I built a weather forecast that follows cyclists along their route — would you use it?
I live in a fairly flat area, so wind often makes or breaks a longer ride.
A normal forecast might say “15 km/h wind,” but that doesn’t tell me whether it will be a helpful tailwind at the start, a headwind when I’m tired, or gusty crosswinds on an open stretch.
So I built @ridewind: upload a GPX route or import a planned Komoot route, choose a departure time and usual pace, and see wind and weather for when you’re likely to reach each part of the ride.
It highlights headwind, tailwind, gusts, rain, temperature, and daylight on a map and route profile.
It’s free to use: https://ridewind.app
I’m not trying to replace weather radar, just make pre-ride planning easier when wind changes along a route.
Cyclists: would you use this before a long ride? What’s the one thing you’d need to trust it enough to include it in your planning?
Time-shifting the forecast along the route instead of giving one static number for the whole ride is the actual insight, "15 km/h wind" is nearly meaningless for a 3-hour ride when you'll hit different sections at different times with the wind at different angles relative to your heading.
To your trust question: I'd want to know how it handles forecast uncertainty that grows with departure time, wind 30 minutes out is a real number, wind 4 hours into a long ride is closer to a guess. If the tool visually distinguishes "confident near-term" from "rough
later-route estimate" rather than presenting the whole route with the same certainty, that's what would make me actually plan around it instead of just glancing at it.
Exactly, every forecast has uncertainty, but I’m trying to map the specific forecast for each route segment at the time you’re likely to reach it, rather than show one overall wind number.
Making near-term conditions visibly distinct from less certain later-route estimates is a great suggestion. Thanks!
The route-aware forecast is a useful framing because a single wind number loses the part cyclists actually care about: when and where that wind hits. I’d be most interested in how you handle forecast uncertainty along the route, especially for longer rides.
Thanks, that’s exactly the hard part. Today I try to make uncertainty visible rather than imply false precision: the forecast quality is shown, partial data is flagged and arrival times are based on the rider’s chosen pace.
For longer rides, conditions later in the route are naturally less certain because both the forecast and actual pace can change. I frame the result as planning guidance, not a replacement for checking the latest radar before leaving.
I’m interested in making that uncertainty clearer along the route. Would you find forecast ranges, a confidence indicator or time-window scenarios most useful?
That’s an interesting area to explore. I’d be happy to continue the conversation beyond the thread — would you be open to sharing the best email to reach you on?
This comment was deleted 22 days ago