Bike Doctor, as the name somewhat implies, is a simple iPhone app to help cyclists carry out common bike repairs and maintenance, such as fixing a puncture or adjusting brakes.
It’s been developed by Andreas Kambanis who writes the London Cyclist Blog and Ron Forrester, also the developer of Cychosis app, a mobile journal tool for cyclists.
The way Bike Doctor works is as follows: You load the app, tap on the area of the bike with a problem, select the appropriate repair and then follow the step-by-step illustrated instructions. Targeted at beginners as well as more experienced cyclists, it does this via a database of known issues – 20 in total – although a new version has just been submitted to the App Store for approval that adds further repairs and the ability to choose bike type to see customised instructions.
Bike Doctor is a pretty neat app but more to the point it demonstrates once again the App Store phenomenon in which the iPhone is catering for every niche possible. It’s also a great example of a blogger coming together with a developer to combine content with code. If that doesn’t make you feel all warm and fuzzy, I’m not sure what will.