Rückenwind — bike navigation with gradient colours, wind and offline maps [iOS, free beta]

Developer here, sharing a public TestFlight link for feedback.

Rückenwind is a bike navigation app for iPhone. The idea: show what's ahead, not just where to turn. The route is coloured by gradient — green flat through to red steep — and while riding you tap or swipe between four cards: turn instruction, elevation profile with your position, next climb (category, metres left, avg/max gradient) and wind relative to your heading.

Other things worth testing:

  • Offroad button — one tap mid-ride reroutes onto tracks and forest paths from your current position
  • Surface breakdown before you start (tarmac, gravel, sand)
  • Arrival times learnt from your own recorded rides instead of a flat assumption
  • Service points announced by voice: "in 700 metres, drinking water"
  • Power-saving mode: map off, screen dimmed, guidance keeps running
  • Offline maps saved automatically along the route
  • Live Activity on Lock Screen and Dynamic Island, plus an Apple Watch app
  • German and English, follows the system language

Technical side, in case it's of interest: SwiftUI and MapKit with custom tile overlays, BRouter for routing and elevation, ActivityKit for the Live Activity, WatchConnectivity for the watch app, and a small tile proxy so no API key ships in the binary.

TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/QJcbg3s9 More: https://rueckenwind.piepgras.de/en.html

What I'd like feedback on: does the turn card stay readable at a glance while moving? Is the Live Activity useful or noisy? Anything that feels off in the watch app? Requires iOS 17.

Rückenwind — bike navigation with gradient colours, wind and offline maps [iOS, free beta]
 
 
Q