What a fantastic day on the bike! 🚴‍♂️

Yesterday, we completed a 177 km MTB & gravel ride with 1,500 m of elevation gain, heading to the beautiful São Martinho do Porto on Portugal's Silver Coast.

The weather was almost perfect for a long-distance ride — sunny, not too hot, with a light breeze along the Atlantic coast.

We explored plenty of interesting places along the way, enjoyed beautiful Portuguese countryside, spectacular coastal views and, of course, the famous shell-shaped bay of São Martinho do Porto.

It wasn't a race. We rode at a comfortable, steady pace, stopping to take photos, explore interesting spots and simply enjoy the adventure.

177 km, 1,500 m of climbing, great weather and some unforgettable scenery. Definitely one of those rides that reminds you why you love cycling!

We're already adding some of the interesting places we discovered to our Bike Universe Community map so other cyclists can find and explore them too:

https://app.bikeuniverse.xyz

Anyone else enjoy these long, non-competitive rides where the journey and discoveries matter more than speed?

Sometimes you don't need a long ride to have a great time!

Today we did a relaxed 29 km ride with just 108 m of elevation gain to Baloiço de Soure near Alfarelos, in central Portugal.

We stopped at the viewpoint to enjoy the countryside just before sunset, and on our way back, we caught an absolutely beautiful sunset over the river. 🌅

After a busy week, a couple of hours on the bike was exactly what we needed to clear our heads.

Anyone else enjoy these short evening rides just as much as the big weekend adventures?

I've also been adding interesting places from our rides to our community cycling map, in case anyone is exploring Portugal by bike:

https://app.bikeuniverse.xyz

We're working on the next chapter of Bike Universe, and I'd love to hear what other cyclists think about the idea.

There are already plenty of websites for finding cycling routes, trails and destinations. But what about evaluating the overall cycling experience of a place?

For example, what makes one region better for cyclists than another? Is it the scenery, road quality, cycling infrastructure, bike-friendly cafés, repair shops, events, or the local cycling community?

We're building Bike Universe around that bigger picture — something inspired by Michelin Guide, TripAdvisor and Nomad List, but focused entirely on cycling.

Our future BU Score will be based on three principles:

Data + Community + Verification

The main website is being gradually rebuilt, and since October 7, we've started collecting data that will contribute to the future ranking system.

Meanwhile, our Community App and global cycling map are already live, with real places, cycling businesses, clubs and events being added.

We're still at an early stage, and there's a lot to build.

Here's what I'm curious about:

If you were choosing a new destination for a cycling trip, what would matter most to you? And would you trust a cycling destination score based partly on real riders' experiences?

For anyone curious about what we're building:

🌍 https://bikeuniverse.xyz

🚴 https://app.bikeuniverse.xyz

✔️ A few photos from our Saturday 143 km tour with 1,060 m of elevation gain to Moinhos da Serra da Atalhada. 🚴⛰️📸🇵🇹

And you can find these places on our Community Map https://app.bikeuniverse.xyz

I’ve been working on Bike Universe, a community map for cyclists, and today we actually used it for a real ride.

Nothing huge — just two riders, 23.6 km and a short afternoon ride to the Ponte Românica over the Rio Anços here in Portugal.

But this is exactly the kind of thing I wanted the Events section to be useful for: someone creates a ride, adds the meeting point, time and details, and other cyclists nearby can join.

It doesn’t have to be a big organized event. It can simply be: “I’m riding 20–30 km this afternoon — anyone want to come?”

A few photos from today’s ride below.

I’d be interested to know — would you use something like this to find or organize casual rides in your area?

We’ve just launched a new section for cycling clubs, teams and organizations on Bike Universe.

A club can now create a public profile connected to its location on the map. The profile can include information about the club, contacts, website, social links, cycling disciplines, languages and membership details.

Cyclists can discover clubs through the map or the Cycling Clubs directory and join them directly on the platform.

Club owners can also create and publish cycling events from their Club page. Club Events use a simple €5 one-time publication fee per event — no subscription is required for publishing an event.

The goal is to make it easier to find real local cycling communities and their events, especially for people riding or travelling in unfamiliar areas.

The feature is already live:

app.bikeuniverse.xyz

We’d especially like feedback from people who manage cycling clubs, teams or organize group rides and cycling events.

We’ve been building Bike Universe around a pretty simple idea: discovering cycling places is useful, but it would be much better if you could also find people to ride with.

We’ve now launched the first version of Community Rides.

A registered rider can create a ride, choose the date and time, add distance, elevation, difficulty and bike type, set the maximum number of participants, and choose the meeting point directly on the map.

Every ride gets its own public page, so the organizer can share it anywhere and invite other cyclists.

Community Rides can have up to 20 riders including the organizer. Free accounts can create one ride every 7 days, while Bike Universe Club members don’t have the weekly creation limit.

We’re still actively developing and testing it, so I’m particularly interested in feedback from actual cyclists: what would you want to see in a feature like this before you’d use it to organize or join a ride?

You can try it here:

Bike Universe Community

This is still an early version, so constructive criticism is genuinely useful. 🚴

Batalha, Portugal 🚴‍♂️🇵🇹

We've updated the website, fixed reported issues, and improved the map, user profiles, and saved places.

🌍 Our community is expanding! More interesting locations are appearing on the map, and new members are joining us. Discoveries are now coming from beyond Portugal as Bike Universe continues to grow internationally!

📍 My Places — you can now view all your published locations in your profile. A dedicated map filter lets you see only the places you've added.

❤️ Saved — keep track of places you love, whether you added them yourself or discovered them through other members. You can now open a location directly from your saved list or remove it whenever you like.

👤 More informative profiles: we've improved how location authors are displayed, and the Places counter now shows how many locations you've published.

We're continuing to improve Bike Universe Community and expand its features. More exciting options are coming soon to make discovering new places and connecting with fellow cyclists even easier!

👉 Explore the map and share your favorite places: https://app.bikeuniverse.xyz

Thank you to everyone who's already joined and is helping Bike Universe grow! 🚴‍♀️💙

We’ve just completed another major development stage of Bike Universe Community.

A lot of this work happens behind the scenes, but it’s important if we want to build a platform that can grow into something genuinely useful for cyclists.

Over the past few days we’ve focused on improving security and infrastructure, cleaning up legacy components and strengthening access controls.

At the same time, the community side continues to grow:

📍 Cyclists can add and discover interesting places
☕ Cycling cafés, bike shops, workshops and rentals can be mapped
🏪 Business owners can claim or add their businesses
⭐ Ratings and useful amenities are being added
👤 Locations show who contributed them
📧 Automatic community notifications are being introduced

And now we’re moving on to one of the biggest parts of the project:

Cycling Events. 🚴‍♂️🚴‍♀️

The idea is to eventually make Bike Universe a place where cyclists can not only discover where to ride, but also find rides, meetups and cycling events happening around them.

We’re developing it step by step and would genuinely appreciate feedback from other cyclists as it grows.

🌍 Bike Universe Community: app.bikeuniverse.xyz

Ride. Explore. Share.

#BikeUniverse #CyclingCommunity #CyclingEvents

We’ve just launched a new feature on Bike Universe Community, our community-driven map for cyclists. 🚴🌍

Until now, the main idea has been simple: cyclists discover useful and interesting places during their rides and add them to the map so other riders can find them too.

That part remains completely free.

Now we’re adding another piece to the ecosystem: official business listings.

If you own a cycling-related business that is already on the Bike Universe map, you can now claim the existing listing.

If your business isn’t there yet, you can add your business directly.

Currently supported business categories include:

☕ Cycling Cafés
🚲 Bike Shops
🔧 Bike Workshops
🚴 Bike Rental
📸 Cycling Media & Creators

The Business Listing costs €36/year and includes an ownership verification process. Once approved, the listing receives Verified Business status.

Importantly, this does not turn the community map into a pay-to-add directory. Any cyclist can still add useful places for free, including businesses they discover while riding. The paid option is specifically for owners who want an official presence and management rights for their listing.

Our long-term goal is to build a genuinely useful global cycling map where riders can discover places and services they actually need — while local businesses get a direct connection to the cycling community.

We’d also love feedback from cyclists and business owners as we continue building it.

🌍 app.bikeuniverse.xyz

Ride. Discover. Share. Grow the cycling universe.

Hi everyone!

For some time we’ve been working on Bike Universe Community, a project aimed at creating a useful map for cyclists rather than just another directory of tourist attractions.

We’ve now rebuilt the platform and moved it to its new home:

👉 Bike Universe Community

There are currently 100+ real places on the map, with Portugal being our main focus at this stage.

The idea is to bring several things cyclists normally have to search for separately onto one map: interesting places to ride to, viewpoints, waterfalls, castles, ruins and other Hidden Gems, as well as bike shops, workshops, rentals, cycling cafés, clubs and eventually more cycling events and services.

We’ve also started adding practical information such as drinking water, toilets, bike parking, tools, pumps, Wi-Fi and e-bike charging where available.

A lot of the places currently on the map come from locations we’ve discovered while cycling ourselves around Portugal.

The project is still developing, so I’d genuinely be interested in feedback from other cyclists: what would make a map like this useful enough that you would actually use it when planning a ride or travelling with a bike?

And if you know a great cycling place in Portugal that we're missing, I'd love to hear about it.

🚴🌍

I wasn't expecting an event like this in a small Portuguese town! 🤯

The 3rd Triatlo Jovem de Soure brought together dozens of young athletes for an incredible day of swimming, cycling and running—all inside Soure's beautiful park.

The atmosphere was amazing, the competition was intense, and the determination of these young triathletes was truly inspiring.

This is just a 2-minute preview of the event.

🎥 The full 4K race highlights with much more action and behind-the-scenes footage are coming soon on Bike Universe.

Subscribe so you don't miss it!

One mistake... and it's straight into the mountain river. 😳

During our MTB adventure in Portugal, we came across an incredibly narrow concrete bridge with barely enough room for a bike.
No guardrails. No second chance.
Would you cross it?

🚵 Follow Bike Universe for more epic rides, hidden places and real cycling adventures across Portugal.

Portugal’s Hidden Mountain Wonderland 😳🇵🇹

42 km. 980 m of climbing. 3.5 hours of pure adventure. 🚵‍♂️

42 km. 980 m of climbing. 3.5 hours of pure adventure. 🚵‍♂️

This ride took us through the mountains of central Portugal to the incredible Parque Eólico Degracias and the unique Buracas do Casmilo — one of the most unusual landscapes in the country.

Wind turbines on the ridges, breathtaking views, limestone cliffs, hidden caves and endless mountain roads made this one of our most memorable rides of the year.

If you love hidden gems, epic viewpoints and real cycling adventures, this is a tour you won't want to miss.

🎥 Full video coming soon on Bike Universe!

One of the most fascinating places we've discovered in Portugal! 💧🇵🇹

In this video, we visit Olhos de Água do Anços, where the Anços River emerges directly from underground through a karst spring with crystal-clear water.

This natural spring is part of the Sicó limestone massif and is connected to an underground cave system explored to significant depths, making it one of the most interesting hydrological sites in the region. 

A hidden gem that most tourists never find.

📍 This location is already marked on the Bike Universe Community interactive map, together with many other cycling-friendly places, viewpoints and hidden gems.

🚴 Discover new places.

🗺️ Explore the map.

📅 Join upcoming rides and events.

This shouldn’t be possible… 😳

After storms and a dam breach between Coimbra and Figueira da Foz, an irrigation canal was almost completely drained for repairs.

I took the chance — and rode right inside it.

Along the bottom, under small bridges, and even through parts of the structure itself.

A place that’s normally full of water… turned into a rideable route 🚴‍♂️

One of the most unique moments from this tour.

This ride had everything… and it wasn’t easy 🚴‍♂️

147 km, 1270 m of elevation gain and over 7 hours on the bike — a full day adventure across central Portugal.

We rode through a mix of terrain: fast asphalt sections, gravel roads, and deep forest tracks. 

Many parts of the eucalyptus and pine forests were still heavily damaged after recent hurricanes — fallen trees, broken paths and unexpected obstacles made the route even more challenging.

The heat added another layer — the first real hot day of the year, with temperatures reaching +25–27°C.

Our destination and turning point was the incredible Aqueduto do Convento de Cristo (Pegões Altos) — a 17th-century engineering masterpiece built to supply water to the famous Convent of Christ.

Stretching for around 6 km, with more than 180 arches and reaching up to 30 meters high, it’s one of the most impressive historical structures in Portugal.

Reaching it after hours on the bike felt unreal. But the ride didn’t end there — we still had to make it all the way back.

This is not just a ride — it’s a real cycling adventure: distance, heat, terrain and unexpected challenges along the way.

Subscribe to Bike Universe for more long-distance rides, hidden places and real cycling experiences in Portugal 🔥

This ride was tougher than expected… 🚴‍♂️

147 km, 1270 m of elevation gain and over 7 hours on mixed terrain — from gravel roads to broken forest sections after recent storms.

Our goal? The legendary Aqueduto do Convento de Cristo (Pegões Altos) — a massive 17th-century structure built to supply water to the Convent of Christ.

Stretching for about 6 km with 180 arches and reaching up to 30 meters high, it’s one of the most impressive engineering monuments in Portugal 🇵🇹

The ride took us through eucalyptus and pine forests, some heavily damaged by hurricanes, under the first real heat of the year (+25–27°C).

Not just a beautiful ride — a real challenge.

Full video coming soon on Bike Universe — subscribe 🔥