Supported file formats

18 June, 2013 by David Johnstone

Here is a list of file formats that Cycling Analytics currently supports.

FIT — The FIT, or Flexible and Interoperable Data Transfer, file format was developed primarily by Garmin and is used by most recent Garmin devices such as the Garmin Edge 510, Garmin Edge 810, Garmin Edge 1000, Garmin Forerunner 310XT and many more. FIT files of rides are supported by Cycling Analytics (that is, if you record a ride, the FIT file should be supported; the FIT file format is vastly more complex and allows for all sorts of things beyond what bike computers create). If possible, set your device to record in one second intervals for best results.

GPX — The GPX, or GPS eXchange, format is a simple format designed to store GPS tracks, but can be extended to store information like heart rate and cadence.

TCX — The TCX, or Training Center XML, format is similar to GPX, but more advanced, and was developed by Garmin.

SRM — SRM files are created by SRM PowerControl head units. Currently, only files from PowerControl 7 devices are supported. Support for older formats will come, but I don’t have any files to test it against (get in contact if you have some). One caveat is that all rides are currently stored with a recording interval of one second in Cycling Analytics, so SRM files with a recording interval of 0.5s have every pair of records joined together (this will be changed someday).

DAT — DAT files are produced by Wattbike indoor bikes. Wattbikes record additional in-depth information about pedal strokes, although Cycling Analytics doesn’t yet do anything with this. The ride date is not contained in the file, so it must be somewhere in the filename in the format DDMMYY or YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS (i.e., “220714.dat”, “z3-workout-220714.dat” or “2014-07-22-08-35-22.dat”). If the filename doesn’t contain a date, the current date is used.

PWX — The PWX file format is similar to TCX and was developed Peaksware.

CSV — There are many different ways that CSV (or comma separated values) file formats are structured. Currently, CSV files from Cyclops Joule and iBike Newton devices are supported. For CSV files that don’t contain dates, the filename will be searched for a date as with DAT files, or the current date will be used.

BIN — BIN files produced by Cycleops Joule devices are supported.

DB — DB files are produced by Pioneer head units. They are actually Sqlite databases. When recording using a Pioneer power meter additional power-based metrics are recorded, although Cycling Analytics doesn’t yet do anything with these.


Bike computers are normally mounted like regular USB drives, so activities on them can be found by browsing to them. Here is what this looks like in Windows with a Garmin Edge 500:

Here is the same process on a Mac:

Garmin Express stores FIT files in OS X in:

/Library/Application Support/Garmin/GarminConnect/"device name"/Uploads

There are a few more things worth keeping in mind:

  • If you have SRM or PWX files and also use the mobile Strava app, you can use Course à l’avant to add SRM/PWX files with added GPS data here.
  • The date and time given in files is either for the local timezone or UTC. It’s possible that the right one of these isn’t always correctly chosen, so if your device is showing the right time and you have set the timezone correctly here, and have rides that are showing the wrong time here, get in contact.
  • Rides must be at least five seconds long.
  • Cycling Analytics currently stores all rides with a recording interval of one second internally, so it is best to set your device to record every second if this is possible. (This will be changed in time.)
  • You can always use the try page to test if a file is supported.
  • Get in contact if:
    • You have a file that won’t upload even though it should.
    • You have files that upload but lose some information they contain (i.e., laps or power data).
    • You want another file format supported.

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