Case study · Our own venture
Rulla is our own product: an app for finding and organising group bike rides in Sweden. From the first rider interviews to the brand, the product, the film and the launch, we did all of it in-house.
from idea to a live product
rider types mapped before the first sketch
cycling clubs on the map
group rides listed
Directory figures from 6 November 2026.
01Chapter 01
Ask a cyclist where the Saturday ride leaves from and you get a link to a chat you are not in. Rides were spread across invite-only groups, social media pages nobody could find and club websites from another decade.
For the person organising, it was worse. Different chats, different meeting points, the same five questions every week. Club apps are made for team sports. Training apps log a ride after it happens. Nothing was built for the part before.
I started cycling around 2020 and soon wanted to ride with other people. But the rides lived in WhatsApp groups you needed an invite to, Facebook groups I didn't know about and clubs I wasn't part of. So I built Rulla.
Every question in the chat has one home in the ride. Switch between them.
02Chapter 02
Before any design, we mapped who actually organises a group ride and who just turns up. Five types, from a private crew of eight to a training club of hundreds. Each has its own problem, its own way in and its own reason to stay.
03 / 05
Runs official rides with several pace groups
“Sorting eighty riders into five pace groups over a comment thread is its own part-time job.”
Organisers bring people in. Most of them become Regulars. Newcomers grow into organisers. That loop is the strategy.
03Chapter 03
Before a single screen, we settled what Rulla is, who it is for first, and how it grows. Five calls shaped everything after.
01The organiser is the way in
One person herds every ride. Make their week easier and the whole group follows them in.
02A board, not a feed
No likes, no streaks, no noise. Chat lives inside one ride, not in five overlapping threads.
03Clubs first, not a big launch
A ride tool is worth nothing to one person. Whole clubs come in together, with their pace groups intact.
04Fill the map before asking anyone to post
The first visitor has to find a ride near them on day one, so we imported clubs, rides and races before launch.
05The shared link is the front door
Most riders meet Rulla as a link in a chat. Every ride gets a share card that previews well wherever it is pasted.
04Chapter 04
Understated, precise, Scandinavian. Rulla should feel like a good cycling magazine, not a loud sports app. Ink on chalk, colour only when it means something, and a mark made of riders.
Four riders, each the same leaning module, ride close enough to become one letter. Pull them apart and they are a paceline again.
Neutrals do ninety per cent of the work. Four colours carry one meaning each, in every screen. Pick one.
Our own pairing: Switzer for letters, Mona Sans for digits and punctuation, joined at render time. Neither font is changed.
Every screen is assembled from one kit of parts: tags, date tiles, stat strips, avatars. The ride card and the club card are two of them, straight from the kit.
Most riders first meet Rulla as a link pasted into a chat. So every ride, club and city draws its own share card, automatically: the route on the survey grid, the date, the meeting time, the distance and the pace.
rulla.cc/en/ride/n5gjp8-fikaturen
rulla.cc/en/ride/y52ubn-gravel-ride-with-govelo
rulla.cc/en/ride/eceu3e-tuesday-gravel
rulla.cc/en/clubs/cykelfiket
rulla.cc/en/rides/goteborg05Chapter 05
This is the real product, with real rides from real clubs. Pick a screen, then scroll the phone.
Every ride has its own page: the route on the map, distance and climb, pace, discipline and where the group meets.
06Chapter 06
A group ride lives wherever its organiser happened to post it: a WhatsApp group, a Facebook group, a Strava club, a Messenger thread. If you are not in the right one, the ride does not exist for you. Rulla puts every ride in the same place, on a map, so finding one is as simple as looking at where you are.
Each ride sits behind its own invite, group or membership. A new rider sees none of them, and even the regulars miss the ones outside their own chat.
WhatsApp group Invite only
Facebook group Ask to join first
Strava club Members only
Messenger thread If someone adds you
Every city, club and ride also has its own page on rulla.cc, so a search for group rides lands on one. A plain facts page helps AI assistants answer correctly about Rulla.
In search
group rides göteborg
In AI answers
Where can I find a beginner-friendly group ride in Gothenburg?
Rulla lists group rides in Göteborg with their pace groups up front, so you can pick a social pace and see where the group meets and who else is coming. Rides are free to join.
rulla.cc/en/aiA ride app is empty until someone posts, and nobody posts into an empty app. So we filled it first: clubs from public sports registers and federation lists, rides from club calendars, races from timing services. Every imported entry links back to its source, and clubs can claim their page.
It keeps itself up to date, without anyone typing it in.
433 of the 549 clubs have a home location on the map. Counted 6 November 2026.
07Chapter 07
Everything moves the way a group rides. The film pins ride cards to real meeting points and gathers the riders into the mark, with transitions we built for it, like the glass dive. In the product, the same four riders become the loaders: they fill, take turns at the front and regroup.
The riders fill with ink one by one, so a wave rides through the row. Ink is taken, grey is open.
The lead rider peels off to the back and the next one takes the front. How a group shares the wind.
The mark turns half a circle. Speeding up, the riders drift apart. Braking, they bunch up again.
Progress shaped as one long rider, filling with ink as an upload moves along.
The first sketch, from our own frustration on the bike.
Club pages, roles and recurring rides.
The Peloton R, and the first ride on the map.
app.rulla.cc and the film, in Swedish and English.
549 clubs, 509 rides and 43 races listed.
Apps for iPhone and Android.
The team that built Rulla is the team you get. Strategy, brand, product and code, in one room.