Private family cycling diary
Turn every family bike ride into a private adventure diary.
Pedal Diary was built for one young rider to log his journeys with the family he cycles with — but everyone is different, and at its heart it's a cycling diary without pressure. Routes, photos, badges and diary-style memories. No accounts, no adverts, no social feeds, no leaderboards.
- No sign-ups
- No adverts
- No social feeds
- Private by design
Made for real family rides
A warm adventure log, not a serious fitness app.
Pedal Diary is built for first rides, muddy shortcuts, sunny park loops, family cycle paths, little achievements and big smiles. It celebrates effort, confidence and curiosity rather than training scores or athletic comparisons.
I built it for my 9-year-old son, Charlie, so he could look back at where he went, who he rode with, what he saw and how the ride felt. Charlie was also the first person to test it — and the first to tell me when something didn't work. Every ride becomes part of a private family memory book — for him, and for anyone else who wants the same.
Inside Pedal Diary
What you can do on every ride
Start a ride easily
Tap to get ready, then tap to start — and watch the route appear on Apple Maps as the ride unfolds.
See the adventure
Track distance, time and top speed at a glance — no clutter, no jargon.
Capture memories
Take photos during the ride and save them with a friendly diary entry afterwards.
Earn badges
Unlock warm, encouraging badges for milestones, and invent custom badge ideas for a grown-up to award.
Check playful weather
See friendly local forecasts such as "watch out for puddles" or "bring your water bottle".
Make it their own
Choose themed backgrounds including Sky, Sunset, Forest, Underwater, Dinosaur, Space and Racing Track.
✨ Try the theme picker in the top right corner to preview every theme on this page.
The story
How Charlie helped build it.
I got Charlie a new bike, went looking for a cycling app to give him, and couldn't find one I'd actually want him to use. So I asked him what he'd want if I built him one instead. Five months of nights and weekends later, every feature traces back to a real conversation with him:
- The day-one wishlist: badges, speed, distance, fun, photos, who he rode with, racing whoever he's riding with.
- The bedtime profanity-filter idea: "stop bad words from being added."
- The locked-phone bug report: "Dad, when the phone is locked it doesn't track properly."
- The Fortnite mistake that turned into the ride-buddy feature.
- His ongoing test sessions, still going.
For grown-ups
Privacy, safety and simple controls.
Pedal Diary is designed around families who want the memories without the noise. There are no accounts, adverts, analytics SDKs, third-party trackers, social feeds or public leaderboards.
- Ride data stays on your device and syncs privately through your own iCloud when signed in.
- An optional grown-up PIN supports Face ID or Touch ID.
- Hold-to-confirm controls help prevent accidental destructive actions.
- Photos can stay inside Pedal Diary, be saved manually, or auto-save to Photos.
- Weather can be turned off entirely in the grown-up area.
- A live Permissions hub shows exactly what the app can access.
- Pedal Diary works offline, with iCloud sync catching up when available.
- British English throughout.
Sharing a phone
Built around real family life.
Charlie now has his own iPhone — but only for when he's out adventuring. We've started letting him head off on long walks with friends and it felt right to give him a way to be reached. Plenty of families are at a different point though, and many children get a family iPad before their own phone. Pedal Diary works on both. Whether it's a family iPad in the rider's rucksack, a parent's phone in their bag, or two devices side by side as you ride together, Pedal Diary is set up to be filled in by whoever wants to remember the ride.
The point is the ride, the memory and the confidence it creates — not whose device recorded it.
Ride together
Optional ride-buddy pairing.
Families with two devices can turn on ride-buddy pairing in the grown-up area. It works over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, is encrypted, does not use the internet, and is off by default.
When riding side by side, both riders can see each other's trail live.
Accessible by design
Native, readable and family-friendly.
Pedal Diary is built natively for iPhone and iPad, with support for Dark Mode, Dynamic Type, reduced motion preferences, clear contrast, VoiceOver-friendly labelling and British English throughout.
Available on the App Store
Pedal Diary is made for iPhone and iPad.
Designed for iOS and iPadOS 26 or later, Pedal Diary gives families a gentle, private way to turn bike rides into memories they can look back on with pride.