Here are our favourite mountain biking phone apps that we use the most often before, during and after riding our mountain bikes.

>>> 15 Best road cycling apps for iPhone and Android

Altimeter+

This is a great one for when you’re in the higher-than-normal hills. Whether it’s a daytrip to the Lake District or during a holiday in the Alps it’s cool to whip out your phone and check just how how you are. On a more serious note it can be a really useful for navigation too – it can help confirm/deny that you are where you think you are on a map.

Available for: iOS
Price: £0.79
Website: www.sichtwerk.com

Bike 3D Configurator

Bike 3D Configurator might be a bit limited in terms of the amount of up to date frame models it has on offer but is a great little app to while away some time on. You can customise every part of the bikes including components, colours and sizing and then see how the suspension movement impacts the bike. It allows you to overlay geometry information so you can see how suspension movement changes the head angle or any other variable. The augmented reality feature puts the bike into your front room so you can see exactly how it would look!

Available for: iOS  Android
Price: Free
Website: www.bikeconfig.com

Bike Doctor

Stop relying on YouTube to fix your bike. Sometimes you’ll be in the middle of nowhere and won’t be able to get phone signal and then where will you be (other than the middle of nowhere)? You’ll be knacked, that’s where. It feels a bit pricey at £4 but forego that massive Starbucks latte – this app may save your ride one day.

Available for: iOS, Android
Price: £3.99
Website: bikedoctorapp.com

Clinometer

Is your head angle as slack as you think it is? What is the head angle on that interesting looking bike in the bike shop? Most importantly, do you have the slackest head angle in your riding group? Answer all the questions AND be able to check if you’ve hung that picture up straight in the hallway.

Available for: iOS, Android
Price: £1.49
Website: www.plaincode.com

Dark Sky

Everyone has their own preferred weather app but mountain bikers need this one. As well as the usual multi-day forecast that all weather apps have, the great thing about Dark Sky is the alerts it sends you. Basically it tells you when rain is on its way (or when it’s stopping) so you can plan your next rest stop and/or get your jacket on at a convenient time before the rain starts. The satellite imagery ‘recent timeline’ is excellent for working out what weather is passing over you within the next couple of hours or so.

Available for: iOS, Android
Price: £2.99
Website: darksky.net

Dirt School

Dirt School’s app is like having a pocket skills coach on your person. Stuffed with easy to follow instructions and no-nonsense informative videos it’s by far the best skills app for MTB out there. At six quid it’s not cheap but compared to a day’s in-person coaching at around £100…

Available for: iOS
Price: £5.99
Website: www.dirtschool.co.uk

GoPro Quik

GoPro’s Quik app takes all the hard work out of creating visually appealing edits and makes you look like a video editing pro. Simply upload footage or even just still images, add music and graphics/text and let it do the rest. Then you can upload to your favourite social media platform for everyone to see.

Available for: iOS, Android
Price: free
Website: www.quik.gopro.com

GoPro Splice

If Quik is all about instant gratification, Splice is all about creating more of a personal touch to your edits. It’s a fully functional editing suite that allows you full control over your finished products. But unlike some of the more complex software Splice is still pretty user friendly. It even has a fully comprehensive How To section to guide you through all the processes.

Available for: iOS
Price: free
Website: www.splice.gopro.com

Magic Hour

This is intended for photographers actually but it can be really useful for mountain bikers too. Not only will help you find the best light of the day for your Instabangers and YouTube smashes (the ‘photo hour’) but it can be used to work the absolute latest time you can still be out riding your bike without requiring lights to light the trail. Using the example above, although the sun goes down at 9:26pm it’s actually possible to ride until 10pm (provided you’re not on the road or under heavy tree cover!)

Available for: iOS
Price: Free
Website: www.magichourapp.net

OS Mapfinder

There’s no getting away from the fact that if you want the best mapping you need to pay Ordnance Survey some money. That’s just the way it is. It’s not as if their product isn’t worth the cash or anything is it? It may feel unusual paying for ‘digital content’ but it’s only like buying a paper map. And there’s a case for saying that the way OS Mapfinder works is actually loads better than having a paper map. The scaleability, the compass orientation, the search facility, the track following, the .gpx file integration, you only ever buy the exact map grids you need. It’s all extremely slick. Keep an eye out for the frequent deals on bulk mapping that OS do and stock up then to save a bit of money.

Available for: iOS, Android
Price: Free for the app but full coverage Premium subscription costs £24.99 for the year.
Website: www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk

Relive

Does what it says, allows you to relive a fly through of your ride. Follow yourself on a 3D satellite image and you can see exactly how far and how much climbing and descending you completed. It piggy backs onto your Strava, Garmin Connect or other ride capturing device and displays all the stats for you. Great for showing your mates down the pub.

Available for: iOS, Android
Price: Free
Website: www.relive.cc

Shockwiz

Okay, you need to beg, borrow or buy a Shockwiz to make this app work but this little device can help fathom out your suspension and make your bike ride as well as it can. And what’s not to like about that? By attaching the Shockwiz to your fork or shock and taking it through some varied riding it will give recommendations as to the best way to set your suspension up dependent on how you want it to ride.The app will also give you cool stats like how much air time you’re getting during a ride and other neat stuff.

Available for: iOS, Android

Price: Free

Website: www.quarq.com

St John’s Ambulance First Aid

This is probably the most vital app on this whole list (well other than Strava, obvs). It’s free. It can stop panic. It can remind of stuff that you already know but forget about during an incident. It can stop someone getting even more injured. It’s just something you should have.

Available for: iOS, Android
Price: Free
Website: www.sja.org.uk

Strava

You should at least try Strava. It’s not just for raceheads. Most people on there use it for tracking their progress (fitness, mileage, times etc) and for the community support vibe – it is nice to receive kudos and encouraging comments on your rides, just as it is to leave them on others’. It’s also incredibly useful for finding new trails to ride – even in areas that you thought you knew well. If you’re good then by all means chase some Segment KOMs/QOMs but don’t think that the Segment hunting is the be-all and end-all of Strava. That may well be the case for roadies but Strava is much more than that for mountain bikers. It’s also worth logging into the desktop version too as that unlocks some powerful route plotting/downloading features as well.

Available for: iOS, Android
Price: Free
Website: www.strava.com

>>> 15 Best road cycling apps for iPhone and Android

Have we missed your favourite mountain biking phone apps?

These are our most useful (and fun) mobile apps for mountain bikers: if you use an app not listed here, tell us about it in the comments below.