Tiiks vs BicycleCareLog: Wear From Rides vs a Torque Database

BicycleCareLog is a shop manual with Apple Health, torque specs, and PDF export. Tiiks is wear that comes from the rides you already did.

A stem cap has a number on it. A shop will torque that number, write the date, and send you home. Six months later the same stem is still at the same spec, and the chain that you never torqued has quietly done a season. The manual was correct. The wear was somewhere else.

BicycleCareLog, from verilune.com, is an iOS app that leans into the manual. It syncs Apple Health, handles multiple bikes, tracks consumables and swappable parts like wheels and pedals, and keeps a torque specification database by manufacturer. You can log service costs, export a PDF, and keep a backup. Reminders fire on distance, on time, or on the calendar.

That is a serious shop-manual product. It is not a living wear dashboard. Tiiks starts from the opposite end: Strava rides, per-component mileage, a real parts catalog, verified reviews with real distance, service versus replace, a home-screen widget, and a history that stays when a part comes off. Torque still matters. It is just not the thing that tells you the cassette is done. You can torque every bolt on a Friday and still ride a chain that should have been measured in March. The binder will look complete. The drivetrain will not.

What BicycleCareLog is

BicycleCareLog is built for the rider who wants the garage to look like a service binder. Multi-bike support is first-class. Consumables sit next to parts you swap — a wheelset, a pedal — so a weekend race wheel does not have to pretend it is the commuter hoop. Apple Health supplies distance when you want the reminders to follow the body, not only the calendar.

The feature that defines it is the torque database. You look up a manufacturer spec instead of guessing 5 Nm on a carbon steerer. That is the night the app earns its place on the bench, and it is a real night — carbon cockpits do not forgive invented numbers. Costs and PDF export turn the log into something you can hand a buyer or a shop. Backup keeps the binder from dying with the phone. Reminders can be distance-based, time-based, or calendar-based, which is exactly how a conscientious home mechanic already thinks. The energy is documentation. The bike is a machine with fasteners, not a set of wearing identities.

Wear that comes from rides

Tiiks is native on iOS and Android. You connect Strava and the rides apply themselves to the parts that were mounted. We do not ask Apple Health to decide what a bike ride was. We do not ask you to export a PDF to know how far the chain has gone. Each of the component slots we track carries its own mileage, and service versus replace stays a fork, not a single 'due' stamp.

Around that mileage sits the catalog. The chain has a brand and a model, not just a torque note you will never use on a chain. Verified rider reviews come with real kilometers, which is the opposite of a spec sheet. The widget puts the bike on the home screen. The full history keeps the old cassette after you box it. That is a wear product. It will not replace a torque wrench, and it does not try to. A spec is a number you apply once at install. Mileage is a number that keeps moving after you put the wrench down.

A torque database vs kilometers on the part

Torque specs prevent crushed steerers and rounded bolts. They do not age a chain. BicycleCareLog is strongest the night you are standing over a carbon cockpit with a wrench in one hand and a phone in the other. It is weakest the morning you try to decide whether this cassette has one more month. A database of manufacturer numbers is a reference. Wear is an accumulation. Mixing them in one app does not turn the reference into a odometer.

Tiiks will not tell you the stem-cap Newton-meters for a brand you just bought. We will tell you how far the stem — and everything else on the bike — has traveled since you put it on, because the rides already happened. If you need both numbers, you still need a wrench and a spec. You do not need the spec to live in the same place as the wear record, and you should not let a torque table talk you out of replacing a stretched chain.

Calendar reminders vs distance that actually happened

A calendar reminder is how you remember a bleed interval or a sealant date. Time passes even when the bike hangs. BicycleCareLog lets you fire on distance, time, or a date, which covers that hanging-bike case. Sealant dries in the garage. Mineral oil does not care that you took January off. The weak version of the same idea is a reminder that does not know which rides counted. Apple Health can fill distance, with the same category mess every Health-based log inherits: indoor, wrong sport, two bikes, a watch that thinks a trainer is the gravel bike.

Strava-native mileage is narrower and cleaner. The activity is a ride. The bike is a bike. The part that was mounted gets the kilometers. You can still set a mental calendar for sealant. You do not have to pretend a Tuesday alert is the same information as 3,400 km on a named chain. We built the dashboard around the second number, because that is the one riders keep losing.

PDF export vs a record that stays on the bike

A PDF is a snapshot you can email. It is a good selling tool and a poor daily driver. You do not check a PDF before a Saturday ride. You check a widget, or you open the bike and see the chain. BicycleCareLog's export and backup are the right features for a binder. Tiiks keeps the live record on the bike itself — including the parts you already took off — so the history is the app, not an attachment you generated last spring. If the only current copy of the garage is a file in your downloads folder, the garage is already stale.

A shop manual in your pocket vs a wear dashboard

This is the cleanest way to choose. If you open an app to look up a torque spec, log a cost, and tick a calendar reminder, BicycleCareLog is in its lane. If you open an app to see which part is due for service and which one is due to come off, you want a wear dashboard with catalog identity and rider mileage. We built the second thing. Calling a torque database a wear tracker is how you end up with a perfectly documented bike and a surprise skip in the 11-tooth. The PDF will still print. The cassette will still be done. Those two facts can be true on the same afternoon, and only one of them helps you on the next climb.

Who should use which

Pick BicycleCareLog if you want an iOS service binder: manufacturer torque specs, costs, PDF export, backup, multi-bike, swappable wheels and pedals, reminders on distance or time or a date. You are happy to sync Apple Health. You think like a shop manual. You do not need Android, a parts catalog, or reviews from riders who already killed this cassette.

Pick Tiiks if the binder is not the gap. The gap is wear from rides. You want automatic Strava sync, per-component mileage, service versus replace, a catalog, verified reviews with real kilometers, a home-screen widget, and a history that stays on iOS and Android. You already own a torque wrench. You need the bike to tell the truth about distance.

Questions we get

Does Tiiks include manufacturer torque specs?

No. We do not ship a torque database, and we do not pretend a wear app is a shop manual. Tiiks records mileage on named parts, keeps service versus replace, and holds the bike's history. For a stem cap or a carbon rail, use the manufacturer's spec and a wrench — or an app whose job is that binder.

Can BicycleCareLog pull wear from Strava?

The product as they describe it syncs Apple Health and reminds you by distance, time, or calendar. That is not the same as Strava-native wear on a named catalog part. Health can carry a distance. It does not give you the living dashboard, the reviews, or the service-versus-replace split that Tiiks is built around.

Is a torque database useful on its own?

Yes, if you work on carbon, cockpits, or anything with a published Newton-meter value you do not want to invent. It is useful the night you install a part. It is not useful the season you forget how far that part has gone. Keep the database if it saves you from a crushed steerer. Do not let it stand in for an odometer.

If you needed a shop manual with a PDF button, BicycleCareLog is already that binder. If you needed wear that comes from the rides you already filed on Strava, that is the dashboard we keep. Track the parts in Tiiks and leave torque where it belongs: on the wrench.