Help and FAQ

Everything you need to prepare a bike route with Ciclium and take it to your bike computer.

Drawing the route

1. Choose your bike (road, gravel, MTB or city). Each profile looks for different paths: road favours low-traffic asphalt and MTB goes for tracks and trails. Tick Avoid hills if you prefer flatter detours.
2. Click on the map to set the start and keep adding points. Each section follows roads, tracks and bike lanes for your type of bike.
3. Drag the line to reroute it wherever you like. Points are moved by dragging and deleted with a click.
4. Click the start to close a loop. The ⋯ menu also has Out and back and Reverse direction.
5. In the search box, the + button adds a place as the next point of the route.

Automatic loop

If you don't know where to go, open Automatic loop, enter the distance and, if you like, which way to head out. Choose the start with My location, with Pick on the map (clicking on the map or searching for the address) or by dragging the house icon; it is remembered for next time. Ciclium looks for a loop that starts and ends there (if you don't choose a start, at the first point of your route or the centre of the map), following the bike type you chose and avoiding riding the same road out and back. If you don't like it, click Another option; if it's almost right, edit it by dragging the line.

As you draw you see the distance, estimated time, elevation gain, elevation profile, climbs, road type and surface. Hover over the route or the profile to see the kilometre and altitude of each point.

What each figure means

Estimated time

Enter your speed on flat ground. Ciclium works out the power that matches that speed and applies it to each section according to its gradient, using a physical model (weight, rolling resistance and air drag differ for each bike type). Stops are not included.

Climbs and categories

Climbs of at least 300 m, 25 m of elevation gain and 3% average are detected. The category is calculated as on Strava, multiplying the length (m) by the average gradient (%):

Category	Score	Example
4	from 8,000	2 km at 4%
3	from 16,000	4 km at 4%
2	from 32,000	5 km at 6.5%
1	from 64,000	10 km at 6.5%
HC	from 80,000	12 km at 7%

Roads and surfaces

Ciclium checks the surface and road type along the whole route and warns you about what matters for your bike: unpaved sections on a road bike, trails that may be technical on a gravel bike, long stretches of asphalt on an MTB, and motorways or busier roads in any case. Click an alert to see that section on the map. Full breakdown has all the percentages.

The data comes from OpenStreetMap; if a path has no surface recorded it shows as No data. You can colour the route on the map by gradient, road type, surface or wind.

Weather and wind

Pick a start time and Ciclium checks the Open-Meteo forecast for the estimated time you pass each point: temperature, chance of rain and whether the wind will be a headwind, crosswind or tailwind. The forecast covers up to 16 days ahead.

Water and services

Find drinking water fountains, bike shops and repair stations, and bars or cafés along the route. The data comes from OpenStreetMap and some may be missing, so don't rely on a single fountain for a long summer ride.

Loading the route on your device

Exporting requires a free account (the app asks you to create one the first time). Export offers two formats:

• GPX: the standard. Any GPS, bike computer or app accepts it. It includes altitude, summits and water fountains as waypoints.
• TCX with cues: made for Garmin. Besides the track it carries turn alerts, summits with their category and water fountains, which the Edge shows as you approach.

Garmin Edge

• By cable: connect the Edge to your computer, copy the file into the Garmin/NewFiles folder and disconnect it. The route will appear under Courses.
• With Garmin Connect: on the website, go to Training & Planning › Courses, click Import and send the course to the device.

Wahoo ELEMNT (BOLT, ROAM, ACE)

Export the GPX on your phone, open it (from Files, email or downloads) and share it with the ELEMNT app, which sends it to the bike computer. You can also upload it to Komoot, Strava or RideWithGPS and sync it from there.

Hammerhead Karoo

In the Hammerhead web dashboard, go to Routes and import the GPX. It syncs to the Karoo when it connects to wifi.

Strava, Komoot and other apps

They all let you import a GPX from their website. This is handy if you already sync your bike computer with one of them.

Your routes

• Nothing is lost on reload: the current route is saved automatically in your browser.
• My routes: in the ⋯ menu, Save to My routes (you need a free account). They are stored in your account and sync automatically across your devices: log in with the same email on your phone or another computer and they will be there. From the list you can open, download as GPX or TCX and delete each route.
• Sharing: Share link creates an address with the route inside. Whoever opens it sees the same route and can edit their own copy.
• Importing: open a GPX or TCX from the menu or drop it on the map. If you install Ciclium as an app, you can open .gpx files directly with it.

Frequently asked questions

Is Ciclium free? Do I need to sign up?

Yes, it is free. To create routes you need a free account: it only asks for an email and a password, and you confirm the email with the link we send you. With it you save your routes, export them as GPX or TCX and have them on your phone, tablet or any computer. Routes shared with you by link can be viewed without an account.

Why is a section drawn as a straight line?

Because the routing service could not find a path between those two points (for example, if one is in the middle of a field) or did not respond in time. Move the point slightly onto a road or path, or try again.

Why doesn't the elevation gain match another app exactly?

Each service uses a different elevation model and filtering. Ciclium takes the altitude every 30 m from the Valhalla routing service, smooths it slightly and ignores changes of less than 3 m so as not to add noise. Differences of 5–10% are normal.

Does it work on mobile and offline?

It works on any phone and can be installed as an app from the browser. The app opens offline, but the map, routing and forecast need an internet connection.

Where does the data come from?

Maps and paths: OpenStreetMap and its contributors (with styles from Stadia Maps, CARTO, CyclOSM, OpenTopoMap, IGN Spain and Esri). Routing and elevation: Valhalla and OSRM. Weather: Open-Meteo. Places: Photon (Komoot). Water and services: Overpass API.