Bike Stories
The true cost of ownership
Purchase, parts and every service roll up into one number per bike — and into cost per kilometre, the figure that settles arguments about whether the nice bike was worth it.
A bike maintenance log for every part, every service, every kilometre.
Bike Stories keeps the whole story of every bike you own — what it cost, what has been done to it, what is wearing out, and what is due next. On your iPhone, with no account and nothing sold.
- Free to download
- No account, no subscription
- Syncs with your iCloud
- 13bike types, each with its own service schedule
- 7things every bike remembers, from parts to receipts
- 49languages
- 0accounts, ads or subscriptions
What is Bike Stories?
Bike Stories is an iPhone app that keeps a maintenance log for every bike you own: what has been serviced, what is due next, which parts are wearing out, and what each bike has cost you per kilometre. It is free to download and needs no account.
It logs rides by hand, from Apple Health or from a GPX file, stores receipts, manuals and warranties, charts distance and spending over time, and keeps all of it on your iPhone and in your own iCloud — never on a server of ours.
How do I keep a bike maintenance log?
Add the bike, and Bike Stories starts a service history for it. Log each service with its date, cost and what was done; schedule the next one by date or by distance. The history stays with the bike — searchable years later, and worth money when you sell it.
How much does my bike cost per kilometre?
Purchase price, parts and services roll into one total, divided by the distance you have actually ridden. Bike Stories shows both numbers on the bike's dashboard, so an expensive bike you ride every day can turn out cheaper than a cheap one in the shed.
How do I know when to replace a chain?
Give the part an expected life when you fit it. Bike Stories counts the distance ridden since and shows the wear as a bar — green while there is life left, amber when it is nearly gone — so a worn chain gets replaced before it takes the cassette with it.
Features
A logbook that does the arithmetic for you
A notebook in the shed can hold a service history. It can't tell you what the bike costs per kilometre, or that the chain is at 43% and due before the sportive.
Services scheduled by date or distance
Every 500 km, or every six months, or whichever comes first. The odometer builds itself from your rides, so a distance-based service falls due as you ride — and a reminder tells you before the noise starts.
Parts, and how much life is left
Chain, tyres, brake pads, battery, bars — 13 categories, each with what it cost and what it is fitted to. Give a part an expected life and its wear shows as a bar you can read in a second.
Rides that log themselves
Cycling workouts come in from Apple Health — your watch, or whatever app writes there. Or drop in a GPX file and see the route on a map. Or type a ride in ten seconds. Whichever you choose, the odometer keeps up.
Manuals, receipts and warranties
Keep the paperwork with the bike instead of in a drawer. Insurance and registration get a renewal date, and a reminder before it lapses.
Insights worth looking at
Distance per month, riding by weekday, spending over time, and where the money actually went — purchase, parts, service or the small stuff that adds up.
- E-bike battery health — capacity, range and charge cycles over time
- Tyre pressure log — front and rear, charted, with your reference setup
- Spares & stock — what's on the shelf, deducted when you fit it
- Home-screen widget — odometer, this month and next service at a glance
- Photos — a gallery per bike and per ride, plus a share sheet to file them
- iCloud sync — your devices, your account, no server of ours
- km or miles — and your own currency, in 49 languages
- Sell it with receipts — export the history as a PDF for the buyer
How it works
Three steps, and the first one is a single tap
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1 Add the bike
Tap the kind of bike you ride
Road, gravel, mountain, city, cargo, electric — pick one and the bike arrives with a maintenance schedule that already suits it. Add the price you paid and the odometer you're starting from.
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2 Log what happens
Rides, parts, services, paperwork
Let Apple Health bring the rides in, or add them yourself. Log a part when you fit it and a service when it's done, and drop the receipt straight in from another app.
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3 Read the numbers
The bike explains itself
Total distance, total cost, cost per kilometre, what's wearing out and what's due next — for one bike or the whole garage.
Cost of ownership
What did that bike actually cost you?
Not the price on the receipt. The price plus four years of chains, tyres, brake pads, services and the two saddles you didn't get on with.
- One total, four sourcesPurchase, parts, maintenance and expenses, each its own colour in the breakdown — so you can see which one is really eating the money.
- Cost per kilometreThe number that reframes everything. Ride the expensive bike daily and it quietly becomes the cheap one.
- Worth money at resaleA dated history of every service and part is the difference between "well looked after, honest" and a stranger's word for it.
Cost breakdown · Cube Town Hybrid
Total cost
4,704$
- Purchase$3,900
- Parts$420
- Maintenance$304
- Expenses$80
Cost / mi
1.11$
Distance
4,225mi
Every segment is always labelled with its amount — colour never carries the meaning on its own.
Maintenance
Nothing is due "sometime soon"
A service is either done, coming up, or overdue — and Bike Stories says which, in words and in colour, for every bike in the garage.
- A full service historyWhat was done, when, what it cost and who did it — including the jobs you did yourself on a Sunday.
- Due by date, by distance, or bothTen pre-set service types — brake service, chain replacement, gear tuning, suspension service and the rest — or write your own.
- Overdue is loudTwo services past due on the winter bike shows on the Garage screen, in red, before you get on it.
- Reminders, if you want themA notification when a service falls due, and another before an insurance policy or registration lapses.
Parts & wear
Catch the chain before it eats the cassette
Consumables don't fail on a date. They fail after a distance — and that distance is exactly what a logbook knows and you don't.
- 13 part categoriesTyres, drivetrain, brakes, wheels, suspension, cockpit, saddle, pedals, electronics, accessories — with brand, model and price.
- Wear you can read at a glanceGive a part its expected life and the bar fills as you ride. Green while there's life left, amber when there isn't much.
- Spares on the shelfTrack what you keep in stock and deduct it automatically the day you fit it.
Parts · life remaining
Tyres18%
Schwalbe Marathon Plus (pair) · $90 · fitted 2,140 mi ago
Chain43%
Shimano Deore · $45 · fitted 980 mi ago
Brake pads (rear)4%
Replace before the next wet ride
A percentage sits beside every bar. Colour is a second signal, never the only one.
Rides
The odometer that fills itself in
A maintenance log is only as good as its mileage. So Bike Stories takes the mileage from wherever you already record it.
- Apple Health, automaticallySwitch it on once and new cycling workouts become rides on the bike you chose, next time you open the app. Pro.
- GPX routes on a mapLoad a recorded route and the ride carries its map with it. Free, like logging a ride by hand.
- Filed against the right bikePut a ride on the wrong one and you can move it — from the list, from the ride, or while editing it.
- Twelve weeks at a glanceEach bike's card carries an activity chart, so a bike that hasn't moved since March is obvious from the Garage screen.
Why bother logging it?
The notebook in the shed vs. Bike Stories
| Notebook, receipts, memory | With Bike Stories | |
|---|---|---|
| When was the chain last replaced? | "Spring? Maybe last spring." | 980 mi ago, $45, Shimano Deore |
| Is anything due? | You find out on the climb | A reminder, by date or distance |
| What has this bike cost me? | A number you'd rather not add up | Total, and cost per kilometre |
| Where's the receipt? | A drawer, or gone | Attached to the bike, with the warranty |
| How much is it worth now? | "Well looked after — trust me" | A dated history you can hand over as a PDF |
| Three bikes in the family | Three notebooks nobody keeps | One garage, each bike with its own story |
| What it costs you | A cassette you didn't need to buy | Nothing, unless you go Pro |
Who it's for
For anyone who has ever thought "when did I last do that?"
One bike or six, a workshop stand or a shop appointment — the question is always the same one.
The daily commuter
Rain, salt, potholes, 200 days a year. Things wear out on a schedule, and the schedule is measured in kilometres — which is exactly what the app is counting while you ride.
CommutingThe home mechanic
You do your own bleeds and bearings, and you know a chain has a number on it. This is where that number lives — and where last year's torque settings and pressures are written down.
WrenchingThe e-bike owner
An expensive bike with a battery that quietly ages. Log capacity, range and cycles over time, and see whether it is really fading or you just remember summer differently.
E-bikesThe one with N+1 bikes
Road, gravel, hardtail, the winter hack and the one you're restoring. Each gets its own history, its own costs and its own service schedule, in one garage.
CollectorsThe family fleet manager
Two adult bikes, two kids' bikes that get outgrown, and one trailer. Nobody else is going to remember when the kids' brakes were last checked.
FamiliesThe one about to sell
A complete, dated service history changes the conversation — and the price. Export it as a PDF and hand it over with the bike.
Resale
Pricing
Free for two bikes. $9.99 once for the rest.
No subscription, nothing to cancel, and no feature you rely on gets taken away later. Buy Pro when the garage outgrows the free tier — not before.
Free
$0
Every logging feature, for up to two bikes.
- Two bikes, with full histories
- Maintenance schedules, service history and reminders
- Parts, wear tracking and spares
- Rides by hand or from a GPX file, with route maps
- Costs, insights, documents and photos
- iCloud sync, widget and share extension
One-time unlock
Bike Stories Pro
$9.99
Bought once, inside the app. Not a subscription.
- Unlimited bikes
- Apple Health ride import, including automatic sync
- Export service & resale history as PDF
- Automatic daily backups you can restore from
- Everything in Free, on every bike
- Family Sharing, and it follows your Apple Account
Prices are set per App Store region and shown in your local currency at checkout.
Your data
Your garage is nobody else's business
There is no Bike Stories account, because there is no Bike Stories server holding your bikes. What you log is on your iPhone and in your own iCloud.
- No account, no sign-upOpen the app and start. Nothing to verify, nothing to remember, nothing to leak.
- Sync through your own iCloudiPhone to iPad and back, under your Apple Account. We never see it.
- Analytics you can switch offAnonymous, non-identifying usage data helps us find the screens people get stuck on. No bike data is ever sent, and there is a toggle in Settings.
- Nothing sold, everNo ads, no data brokers, no shop paying to appear in your service history. The only thing for sale here is Pro. Read the privacy policy.
From the blog
Practical maintenance, written down properly
Short, useful reads on keeping a bike running: what wears out when, what a service is worth, and how to know before something breaks.
A child's first pedal bike: balance bike or stabilisers
There are three routes to a child's first pedal bike, and two of them are a detour. The one that keeps working starts with two wheels and no pedals.
Read it →
What size bike a kid actually needs — inseam and standover, not age
Age charts sell bikes; they do not fit them. What decides the size is the child's inseam, the standover gap, and whether they can reach and squeeze the brake levers.
Read it →
Bike wheel rattling: hub and bearing wear, checked in ten minutes
A wheel that wobbles or spins down fast has bearings, not a rim, at fault. Two checks take ten minutes, and the answer decides whether you need grease, a service, or a new hub.
Read it →
FAQ
Fair questions
Is Bike Stories free?
The app is free to download and free to use for up to two bikes, with every logging feature included: maintenance, parts, rides, costs, documents and photos. Bike Stories Pro is a one-time $9.99 in-app unlock that removes the bike limit and adds Apple Health ride import, PDF export and automatic backups. There is no subscription.
Do I need an account?
No. There is no sign-up, no email and no Bike Stories server holding your data. Your bikes live on your iPhone and sync between your own devices through your iCloud account, which only you can read.
Can it import my rides automatically?
Yes. Bike Stories reads cycling workouts from Apple Health, so anything that writes there — your watch, Strava, Wahoo, Garmin Connect and the rest, when you let them — can become a ride on the right bike. Turn on automatic sync and new workouts are picked up when you open the app. You can also load a GPX file and see the route on a map, or log a ride by hand in a few seconds. Health import is part of Pro; manual rides and GPX are free.
Does it work for e-bikes and mountain bikes?
Yes — there are 13 bike types, from road and gravel to mountain, city, cargo, folding and electric, and each starter template comes with a maintenance schedule that suits it. E-bikes also get battery health checks: measured capacity, estimated range and charge cycles, tracked over time.
How does it know when a service is due?
You schedule a service by date, by distance, or both — every 500 km, or every six months, whichever comes first. The bike's odometer builds itself from the rides you log, so a distance-based service becomes due as you ride. Turn on reminders and you get a notification when something falls due, rather than finding out on a climb.
What happens to my data?
It stays yours. Bikes, rides, receipts and photos are stored on your device and mirrored to your own iCloud account — nothing is uploaded to us and nothing is sold. The app does send anonymous, non-identifying usage analytics so we can see which screens people get stuck on; no bike data is ever included, and you can switch it off in Settings. The details are in the privacy policy.
Can I get my data out again?
Yes. Pro exports a bike's service and cost history as a PDF, plus a seller document for when you sell the bike — a full, dated history is worth real money at resale. Pro also keeps automatic local backups you can restore from.
What do I need to run it?
An iPhone running iOS 17 or later. Nothing else: no account, no subscription and no internet connection to read your own logbook. Distances show in kilometres or miles and costs in your own currency, and the app is available in 49 languages.
Your bike is keeping score whether you write it down or not.
Start today and in a year you'll know exactly what it cost, what's worn out, and what's due next — instead of guessing on the side of a road.
Free download · iPhone, iOS 17 or later · No account · Pro is a one-time $9.99 unlock