In short: wake your sensor by pedalling, keep your phone or tablet close, and tap Connect your bike. No sensor? Tap Ride without a sensor and set your speed.
Cyclorama turns the distance you pedal on an indoor bike into a journey through a real era of history. You need:
No sensor? You can still ride: see Riding without a sensor.
The first time you open Cyclorama, a short introduction ends with two choices: Connect your bike or Explore the eras. A health note, Before you ride, comes next; tap I understand. You can connect a sensor at any time later:
The steps are the same for every kind of sensor. Do them with the bike in front of you.
A search runs for about 15 seconds. If nothing turned up, wake the sensor again and tap Search again.
Connect from inside Cyclorama, not from your phone's Bluetooth settings. Bike sensors don't need pairing in the phone's settings, and a sensor paired there may not show up in the app.
Cyclorama remembers the sensors you've used. They're listed first, under Your sensors, and one that's awake and nearby connects by itself as soon as you open Connect your bike. A remembered sensor that's out of range or asleep says Not nearby. To remove one from the list, tap Forget.
Cyclorama reads one sensor during a ride. If several sensors you've used before are nearby, it picks the one that measures your ride best: a smart trainer first, then a power meter, then a speed or cadence sensor. To use a different one, open Connect your bike and tap it.
Sensor guide
Most smart trainers and smart bikes sold in recent years use the standard Bluetooth fitness machine profile (often listed as FTMS in the specifications), which Cyclorama reads. It gives the most accurate ride: the trainer measures your speed and distance itself.
Cyclorama only reads from the trainer. It never changes the resistance: if your trainer or bike has its own resistance control, use that. During a ride, tap your speed at the top to see Smart trainer and its name.
If your trainer isn't listed under Smart trainers but shows up as a power meter or a speed sensor, that's fine: some trainers advertise those instead, and Cyclorama reads them as such.
Sensor guide
A small sensor that counts turns, using the standard Bluetooth cycling speed and cadence profile (CSC). A speed sensor counts wheel turns; a cadence sensor counts pedal turns. Some do both.
Where to fit a speed sensor. Put it on the hub of the wheel that turns while you ride: on a bike on a wheel-on trainer, that's the rear wheel. The front wheel stands still on a trainer, so a sensor there measures nothing. Most hub sensors wrap around the hub with a rubber strap; follow the sensor's own instructions. A sensor with a separate magnet goes on the frame, with the magnet on a spoke passing close to it.
Where to fit a cadence sensor. On the inside of a crank arm (or as the sensor's instructions say). On an exercise bike without a real wheel, a cadence sensor is usually the simpler choice.
You can change either later in Settings, under Wheel size and Gearing. During a ride, tap your speed at the top to see Speed sensor or Cadence sensor and its name.
Sensor guide
A power meter in the pedals, crank or rear hub, using the standard Bluetooth cycling power profile.
A power meter measures how hard you pedal, not how far you go. Cyclorama works out your speed from your power, as if you were riding a road bike on a flat road, so the distance is an estimate. There's no wheel size to set. During a ride, tap your speed at the top to see Power meter, estimated and its name.
Cyclorama uses Bluetooth only to read speed, cadence and power from your sensor. It never uses your location, and nothing leaves your device.
A phone or tablet without Bluetooth Low Energy can't read a bike sensor; Cyclorama says so, and you can still ride without a sensor.
If you tap something that turns out not to send speed, cadence or power, Cyclorama says it isn't a bike sensor; choose another.
The ride shows Disconnected. History waits where you were, nothing is lost, and Cyclorama keeps trying to reconnect on its own: first after a second, then every few seconds. Pedal to wake the sensor; most of the time it comes back by itself. You can also tap Reconnect to open the sensor list, or End ride: your progress so far is saved.
To make dropouts less likely:
Most sensors accept only one connection at a time. If another training app, such as Zwift, or a bike computer is connected to your sensor, Cyclorama may not find it or may not be able to connect.
Some smart trainers can talk to more than one app at once, and Cyclorama only reads from a trainer, never controls it. Whether yours lets Cyclorama ride alongside another app depends on the trainer. If it doesn't, use one app at a time.
Send us a report from the app with the Bluetooth log included (see Report a problem). It shows us what your sensor sends, which usually tells us what's wrong.
Yes. On an era's Choose your ride screen, when no sensor is connected, tap Ride without a sensor. During the ride, set Your speed with the slider to the speed you pedal at; distance is estimated from it, and the ride is labelled Estimated distance. Setting the speed to 0 pauses the ride. These rides count toward your journey like any other.
Each era is laid out along a route, from its first day to its last, and the distance you ride moves its calendar forward. A long era takes many rides. Your place is saved as you ride, and next time Choose your ride offers Continue at the date you reached, or Start over.
A Today’s workout goal (Duration or Distance) only ends today's workout; it doesn't change the journey. Finish an era and you get a keepsake of the ride.
Every era comes in two routes:
Each route keeps its own progress, so you can ride a Sprint of one era and the Classic of another. Both are free at present.
Drag the panorama during a ride to look back at earlier moments. After a ride, tap Read the moments you passed; on an era's Choose your ride screen, Read the moments so far lists everything you've passed in it. Tap a card to see its source.
Yes. Turn on Read cards aloud in Settings, or tap the speaker button on the ride screen. Each card is read as it comes up, in your device's own voice, and it works offline. It's off until you turn it on.
Yes: Settings › Distance units › Miles. Routes and progress stay the same; only how they're shown changes.
No. Every era is in the app, and riding, narration and your progress all work offline. You need a connection only to open a moment's source on Wikipedia, or to send us an email. A later version may check for corrected or new history when you're online; the privacy policy says what that sends.
Your phone's own backup can include Cyclorama's data. To keep a copy yourself, use Settings › Save a copy of your progress: every era, ride and keepsake in one file, saved where you choose. On the new phone, use Restore from a copy. Nothing on that phone is lost: each era keeps whichever copy is further along.
Uninstalling Cyclorama deletes your progress, so save a copy first.
It stays on your device. Cyclorama has no accounts, no ads, no analytics and no tracking. Read the privacy policy for the details.
iPhone, iPad, and Android phones and tablets, with Bluetooth Low Energy to read a sensor. Cyclorama is designed with a tablet in mind, but works on a phone too.
In the app, open Settings › Report a problem. Switch on Include the Bluetooth log if the trouble is with your sensor or your speed (it holds your sensor's name, its Bluetooth address and its last messages, nothing about you), then tap Write email. It opens an email with the details filled in; add what went wrong and send it. You see everything before you send it.
Something wrong with a moment's text? Tap the flag on the card, Report a problem with this card.
Or write to us at hello@ridecyclorama.com.