Gear guide
How to track your mountain bike rides
By Ryan - lifelong rider · Updated 2026-09-11
I track my rides on an Apple Watch, recording through Strava and the Apple Workout app. Not because it is the best mountain bike tracker, it is not, but because it is already on my wrist, it records the ride, it knows my heart rate, and it will call someone if I go down hard and stop moving. For most of what I want from a ride log, that is enough. This guide is about knowing when it stops being enough, and what to buy when it does, from a free app to a power meter, with the mountain bike features that actually matter picked out from the ones that only matter on a road bike.
Five ways to track a ride, cheapest first
- Phone and a free app. Strava or Trailforks in a pocket gives you distance, time, elevation, a map and segments for nothing. What it cannot do: show you anything while you ride, survive a crash on the bars, or last a ten-hour day with the screen on. This is where almost everyone should start.
- A GPS watch. Adds heart rate all day, sleep and recovery, and on a Garmin the mountain bike profile with Grit and Flow scores. What it cannot do: wrist heart rate gets unreliable on rough descents, you cannot read it at speed, and jump detection from the wrist is a guess. From about $250.
- A bike computer. Live numbers where you can see them, trail maps on the bars, ClimbPro on the climbs, and the metrics built for mountain biking: jump count and hang time, automatic run detection, timing gates. From about $130 for a basic unit, $400 for the one built for this.
- Add a heart rate sensor. A chest strap or arm band, $80-$170, turns any of the above into a training tool with accurate zones. This is the cheapest upgrade with the biggest effect on the numbers you actually use.
- A power meter. Watts, training load, left and right balance. From $360 for a spindle meter to $2,700 for a whole drivetrain with one built in. For racers and people doing intervals on purpose; everyone else can skip it without losing anything.
The mountain bike features worth paying for
Most tracking gear is designed for road riding and then sold to us. These are the features that are different on dirt.
- Grit, Flow and jumps. Garmin's Grit score rates how technical a trail was and Flow rates how smoothly you descended it. Both run in the MTB profile on Edge units and on the Fenix, Instinct and Forerunner watches. Jump count, distance and hang time are a head-unit feature; wrist detection is inconsistent, so do not buy a watch for it.
- Trailforks on the device. The Edge MTB ships with Trailforks maps preloaded, the Edge 550 and 850 integrate Trailforks data, Wahoo syncs Trailforks routes for free, and the Karoo does not talk to Trailforks at all. On a mountain bike this matters more than any other map feature.
- Buttons. Touchscreens and full-finger gloves do not get along, and neither do touchscreens and rain. The Edge MTB, Edge 550, Wahoo Bolt 3 and every Garmin watch here run on buttons.
- Battery for a real day. The Edge MTB lasts 14 hours at its 5 Hz descending rate and 26 in battery saver. The new Edge 550 and 850 dropped to 12 hours at full use, about half the 540 and 840 they replaced. The Coros Dura runs 120 hours. An Apple Watch Ultra manages about 14 hours of GPS with heart rate.
- Crash detection, with an asterisk. Garmin pulled incident detection from its MTB and eMTB profiles because rough trail set it off; ride as Gravel if you want it, and know it needs a phone with signal to send the alert. Apple's crash detection triggered correctly in Singletracks' testing. The only device here that can call for help with no phone is the Fenix 8 Pro through its inReach satellite link.
- A mount that survives. The Edge MTB comes with a mountain bike out-front mount, a top-tube mount, a silicone case and a tether. On any other unit, buy the tether. Head units leave bikes on rock gardens; I have watched it happen.
My picks by rider
One setup per kind of rider, with what it costs all in. Every product in the table is in the shortlists below.
| If this is you | Buy this | All in |
|---|---|---|
| You just want a record of your rides | Phone in a pocket, Strava free, Trailforks free for your home region. Airplane mode on long rides; GPS still works. | $0 |
| You ride, run and hike, and want one device | Garmin Instinct 3 Solar, or a Coros Pace 4 if budget rules, plus a chest strap or arm band for the days that count. | $330-$500 |
| You are learning zones and riding new trail systems | Garmin Edge MTB with Trailforks preloaded, a Garmin HRM 200, and Trailforks Pro. Step up to an Edge 550 if you also ride road or gravel. | $520-$620 |
| You ride park and enduro and want run and jump data | Garmin Edge MTB for the timing gates, automatic run detection and jump metrics, plus a Wahoo TRACKR. Skip the watch. | about $500 |
| You race cross-country and train with power | Garmin Edge 850, a Favero MX-1 or 4iiii or SRAM X0 spindle depending on your drivetrain, a Garmin HRM 600 and TrainingPeaks. | $1,300-$1,400 |
| You ride alone in the backcountry | Garmin Fenix 8 Pro with the inReach plan: satellite SOS and live tracking with no phone signal at all. | about $1,300 |
The shortlists
Prices are US list as of September 2026 and move often, especially Garmin's; the link goes to the current page. Where a row links to Jenson USA the site earns a small commission, which never decides what is on the list.
GPS watches
For the rider who wants one device across riding, running, hiking and sleep. Wrist heart rate gets noisy on rough descents and none of them can show you a map at speed, but they are always on you, which is the whole point.
| Pick | Why | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Garmin Instinct 3 Solar | Buttons, weeks of battery, Grit and Flow in the MTB profile, no maps. The watch I would put on most riders. | about $400 | Shop → |
| Garmin Fenix 8 | Full maps, 35 hours of GPS, and the Pro version adds satellite SOS through inReach for $7.99 a month, the only watch here that can call for help without a phone. | from $1,000 (Fenix E $800) | Shop → |
| Coros Pace 4 | The cheapest serious GPS watch. Long battery, accurate track, no MTB-specific metrics. | about $250 | Site → |
| Apple Watch Series 12 or Ultra 4 | What I use. Crash detection that works, the best phone integration there is, and a touchscreen that hates gloves. Records a ride fine; will not coach one. | $399 / $799 | Site → |
Bike computers
A head unit is the upgrade that changes how you ride, not just how you log. Live numbers, trail maps on the bars, and the mountain bike metrics no watch does well.
| Pick | Why | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Garmin Edge MTB | Built for this. Buttons instead of touch, Trailforks maps preloaded, jump and run metrics, timing gates for park laps, 14 hours at full GPS rate. Ships with a proper MTB mount and a tether. | about $400 | Shop → |
| Garmin Edge 550 / 850 | The all-rounders if you also ride gravel or road: brighter screens, ClimbPro, training load. Battery is about half the outgoing 540 and 840, 12 hours at full tilt. | $500 / $600 | Shop → |
| Garmin Edge 540 (closeout) | Discontinued in 2026 and still on shelves. Roughly double the battery of its replacement at a lower price, and still getting firmware. The value buy while stock lasts. | about $350 | Shop → |
| Wahoo ELEMNT Bolt 3 / Roam 3 | Simpler than Garmin, glove-friendly buttons, and it syncs Trailforks routes without a Pro subscription. | $350 / $465 | Shop → |
| Hammerhead Karoo | The best screen and the best navigation in the class, from SRAM. No Trailforks integration, which matters more on a mountain bike than on the road. | about $475 | Shop → |
| Coros Dura | 120 hours of battery plus solar. Offline maps, dial and touch, syncs Strava and Komoot routes but not Trailforks. | about $250 | Site → |
Power meters
Watts are the racer's tool. Trail power is spiky and hard to pace by, so a meter earns its keep on long climbs, structured intervals and the trainer, not on the descent.
| Pick | Why | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| SRAM X0 Eagle Transmission power meter | The cheapest way onto a T-Type drivetrain: a left-side spindle meter on AAA batteries. Single-sided, which is fine for training. | $360 spindle upgrade / $440 crankset | Site → |
| SRAM XX / XX SL power meter spider | Dual-sided, accurate to 1.5 percent, thread-on chainrings. What most racers on Transmission run. | about $530 | Shop → |
| 4iiii Precision 3+ (Shimano XT / XTR) | A left-crank meter for Shimano bikes, with Apple Find My built in. Stages, the other option, relaunched under Giant in 2025. | $389 / $529 | Shop → |
| Garmin Rally XC110 / XC210 | Pedal-based, so it moves between bikes in a minute. Prices dropped for good in May 2026. | $599 / $899 | Shop → |
| Favero Assioma PRO MX-1 / MX-2 | The other pedal meter, accurate to 1 percent and 160 hours a charge. Uses Shimano SPD cleats. | $499 / $814 | Site → |
Heart rate sensors
The cheapest upgrade with the biggest effect. A chest strap or arm band turns a phone or a basic head unit into a training tool, and it is far more accurate than any wrist on a rocky descent.
| Pick | Why | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Garmin HRM 200 | The plain chest strap. Pairs with anything, runs a year on a coin cell. | about $80 | Shop → |
| Polar H10 | The strap everyone else is compared to. Bluetooth and ANT+, works with Apple Watch and every app. | about $99 | Shop → |
| Wahoo TRACKR HR | Rechargeable chest strap with a battery light you can actually see. | about $100 | Shop → |
| Coros heart rate monitor | An optical arm band for people who will not wear a strap. Close to chest accuracy on the upper arm. | from $79 | Site → |
Apps
Most of the software is free at the level a mountain biker needs it. Pay when you want offline maps everywhere or a coach in your pocket.
| Pick | Why | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strava | Recording, the feed and segments are free. The subscription adds route building, full segment leaderboards and Beacon live tracking. | free; $79.99 a year | Site → |
| Trailforks | One offline region free, worldwide trail maps and condition reports with Pro. The map every head unit here wants to talk to. | free; Pro about $40 a year | Site → |
| Garmin Connect | Where every Garmin ride lands. The paid Connect+ tier is optional and adds nothing a mountain biker needs. | free | Site → |
| TrainingPeaks | Structured plans and a coach's view of your load. Only worth it once you own a power meter or a heart rate strap and a goal. | $19.95 a month | Site → |
| Ride with GPS | The best route builder for big linkups, and it exports to every device on this page. | free; $50-$80 a year | Site → |
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What I would actually do
Start with the phone and a free Strava account for a season. If you find yourself checking the ride afterwards, buy a chest strap and learn what your heart rate zones feel like. If you find yourself wanting to see the trail map without stopping, buy the Edge MTB and stop there; it is the one device on this page designed by people who ride what we ride. Buy a power meter the day you sign up for a race and not before. And if you already own a watch you like, keep it. The best tracker is the one that is on you when you forget to plan.
Common questions
Do I need a power meter for mountain biking?
Not unless you race or follow structured intervals. Heart rate plus perceived effort covers everything a trail rider needs, and trail power is so spiky that most riders cannot pace by it anyway. When you do want one, the cheapest routes are the SRAM X0 spindle meter, a 4iiii crank arm on a Shimano bike, or Favero pedals that move between bikes.
Watch or bike computer?
A bike computer if you want to see numbers while you ride, follow a trail map on the bars, or care about jump, run and climb metrics with glove-friendly buttons. A watch if you want heart rate all day, sleep and recovery, and one device across every sport. Plenty of riders end up with a cheap head unit on the bars and whatever watch they already own.
Does Strava work without cell service?
Yes. Recording uses GPS, which does not need a signal, and the ride uploads when you are back in range. Live features like Beacon and live segments need data. Put the phone in airplane mode on long rides to save the battery; the screen, not the GPS, is what drains it.
Does an Apple Watch record mountain biking well?
It records it fine. Crash detection works, it pairs with Bluetooth heart rate and power sensors, and the track is accurate. What it lacks is a mountain bike profile, Trailforks maps, buttons you can work in gloves, and battery for an all-day epic: the Ultra manages about 14 hours of full GPS with heart rate against 35 on a Fenix 8. It is what I use, and I know exactly where the line is.
Will my phone last a four-hour ride?
Usually, if the screen stays off and the phone is in airplane mode. GPS itself is a small drain. Test that GPS still works in airplane mode on your phone before you rely on it; a few Android models disable it.
Why did crash detection disappear from my Garmin's mountain bike profile?
Garmin removed incident detection from the MTB and eMTB profiles after too many false alerts from rough trail. If you want it, record the ride as Gravel or Road. Remember it needs a paired phone with signal to send anything; only the Fenix 8 Pro can call for help on its own, through its satellite link.
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