When to leave

The best time to ride, for your route

Velvind reads your whole ride again for every half-hour start across the next nine days, and marks the kindest with ⚡. You see whether to leave now, wait an hour, or ride tomorrow.

Krokskogen · 88 kmSaturday · 13:00

25 min of rain to ride through — pack a shell. Winter gloves and shoe covers.

Back at: 16:40
Temperature, feels like −2° at the coldest: 2–6°
Light winds: Light
Time riding in rain: 25 min

A real loop on a recorded October forecast, read by the same engine as the app.

Krokskogen · 88 kmSaturday · ⚡ 11:30

Dry on the forecast, 62% chance of showers, crosswinds most of the way. Winter gloves and shoe covers.

Back at: 15:11
Temperature, feels like −2° at the coldest: 2–6°
Crosswind for 42 percent of the ride: Crosswind
Dry all ride: Dry

A real loop on a recorded October forecast, read by the same engine as the app.

Saturday, leaving at 13:00: 25 min of showers near Sollihøgda from 15:48, back 16:40. With ⚡ 11:30 you're back at 15:11, before the showers arrive.

How the kindest start is chosen

For every half hour, Velvind times your ride with the climbs and the wind, and reads the weather where you'll be, minute by minute. Then each start gets a score:

A headwind costs more than a tailwind gives back: a headwind weighs 1.5 times, a tailwind only 0.6.
Rain counts by the kilometres you ride on a wet road, not the hours it rains somewhere.
Gusts and cold count against it.
A start in the dark carries a penalty, so a calm start before sunrise can't beat a real morning.

Only a daylit start that isn't rough can win. Velvind suggests another time only when it's clearly better than leaving now. The scan reuses the forecasts the app already has, so it answers at once.

Today: go now, or wait

Today in Velvind, Sunday 07:30 in the dark: “Wait for the warmth on Krokskogen: ⚡12:00 is dry, 1° and light winds.” Now feels −4° with lights for 35 minutes; the kindest start feels 1° in daylight all ride. — Today opens on the ride you usually do and answers the morning's question: leave now, or wait for the light, the warmth or the rain to pass.

How far ahead

Nine days. In the first few the forecast is sharp enough to pick a clock time; further out, read it as a trend and compare the days. ⚡ marks the kindest start of the day and of the week. Add the ride, and Velvind tells you if its forecast turns. The headwind calculator shows what a headwind costs on 10 km.

Read on

Coming to the App Store.

Velvind for iPhone: a paid app, with a week's trial. Leave your email and we'll write once, when it's out.

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