Ride mode
Your ride has a tempo.
Load a ride you recorded and Tempo Tunes cuts it into climbs, cruising and descents, each with its own BPM. The playlist changes tempo where the trail does. Free, on the web and in the app.
Your ride
A .fit, .gpx or .tcx from Garmin, Strava and most apps. Climbs, descents and cruising each get their own tempo.
Example ride · 1 h 55 min · 11.2 mi · 2661 ft up
Read in your browser. The file never leaves your device.
Tempo by terrain
Move any tempo. Climbs follow your pedal stroke; descents follow your speed.
Climb
Grinding up. Doubled pedal stroke, 130 to 150 for most riders.
Cruise
Flat riding and stops.
Descent
Coasting fast. Faster music than your legs would pick.
Your playlist
36songs
Music changes where the trail does. Outlasts 1 h 55 min.
Free. Switch on Ride in the app, load the same file, and set the same three tempos.
How the playlist is made
The trail sets the tempo, not the clock. A steady playlist is wrong twice on a mountain bike: too fast for the grind up, too slow for the run back down. Effort and speed move in opposite directions on a bike, and no single BPM fits both. So Ride mode reads the ride first.
Elevation becomes terrain. The file carries altitude and distance every second or so. Tempo Tunes smooths the altitude, measures the grade, and marks every stretch as a climb, a descent, or cruising. Short bumps fold into their neighbors so the music never flips for a single roller.
Each terrain gets its own BPM. Climbs follow your pedal stroke, about 140 to start. Descents follow your speed, about 168. Cruising sits easy at 110. You can move any of the three, and the strip shows what will play where.
The playlist is built to the ride. Every segment gets enough songs to cover its minutes from 2 million tracks with verified BPM, in the genres and artists you pick, with a song to spare at the end so the music outlasts the ride. Play it from the trailhead and it shifts gears with you.
Three tempos, one ride
The starting tempo for each terrain band, and the thinking behind it. The dials above let you move all three.
Climb
140BPM
Grades over 3 percent, for three minutes or more.
A seated climb turns the cranks 65 to 75 times a minute. Double it and the music lands on every pedal stroke, left and right. Most riders settle between 130 and 150.
Cruise
110BPM
Flat riding, rolling terrain, and every stop.
The default is easy, in the pocket, the tempo you would pick for a warm-up. It also covers the summit break and the wait at the gate, so nothing is racing while you are not.
Descent
168BPM
Grades under minus 3 percent, for three minutes or more.
Your legs are barely turning on a descent, so the beat follows the speed instead. Faster music than you would pick by pedal stroke, because that is what the trail feels like.
The example loop above is a real 1 h 55 min ride: 71 minutes of climbing, a summit break, and 30 minutes down.
Questions riders ask
- Which files work?
- A .fit, .gpx or .tcx from Garmin, Wahoo, Strava, Komoot, Ride with GPS, and most apps that record a ride. Garmin's Export File zip and Strava's bulk-export .gz work as they are. The file is read in your browser and never uploaded.
- How do I get the file out of Garmin or Strava?
- Garmin Connect: open the activity, click the gear, Export File (a zip, load it as is). Strava: open the activity, click the three dots, Export GPX. Strava's Export Original gives you the .fit the device recorded, which carries the best altitude.
- Where does the climb start and end?
- Altitude is smoothed over about a minute, grade is measured over the minute around each point, and anything over 3 percent is a climb, under minus 3 percent a descent. Stretches shorter than three minutes fold into their neighbor, so a playlist never flips tempo for a single roller.
- Can I change the tempos?
- Yes, all three. Climb, Cruise and Descent each have a dial from 60 to 200 BPM. The trail decides when the tempo changes; you decide what it changes to.
- I do not record my rides. Can I still use it?
- Yes. Ride mode's cousin, Live, builds the playlist as you ride from your Apple Watch: heart rate, GPS speed and barometric grade steer the next song. And Tempo mode makes a steady playlist at any BPM with no file at all.
- Where can I save the playlist?
- Apple Music, Tidal, and YouTube Music today. Spotify reserves full access for apps that reach 250,000 monthly listeners, so every rider who joins gets us closer.
- Does it cost anything?
- No. The explorer, the app, and the playlists are free, on iPhone, Android, and the web.
Playlists that match your Pace
Ride is one switch inside Tempo Tunes. Pick your genres and the artists you love, and the playlist is built to your trail. Save it to Apple Music, Tidal, or YouTube Music (Spotify once we reach 250k monthly listeners).
Built on the trail.