Help Center

Everything you need to get the most out of Trail Hits — from your first ride to dialing in your suspension.

Getting Started

Creating Your Account

Trail Hits uses magic link sign-in — no password required.

  1. Enter your email address
  2. Check your inbox for a sign-in link from Trail Hits
  3. Tap the link and you're in

The same flow works for signing up and signing in. If you already have an account, the magic link logs you in. If you're new, it creates your account automatically. You can also sign in with Apple Sign-In on iOS.

Adding Your First Bike

After signing up, you'll be prompted to add your bike. Trail Hits includes a Bike Catalog to make this fast:

  1. Search the catalog — Type your bike's make, model, or year. Trail Hits has thousands of bikes from major manufacturers.
  2. Select your bike — Pick the exact year and model. Specs like wheel size, suspension type, and travel are auto-populated.
  3. Confirm and customize — Review the pre-filled details and adjust anything that's different on your build (e.g., aftermarket fork, upgraded shock).

Don't see your bike in the catalog? You can always add it manually by entering the name, type, wheel size, and suspension details. Bike types include Trail, Enduro, XC, Downhill, Gravel, Road, eMTB, and Trainer (for indoor smart trainers). You can add multiple bikes and switch between them at any time.

Understanding the Dashboard

Your dashboard is your home base. From here you can see:

  • Your active bike and its current component health
  • Recent rides with strain scores
  • Maintenance reminders and upcoming service needs
  • Quick access to recording a ride or adjusting your setup

Your Rides

How Rides Get Into Trail Hits

Trail Hits pulls ride data from multiple sources — the more you connect, the more automatic it gets:

  • Strava — Connect your account and rides sync automatically with full GPS data, elevation, and distance.
  • Apple Health — Sync cycling workouts recorded by your Apple Watch or iPhone (iOS only).
  • Ride with GPS — Connect your RWGPS account for automatic ride sync.
  • Garmin Connect — Coming soon. Sync rides directly from your Garmin device.
  • Manual entry — Add a ride manually by entering the date, distance, duration, and elevation.

Each ride is assigned to a bike, and the distance and strain automatically accumulate on that bike's components for maintenance tracking.

After-Ride Conditions

After a ride syncs, Trail Hits sends you a notification asking about trail conditions — dry, damp, wet, muddy, etc. This matters because:

  • A muddy ride is much harder on your drivetrain than a dry one
  • Trail Hits applies a conditions multiplier to component strain
  • Your maintenance predictions get more accurate over time

You can also set conditions manually from any ride's detail screen. Trainer rides skip the conditions prompt entirely — indoor rides don't encounter weather or terrain, so there's nothing to report.

Ride History

All your rides are stored in the Rides tab. Tap any ride to see detailed stats including distance, elevation, duration, strain score, and which bike you used.

Connected Services

Managing Connections

All your ride integrations live in one place: Account > Connected Services. From here you can connect, disconnect, and manage all your ride sources.

Strava

Tap Connect with Strava and authorize Trail Hits. Once connected:

  • Auto-sync — New Strava rides appear in Trail Hits automatically
  • Import history — Backfill your ride history so component mileage is accurate from day one
  • Link Strava bikes — Match your Strava bikes to Trail Hits bikes so rides are assigned to the correct bike automatically

Rides from unlinked Strava bikes appear as pending rides. You can assign them to a bike from your ride list.

Apple Health

On iOS, Trail Hits can read cycling workouts from Apple Health. This captures rides recorded by your Apple Watch, cycling apps, or any app that writes to HealthKit.

Enable it in Connected Services > Apple Health and grant permission when prompted.

Ride with GPS

Connect your Ride with GPS account for automatic ride sync. Tap Connect Ride with GPS in Connected Services, authorize, and your RWGPS rides flow into Trail Hits just like Strava.

Garmin Connect

Coming soon — Garmin Connect integration will sync cycling activities directly from your Garmin device. Stay tuned for this update.

What Syncs

Trail Hits imports ride metrics — distance, elevation, duration, and date — from connected services. Suspension settings, component data, maintenance records, and strain scores are Trail Hits-only features and do not sync to or from external services.

Parts Garage & Maintenance

Adding Components

Go to your bike's profile page to add components. Common components include:

  • Chain, cassette, brake pads, tires
  • Fork seals, shock seals, dropper post
  • Bearings (headset, bottom bracket, pivots)

Each component tracks mileage and strain independently based on when it was installed.

Parts Garage

The Parts Garage is your inventory of all components across all bikes. Key features:

  • Swap between bikes — Move a wheelset from your trail bike to your enduro and the usage history follows the part, not the bike
  • Lifetime tracking — See total mileage and strain across every bike a component has been installed on
  • Assemblies — Group related parts (e.g., a wheelset = hub + rim + tire + rotor) and swap them as a single unit
  • Retired parts — When you replace a component, the old one moves to your garage history with its full service record

Service Intervals

Each component comes with sensible default service intervals based on the component type. You can customize these to match your riding conditions. Intervals can be based on:

  • Distance — Miles or kilometers ridden
  • Time — Hours of ride time

Trail Hits tracks usage and notifies you when service is due. Unlike simple mileage counters, strain-based intervals account for ride difficulty and conditions — so a muddy enduro ride counts more than a smooth gravel spin.

Service History & Expenses

When you service or replace a component, the history is automatically archived. This resets the interval counter and builds a maintenance timeline for your bike.

You can also track expenses — parts, shop visits, upgrades — to see your total cost of ownership over time.

Strain & Component Health

What Is Strain?

Not all miles are equal. A flat road ride puts far less stress on your components than a technical descent in the mud. Trail Hits calculates a strain score for every ride based on:

  • Distance — Base mileage
  • Elevation — Descents weight strain heavily (brakes, suspension, tires)
  • Trail conditions — Mud, wet, and dusty conditions accelerate wear
  • E-bike assist level — Higher assist means more torque through the drivetrain
  • Rider weight — Heavier riders put more stress on components

This means your maintenance predictions are based on what your ride actually did to your bike — not just how far you went.

Trainer rides get special handling: only drivetrain components (chain, cassette) accumulate strain. Brakes, suspension, and tires see zero wear on an indoor trainer, and Trail Hits reflects that — so your outdoor component health stays accurate even if you ride the trainer all winter.

Component Health Scores

Each component shows a health percentage that decreases as strain accumulates. Health scores are color-coded so you can see at a glance what needs attention:

  • Green (60–100%) — Healthy, no action needed
  • Yellow (40–59%) — Approaching service interval
  • Orange (0–39%) — Service recommended

Your dashboard highlights the most urgent items first, so you always know what needs attention next.

Chain Wax Tracking

If you wax your chain, Trail Hits tracks miles, rides, and hours since your last application. Different thresholds apply for wet vs. dry conditions, helping you get the most out of each wax treatment.

Suspension Setup & Tuning

Setting Up Your Suspension

If your bike has suspension (hardtail or full), Trail Hits helps you track and optimize your setup. Navigate to Setup from your dashboard to configure:

  • Fork — Air pressure (PSI), rebound damping, compression (low-speed and high-speed if applicable), travel
  • Shock — Air pressure (PSI), rebound damping, compression settings, travel (full suspension only)

Sag

Sag is how much your suspension compresses under your body weight. Trail Hits calculates your sag percentage based on your settings and helps you stay in the recommended range for your riding style.

Baseline Generator

Not sure where to start? The Baseline Generator creates a recommended starting point based on your weight and riding style. Find it in Setup Diary > Baseline.

  1. Select your bike — Choose which bike to configure
  2. Enter your weight — Body weight plus gear weight
  3. Pick your fork and shock models — Trail Hits has manufacturer baseline data for common suspension
  4. Choose your riding style — XC / Efficiency, Trail / All-Around, Enduro / Descending, DH / Maximum Support, or Bike Park

Trail Hits calculates recommended PSI, sag percentage, rebound, and compression settings. Tap Save as My Baseline to store it as a named setup you can reference and refine over time.

Setup Diary

The Setup Diary tracks every change you make to your suspension over time. Each entry records:

  • What you changed (e.g., "Added 2 clicks of rebound")
  • When you changed it
  • Your notes on how it felt

This gives you a history of what works and what doesn't, so you never lose a setting that felt great.

Problem Solver

How It Works

The Problem Solver helps you fix suspension issues by suggesting targeted adjustments. Instead of guessing, it walks you through a structured process:

  1. Pick a category — Choose the type of problem (e.g., "Harsh on small bumps", "Bottoming out").
  2. Select the problem — Narrow down to the specific issue you're experiencing.
  3. Get suggestions — Trail Hits recommends specific adjustments to try.

"Try This" Suggestions

Each suggestion shows you exactly what to adjust (e.g., "Add 2 clicks of low-speed compression on your fork"). Tap Try This to save it as a pending attempt.

The suggestion is saved to your Setup Diary with an orange "How did it go?" banner so you remember to record the outcome after your next ride.

Recording Outcomes

After riding with the new setting, go back to your Setup Diary and tap the pending attempt. You'll be asked:

  • Better — The change improved the ride feel
  • Same — No noticeable difference
  • Worse — The change made things worse

Over time, this builds a personal tuning history so you learn what works for your bike, weight, and riding style.

E-Bike Features

Setting Up an E-Bike

When creating or editing a bike, select an E-Bike type (e.g., eMTB). You can then set your default assist level:

  • Eco — Minimal assistance
  • Trail — Balanced assistance
  • Boost / Turbo — Maximum assistance

This default is used to calculate component stress. You can also override the assist level on a per-ride basis if you used a different mode than usual.

Component Stress Score

Motor assistance puts extra stress on drivetrain components (chain, cassette, brakes). Trail Hits uses a Component Stress Score (CSS) that increases based on your assist level — higher assist means more stress per mile.

This means your maintenance intervals adjust automatically. A chain on an eMTB in Turbo mode accumulates wear faster than the same distance on an unpowered bike, and Trail Hits accounts for that.

Bike Park Intelligence

What It Does

Bike park days are brutal on components — all descending, no pedaling flat. Trail Hits recognizes bike park rides and adjusts strain calculations accordingly:

  • Descent-heavy weighting — Bike park rides are almost entirely downhill, so suspension, brakes, and tires take the most strain
  • Park-specific conditions — Dusty bike park runs affect components differently than wet trail rides
  • Riding style factor — The "Bike Park" riding style in the Baseline Generator optimizes your suspension for park conditions

Account & Settings

Profile

Go to Account to update your display name and email. Your rider weight (used for strain calculations and suspension baselines) can also be updated here.

Connected Services

Manage all your ride integrations — Strava, Apple Health, Ride with GPS, and Garmin (coming soon) — in one place. See the Connected Services section for details.

Units

Switch between miles and kilometers in Account settings. Your ride data and component mileage will display in whichever unit you prefer.

Subscription

Trail Hits gives you 10 free rides after downloading. If you need a few more to try things out, you can request a promo code for some extras.

After your free rides are used up, the subscription is $9.99/year — that's it. Manage your subscription through the Account page or your device's app store settings.

Getting Help

Need more help? Here's how to reach us:

  • Email — support@trailhits.com
  • Bug Reports — Use the "Report a Bug" option in Account > Support to send us details automatically.

Still have questions?

Drop us a line at support@trailhits.com and we'll get back to you.

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