Map layers

Layers sits in the button column on the right of the map, on the Plan and the Record tab. Its sheet holds the cycle map, the online cycle map, the rain radar, the clouds, the wind and the stops. The button is highlighted while one of them is on.

Cycle map#

Cycle map: "Bike lanes, paths and cycle routes from your downloaded areas · works offline · shown when zoomed in". Drawn by the app from the routing data on the phone, so it needs no connection, and only where an area is downloaded.

The cycle map fades in between zoom 12 and 13, and out again when you zoom out. It draws what the routing data knows about riding a bike. With it on, a chip per part unfolds below the switch, each with a sample of its line as legend. Tap a chip to show or hide the part; the choice is kept. Arrows and dots shown from zoom 15 fade in over the zoom step before.

Part	Drawn as
Bike lanes & tracks	Cycleways solid blue, cycle streets with a pale band; tracks solid and lanes dashed, at the road's edge, farther out on bigger roads. Shared lanes (bus lanes bikes may use, lanes marked only with bike symbols, shoulders, sidewalks bikes may use) as a sparse light-blue dash beside the road. Two-way cycleways and two-way tracks and lanes are drawn wider than one-way ones
One-way arrows	Chevrons in the lane's own blue show which way to ride: on cycleways and paths ridden one way from zoom 15, and on one-way tracks and lanes beside the road from about zoom 15.5
Shared paths	Paths shared with walkers dashed teal, footways bikes may use dotted grey-blue
One-way streets	A grey chevron in the middle of streets that are one-way for bikes too, pointing the way the traffic goes, from zoom 15. One-way streets bikes may ride both ways show the two-colour sign of Two-way for bikes instead. Where a lane or track beside the street shows its own way, the street gets no chevron of its own
Two-way for bikes	On one-way streets that bikes may ride both ways, from zoom 15 a grey chevron shows the traffic's way and a blue one the bikes' way against it
National routes, Regional routes, Local routes	Signed cycle routes as a violet halo, stronger the farther the route reaches
Unpaved & bumpy	Gravel an ochre dash, rugged ground for mountain bikes a brown dash, bumpy paving red ticks
Barriers & steps	Gates, bollards and stiles as dots from zoom 15; red where the bike has to be carried. Steps as brown rungs from zoom 15, with a blue strip beside them where there is a ramp for bikes
Calm streets	Streets tinted by how calm they are: cyan for 30 km/h (20 mph) or less, green for 20 km/h or living streets, pale green for walking pace, bright green without motor traffic; roads closed to bikes in grey
Mountain bike	Difficulty ticks on trails from zoom 14: blue for easy (S0–S1), red for S2, black for S3 and harder (white on the night map); mountain-bike routes as an orange halo
Climbs	Steep pieces of the ways a bike may use, as a band: yellow from 6 %, orange from 10 %, red from 15 %; chevrons point uphill from zoom 15. The heights come from the terrain model in the routing data. A climb only counts when it keeps going for at least 150 m and 10 m of height, so short ramps are left out; in city centres with tall buildings it can still show a climb that isn't there or miss one. Bridges and tunnels are left out. In the dense cores of the biggest cities, where the heights are the buildings', no climbs are drawn.

All parts are on by default except Unpaved & bumpy, One-way streets, Calm streets, Mountain bike and Climbs. A part added in a later version starts as its default; choices made before are kept.

On the Plan tab, with the cycle map on over an area that is not downloaded, a chip says No cycle map here — area not downloaded, with Download; a tap opens the download for the visible area. If the stops chip applies too, it comes first.

Online cycle map#

Online cycle map: "CyclOSM's map with bike shops and parking · needs a connection". CyclOSM's overlay, fetched online. The two cycle maps take turns: turning one on turns the other off.

Rain radar and clouds#

Rain radar: "Now: radar in Germany and the US, a satellite estimate elsewhere in Europe and Africa. Ahead: radar forecast for 2 hours in Germany, model forecast up to 24 hours (hourly in Europe, every 6 hours elsewhere)". Clouds: "Europe, Africa and the Americas · updated hourly in Europe". Both are free, off until you turn them on, and need a connection.

The rain comes from three kinds of source. Now: radar from the Deutscher Wetterdienst over Germany and its borders and from the US National Weather Service over the US, and around them, over the rest of Europe, Africa and the Atlantic, rain estimated from the Meteosat satellite by EUMETSAT's H SAF, every ten minutes. A satellite estimate is coarser than radar and misses some light rain; it never covers the radars' areas, so the two never disagree on the map. The next two hours: in Germany the Deutscher Wetterdienst's nowcast, the radar's rain moved on in quarter hours; everywhere else, and from three hours on everywhere, the forecast of its ICON weather model, hour by hour over Europe and in six-hour steps elsewhere. The app looks for newer images every five minutes. The rain is drawn at every zoom, out to the whole world, where its images are coarser. Where the radar's area ends, the radar and the satellite or the forecast around it blend into each other over about 25 km instead of meeting at a hard edge.

With the rain radar on, its time control sits at the top of the Plan sheet and on the Record card, under the figures during a ride: a slider from Now in quarter hours to two hours ahead, then in hours to 24 hours ahead. Its label says the step, the time of the image over the middle of the map and, ahead, what it is, such as Now · 20:25, +45 min · 21:30 · Nowcast or +3 h · 23:00 · Forecast. While a step is shown, the app loads the other steps for the area in view in the background, the next two hours first, so dragging the slider shows each step at once; a step not loaded yet shows the nearest one that is, and the label says which. Letting go loads the step if it is still missing. The step is the same on every tab and goes back to Now when the app returns after more than half an hour away. The Library shows the time in a small label on the map.

The clouds are satellite images drawn in white over the map: Meteosat from EUMETSAT over Europe, Africa and around, a new image every full hour, and the GOES satellites through NASA over the Americas. They reach from 70° south to 70° north, and where two satellites overlap, over the Atlantic and the eastern Pacific, one fades into the other. They always show their latest image, whatever the rain's slider says; its time is under the Clouds switch in the Layers sheet while the clouds are on. The thickest, coldest clouds are brightest; fog and low cloud show faintly or not at all.

If a service does not answer, the map says Rain radar unavailable right now, Satellite rain unavailable right now, Rain forecast unavailable right now or Clouds unavailable right now, so an empty map is not taken for a dry, clear day. The app loads the images straight from the Deutscher Wetterdienst, NOAA, NASA and EUMETSAT, not through Velorki, so those services see the map area requested. Their credits are in the line at the bottom of the map while a layer is drawn.

Wind#

Wind: "Arrows by strength, worldwide · now and up to 24 hours ahead (model, about 28 km)". Free, off until you turn it on, and needs a connection.

Arrows over the map point where the wind blows to. Each is a long thin arrow with a solid head, outlined in white, so it is not taken for the map's one-way arrows. Their colour and size grow with its strength: a small grey arrow when calm (under 2 m/s, 7 km/h), sky blue from 2 m/s, blue from 5 m/s (18 km/h), violet from 8 m/s (29 km/h) and magenta from 11 m/s (40 km/h). The wind 10 m above the ground comes from the Deutscher Wetterdienst's global ICON weather model, on a grid of about 28 km, so it shows the wind of the region, not the gust round a corner or behind a hedge. The arrows are drawn at every zoom, out to the whole world, about a finger's width apart, over the rain and the clouds.

The rain radar's time control moves the wind too, hour by hour: Now is the current hour. With only the wind on, the control shows by itself and its label gives the wind's hour, such as Now · 20:00 or +3 h · 23:00 · Forecast. If the service does not answer, the map says Wind unavailable right now. The app loads the wind straight from the Deutscher Wetterdienst, like the rain, and its credit is in the line at the bottom of the map while the arrows are drawn.

Stops#

Stops is a switch in the same sheet, off until you turn it on. It draws drinking water, cafés, toilets, bike repair stations and more from the place index on the phone. The kinds, the area you look at and the route ahead are described in stops on the map.