Updated for 2.6.1 — a small follow-up release with minor security and performance improvements under the hood. Nothing new to set up: just grab the latest update from the App Store or Google Play, and everything below still applies.

Some rides you can feel in your chest — the climb that empties your legs, the sprint to make the light. Party Onbici 2.6.0 lets you finally see it: your heart rate, live, on every ride, recorded start to finish with a full chart and your average and max waiting in your stats. And because a good ride is about more than one number, this release also learns to watch the weather, look after your bike, and keep you fed and watered on the long days. Here’s everything that’s new.

❤️ Live heart rate, on every ride

This is the headline of 2.6.0. Pair a Bluetooth heart-rate strap — or use the Apple Watch or Wear OS app we shipped in 2.4.0 — and your pulse shows up live while you ride. No separate fitness app, no juggling screens: it’s right there next to your speed and distance, updating in real time.

  • See it as it happens — your current heart rate ticks up and down live, so you know instantly whether you’re cruising or redlining.
  • Recorded with every ride — your heart rate is saved alongside the rest of your ride data, automatically, with nothing to switch on each time.
  • A full-ride heart-rate chart — open a finished ride and watch your effort rise and fall across the whole route, so the story of the ride is right there in the line.
  • Average and max in your stats — the two numbers most riders actually reach for, front and centre in your ride summary.

Strap or watch — your call

Both work, and neither is “the right one” — it depends on what you already own and how you like to ride:

  • A Bluetooth chest strap or armband tends to be the most responsive, picking up quick changes the instant you jump on the pedals. If you’re chasing precise numbers, this is the classic choice — and it pairs the usual Bluetooth way.
  • Your watch’s built-in sensor means nothing extra to buy, charge, or remember. If you’re already wearing an Apple Watch or Wear OS watch to glance at the group ride from your wrist, it can measure your heart rate too.

📲 Setting it up (it only takes a minute)

Heart-rate gear can be a little fiddly the first time — Bluetooth permissions, sleepy straps, a watch prompt or two. Here’s the no-drama version for each.

Pairing a Bluetooth strap or armband

  1. Wake your monitor. Most chest straps wake the moment you put them on — a dab of water on the contacts helps — and pod-style sensors start when you clip them in. A few have a button; look for a blinking light.
  2. Open Settings → Integrations → Sensors in Party Onbici. It lives under the Devices heading, subtitled “Pair a heart-rate monitor.”
  3. Tap “Scan for sensors.” The first time, your phone asks for Bluetooth permission — allow it, because without it the app simply can’t see your strap. (On Android this appears as the “Nearby devices” permission, and make sure Bluetooth itself is switched on.)
  4. Tap your strap when it appears under Available sensors. If the list stays empty, your strap is almost certainly asleep — re-wet the contacts, keep it close, and it’ll pop up.
  5. That’s it. The sensor is remembered, so it reconnects on its own at the start of your next ride — no re-pairing each time.

Tip: a strap reads best against slightly damp skin. A bone-dry strap is the single most common cause of a jumpy or missing signal, so give the contacts a quick wipe before a cold-morning ride.

Using your Apple Watch or Wear OS watch

No strap? Your watch’s own sensor is ready to go.

  • On Apple Watch: in Settings → Integrations, switch on “Show your Apple Watch heart rate during rides.” You’ll see a short privacy note first — your heart rate stays on your watch and paired phone and is never sent to our servers — then open the Party Onbici watch app and start or join a ride, and your pulse streams across automatically. (watchOS will ask permission to read heart rate the first time; allow it.)
  • On Wear OS: open the Party Onbici app on your watch, start a ride, and grant the heart-rate / body-sensors permission when your watch asks. From there it streams straight to your phone.

If the signal ever drops mid-ride, the app quietly reconnects on its own — you’ll see a brief “Reconnecting…” rather than losing your numbers.

What those numbers actually tell you

Heart rate is the most unfiltered gauge of effort you can carry — it doesn’t care about wind, hills, or how much sleep you got, it just tells you how hard you are working right now. A few ways riders put it to use:

  • Your average is a single-number read on how hard the whole ride was. Ride the same loop a few weeks apart and watch the average drift down for the same pace — that’s fitness you can see.
  • Your max is your ceiling for the day, usually pinned to that one brutal climb or the sprint for the sign.
  • The chart shows you where the ride got hard and how quickly you recovered afterward — the spikes are your hills, the dips are you catching your breath.
  • On a group ride, a glance at your live number helps you pace: ease off before you blow up trying to hold the wheel early, or push on when you can see you’ve still got room to give.

🌧️ Know before it rains

Getting caught out is the worst. 2.6.0 adds in-ride rain alerts: a gentle heads-up when rain is starting soon, and a second one when it’s about to ease. That second alert matters as much as the first — instead of sheltering longer than you need to, you’ll know the moment it’s safe to roll again. Duck under an awning for the shower, wait for the all-clear, and carry on with dry socks.

🔧 Keep your bike happy

Bikes wear out quietly — until the day they don’t, usually far from home. New maintenance reminders help you stay ahead of it. Party Onbici keeps an eye on the parts that wear with the kilometres you ride and nudges you when a service is coming due:

  • Chain — the quiet one. A worn chain drags the rest of the drivetrain down with it, so catching it early saves the expensive parts.
  • Tyres — the tread and sidewalls that stand between you and the road.
  • Brake pads — the parts you really want fresh on a wet descent.

No spreadsheet, no trying to remember when you last swapped anything — a little upkeep at the right moment means fewer roadside surprises and a bike that keeps feeling like new.

🍌 Fuel and hydration, on the longer days

On a big ride it’s easy to forget to eat and drink until you’re already flagging — and by the time you feel it, you’re behind. For longer rides, 2.6.0 now offers gentle fuel and hydration reminders: a timely nudge to take a sip or grab a snack before you bonk, so the back half of the ride feels as good as the first. Short spin to the shops? You won’t be pestered. Big day out? A little prompt at the right moment keeps your legs under you.

✨ Reliability and polish

Alongside the headline features, 2.6.0 carries a round of reliability and polish improvements throughout the app — the quieter work that keeps everything feeling fast, steady, and dependable ride after ride. The 2.6.1 follow-up continues that theme with a handful of minor security and performance improvements under the hood — nothing you need to do, just a little faster and a little safer next time you ride.

Get the update

Party Onbici 2.6.0 and the 2.6.1 follow-up are rolling out now on the App Store and Google Play. Update, strap on a monitor (or your watch), and go find out what your next climb really costs you — then turn the ride into a share card worth posting.

Happy riding! 🚴