If you’re not sure when it’s time to get your bearings serviced and your chain and cassette checked for wear, the new CeramicSpeed Bike App aims to help.
The brand, best known for its ceramic bearings and OSPW system, has built the Bike App to ensure that the rider can keep track of their maintenance intervals. The app works by linking to Strava and collecting data on the distance ridden, totting up the kilometres and providing a countdown to when things need to be checked.
The app also helps check the alignment of handlebars, and more functionality is promised in the future, such as taking riding and weather conditions into account when assessing component wear.
Track your maintenance schedule
There are several similar apps on the market already, but CeramicSpeed says its one is particularly sophisticated. CeramicSpeed’s Emil Dahl Mathiasen tells us that the brand’s technical team has used its best estimate of when different components need to be serviced, or at least checked.
Intervals are different for different drivetrain components, with the default for when a road bike or time trial bike chain needs checking for wear 5,000km or 180 days. The equivalent figures for bottom bracket bearings are 7,500km or 365 days.
For a gravel bike, those distance figures drop to 4,000km for the chain and 6,000km for the bottom bracket and they’re even lower for cyclocross bikes or mountain bikes.
Service intervals can be amended though, if it is found that they’re too short or too long for the specific bike and/or the riding done.
In the case of multiple bikes, the app keeps separate tallies for each, provided the specific bike has been logged for each ride on Strava.
CeramicSpeed is looking to get even cleverer in future by incorporating weather data, so that its recommended maintenance routine can take account of the difference between a winter training bike ridden through puddles and a time trial bike only used on dry summer mornings.
Plus a handlebar alignment checker
At launch, the app also includes a handlebar alignment checker tool. It works off a picture taken of the rider’s bars and front wheel, which the CeramicSpeed app processes to determine if they are out of alignment and by how many degrees.
If you travel with your bike or have ever had to adjust the headset bearings, you’ll know that getting the alignment correct is fiddly and it’s difficult to be sure that you’ve got it quite set up correctly before tightening your stem bolts, so some independent corroboration can prove useful.
CeramicSpeed’s Mathiasen says that there’s more on the way. But for now the CeramicSpeed app looks like a useful extra tool to keep abreast of your maintenance and set-up needs. It’s available to download now for iPhone and Android phone users.
Not sure which chain you need when it comes time for replacement? Read our guide to the best bike chains.