced. Once things have reached their life you can retire them, and view retired components/parts.

I love it and find it makes my life easier - so just wanted to share with the TR community properly. hopefully some of you will find it as helpful as I have.

3 Likes
2

i’m a fan!

i currently use it on my android phone where I had an issue with the app not showing my bikes. After a quick email to their support team, they resolved it in a few days.

Nice to see that the developer is actively supporting the app and was even apologetic about the app not working properly. Didn’t think it was really their fault, since my phone (asus) isn’t a big seller and I’ve had lots of experiences saying “your phone isn’t supported”.

1 Like
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Do you have to be a paid Strava member for this to work?

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Nope not at all. I’m not on a subscription and it works beautifully.

It has completely changed how I obsess about bike maintenance. I love it but it’s difficult to keep track of without lots of manual work. This app means I can do all of the setting up and now I don’t have to think about it until notified. I still get to do the maintenance, I just don’t have to spend the energy in working out if it’s required.

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5

Thanks, I’ll check it out. I’m currently using my paid RideWithGPS to track maintenance. But it could definitely be more convenient. Does ProBikeGarage know what bike your ride was done on automatically, like by the power meter ID?

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6

It does track the bike you completed your ride on based on how you’ve set up Strava.

I currently have all outdoor rides going to my new road bike, indoor to my winter bike and gravel (as picked up by my Garmin profile setting) rides to my gravel bike. If I use anything different when recording I just switch on Strava and when it re-syncs it picks up the change on ProBikeGarage. Come winter I’ll change default to my winter bike and make adjustments if I use my road bike. Hope that makes sense :+1:

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Screenshot_20240725-154753
Screenshot_20240725-1547531080×2400 277 KB

This is a screen shot with the sister rides it’s picked up from Strava. You can see it had the bike name with it, so that ride will be agreed to the distance, elapsed time etc for that bike on the app.

1 Like
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This looks great, cheers OP, added my bikes in…

Which brings me to the question how often do cassettes, chain rings etc last riding mostly indoors with wax? I think the defaults in this app assume normal wear and tear from riding outside with mud, dust etc etc

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It’s a great question.

I have several ‘service intervals’ for most things and they are generally conservative for things like cassette wear. I’d much rather have checked it and it’s fine then not and find it’s worn.