Updates

What changed

• Less hills: turn it on and the first card climbs a fifth to a third less per kilometre on three of the four rides I measured.
• When a search finds only one or two rides, Linje goes back for more. It helps most among mountains and fjords, where a loop is hardest to fit.
• A place's photograph is now of the place itself and in colour, or there is no photograph.

Why

One ride isn't a choice, so I go back for more, even among the fjords. And I'd rather show you no photograph than the wrong one.

How it went

1. 10 OctLess hills, measured against the real router
2. 21 OctA second wave of searching
3. 21 OctBetter photographs of places

Read more: How Linje builds a route

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What changed

• Best today: rides from where you are, grouped by the direction with the best conditions today.
• Snow you can act on, in Norway: where the snow is on a ride, whether it is coming or going, and a version of the ride off it.
• Less hills: a switch for flatter rides.
• A sweep across the map while a search runs, showing how far the ride can reach.

Why

With autumn the question changed from where to ride to whether, and where it is still good. Best today answers that, and the snow work is for the weeks either side of winter.

How it went

1. 10 OctBest today
2. 11 OctSnow, and a way round it
3. 11 OctLess hills
4. 13 OctThe search sweep
5. 15 OctFixes found on my phone at Sjusjøen

Read more: The terrain check

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What changed

• A redesign of the planner and the route card: a verdict on every card, saved routes under You, and More for the kinds of ride that are not a shape.
• Ride invites: send a route and a day, and friends tick the hours they can make in a browser, with no app needed.
• A route editor: Trim takes a stretch out and lets you join the gap, and Draw makes your own by tapping roads.

Why

I tried the redesign as a separate app on my phone first, and kept it. Invites and the editor are what a ride needs once there is more than one person, or more than one opinion, about it.

How it went

1. 5 OctThe redesign, tried as its own app on my phone
2. 8 OctIt became the app
3. 8 OctRide invites
4. 8 OctThe route editor, Trim and Draw

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What changed

• A ride summary that sets the route you planned beside the route you rode, with speed and elevation graphs.
• Four fixes for the battery.
• Soft foot trails now count as paths for walkers, and generated loops keep their corners off them.
• A green line for the part of the ride already done.

Why

Planning a ride on a screen and riding it are different tests. This was the first real ride with it, and these are the things the ride found.

How it went

1. 4 OctThe first real ride
2. 4 OctThe ride summary, the battery and the trail fix

Read more: How Linje builds a route

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What changed

• Surprise me: a mixed batch of rides from where you are standing, a loop, an out and back and one to a named cabin.
• A to B to loop: ride to a place, choose a loop from there, and come home the way you came.
• The ride graph: the ride stood up on its hills at the top of the wind, terrain and best time pages.

Why

Sometimes you know where you want to go and sometimes you just want to ride. And kilometres of headwind mean more when you can see where they are.

How it went

1. 25 SepSurprise me, and A to B to loop
2. 28 SepThe ride graph on the weather pages

Read more: Which way round to ride a loop

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What changed

• Rides that stay in the forest: choose where to go in, and Linje builds loops from there, with the road in and the road home.
• Offline maps for saved routes, for when there is no signal.
• GPX import, matched to the roads, and GPX export for a bike computer.

Why

Most of the good gravel near Oslo is in the marka, and a ride that leaves it after a kilometre is not the ride anyone wanted. Offline maps and GPX are what a rider expects before trusting an app with a long day out.

How it went

1. 24 SepRides in the forest, with a choice of where to go in
2. 25 SepOffline maps for saved routes
3. 25 SepGPX import and export, both working on my phone

Read more: GPX files for cycling

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What changed

• A wind page for every ride: the wind on every stretch, hour by hour, with a slider through the next two days.
• Stops: up to three places on a ride, without wrecking its shape.
• Rides appear as they are found, instead of all at once at the end.
• A new record screen: metrics and the map side by side, and a camera that follows you.
• The best time to leave, reworked: the good windows soonest first, with rain and temperature on each.

Why

Each of these answers a question the first version could not: exactly when, where to stop on the way, and why a search seemed to take so long.

How it went

1. 16 SepThe wind page, and stops
2. 19 SepScheduled rides get a cancel, and best time fixes
3. 20 SepRides appear as they are found, and the new record screen
4. 22 SepThe best time to leave, reworked

Read more: The best time to leave, What the wind costs a ride

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What changed

• The app was called FeilVei until now. It became Linje, Norwegian for line.
• Badges for distance, climbing, speed, riding often, exploring and the weather you rode in.

Why

FeilVei means wrong way, which is a poor name for something that plans routes. Linje is what it draws: one line on a map, one ride. The badges are there because a finished ride should leave you something to keep.

How it went

1. 14 SepRenamed Linje
2. 15 SepThe badges

Read more: Linje in brief

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What changed

• A wind bar under every route: orange where it is against you, green where it is behind.
• Which way round: the direction that keeps the headwind off the descents.
• The terrain check: one word for the gravel, dry, wet, soft, frozen or snow, from NVE's rain and snow records.
• Rides can be saved for a day, with the forecast for that day.

Why

Other planners stop at the route. The weather is what decides whether a ride is any good, so it had to sit on the route itself.

How it went

1. 9 SepWind on every route, and which way round
2. 9 SepThe terrain check, read from NVE
3. 9 SepRides saved for a day

Read more: Which way round to ride a loop, The terrain check

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What changed

• A record screen with a clock that keeps time through pauses, and a summary at the end: distance, climbing, speed and an estimate of power and calories.
• Finding a route became a map with a planner over it, instead of a form.
• Rides to a place: pick a DNT cabin and Linje plans the way there, with its photograph and whether anyone is there to serve you.
• A to B, and the first places on the map: cabins, swimming spots, campsites, saunas and moose sightings.

Why

I wanted planning a ride to happen on a map, the way you think about where to go, and then to be able to ride the thing it planned.

How it went

1. 7 SepRecording a ride, and a summary at the end of it
2. 8 SepThe planner moves onto the map, and rides go to cabins
3. 9 SepA to B, and photographs of the cabins
4. 10 SepSwimming spots, campsites, saunas and moose on the map

Read more: How Linje builds a route

Tell me what you think