Music for your cycling cadence
The short answer
At 90 rpm, a 90 BPM song puts one beat on every full turn of the cranks and a 180 BPM song puts one beat on every downstroke, so both fit. For cycling the faster one is usually the better ride: 170–190 BPM is where drum & bass, punk and fast rock live, while 85–100 BPM is hip-hop, R&B and reggaeton territory.
That is the whole trick; the rest is why it works on a bike and not on a run.
Revolutions, not steps
Cycling cadence is measured in revolutions per minute (rpm). One revolution is one full turn of the cranks: your left leg pushes down, then your right leg pushes down, and you are back where you started. At 90 rpm that is 90 left downstrokes and 90 right downstrokes a minute, 180 pushes in all.
That doubling is the difference from running. A runner's cadence in steps per minute already counts each foot; there is nothing beneath a step to put a beat on. A rider's cadence counts pairs of pushes, so a beat has two natural places to land: once per revolution, or once per push.
Exact, double-time, half-time
BPM Companion labels each match by the ratio between the song's tempo and the cadence you set.
An exact match at 90 rpm is a song near 90 BPM: one beat for every revolution. The beat lands on the same leg each time, say every left downstroke. It feels relaxed and suits a steady endurance ride.
A double-time match is a song near 180 BPM: one beat for every downstroke, alternating left, right, left, right. On a run at 180 spm, double-time would mean 360 BPM, which no song plays. On a bike it is simply a beat per push, and a great deal of fast, driving music sits exactly there.
A half-time match would be a song near 45 BPM: one beat every two revolutions. Almost nothing is written that slow, so at cycling cadences half-time rarely finds anything, and what it finds feels like a slow pulse rather than a rhythm to ride to.
For a runner the picture is mirrored. At 180 spm the exact match is 180 BPM, the half-time match is a 90 BPM groove with a beat every other step, and double-time is out of reach. The two sports use the same rule from opposite ends. The running side is covered in Running cadence and song BPM.
The numbers at 90 rpm
By default the app accepts a song when its tempo is within ±5 % of the ideal. At 90 rpm that means exact matches from 85.5 to 94.5 BPM and double-time matches from 171 to 189 BPM.
| Cadence | Exact (one beat per revolution) | Double-time (one beat per downstroke) |
|---|---|---|
| 80 rpm | 76–84 BPM | 152–168 BPM |
| 90 rpm | 85.5–94.5 BPM | 171–189 BPM |
| 100 rpm | 95–105 BPM | 190–210 BPM |
The 90 rpm row has its own page, and the other cadences are listed alongside it. The tolerance is a setting; ±5 % is where it starts.
Where cadences actually sit
Most riders turn the cranks at 80–100 rpm on flat road, and trained riders often settle at 90–100. Climbing or grinding a big gear pulls that down to 60–75 rpm. If you know your cadence from a sensor or a head unit, use that number. If not, 90 rpm is a reasonable starting point for the flat and 70 rpm for a climbing session.
You do not need to keep one cadence for the whole ride. Turning the dial changes the queue: songs that no longer fit drop out and songs that now fit come in.
Indoor trainers and spin classes
Indoor riding is where the trick is most useful, because there is no wind and no terrain, only the beat. Many spin classes ride to music at 120–140 BPM. Read that through the app's ratios: a 130 BPM track fits 65 rpm as a double-time match, one beat per downstroke, and 130 rpm as an exact match, one beat per revolution. Most of a class sits at the first of those. A seated climb or a heavy-resistance interval at 60–70 rpm rides well to house and techno at one beat per push, whereas 130 rpm is a flat-out sprint cadence held for seconds, not minutes.
Which genres land in each band
Exact at 90 rpm: hip-hop and R&B mostly sit at 85–100 BPM, and reggaeton at roughly 90–100. These give a beat on every revolution, a solid and unhurried pulse.
Double-time at 90 rpm: drum & bass runs about 165–180 BPM, punk and hardcore 160–200, and fast rock reaches into the 170s. These put a beat on every downstroke.
Setting it up in the app
The cadence dial in BPM Companion is not tied to running. Set it to 90 and it means 90 of whatever you are counting: steps, pedal strokes, anything with a steady period. The matching rule is the same either way.
If you only want songs with one beat per revolution, turn off half- and double-time matching in settings; the queue then holds exact matches alone. Leave it on and every song is labelled exact, half-time or double-time and sorted best fit first, so you can see which pulse you are getting. Songs hand over on a downbeat with a crossfade of about five seconds; Why beat-matched transitions matter explains what that does for a steady cadence.
If you do not know the tempo of your own files, the app measures it for you; Find the BPM of your music offline covers the two-stage analysis.
Built from what you already have
BPM Companion builds all of this from the songs already on your phone, analyzed on the device and offline; nothing is uploaded. Set the dial to your cadence and the queue follows.