Strava

[outerlimits]

I have found these forums to be friendly and helpful since joining.
Recently on a thread there has been some discussion about Strava. It’s been hotly debated and a touch’e subject.
People have differing views about Strava, but it will always be a touch’e subject. I vote we continue to be a friendly and informative group, and in doing so not bring up Strava to save everyone’s sanity.
I apologise for any misgivings I may have caused on the other thread and vow never to debate the subject on these forums again.
Onwards and upwards because we all love the descents eMtbing brings.

 

[highpeakrider]

So I’m summary your not going to bring it up, but you have?

 

[softtailcruiser]

It’s like the stoning scene in Life of Brian, but instead of saying ‘Jehova’ it’s ‘Strava’.

“If anyone else says Strava....”

Thonk.

 

[njn]

Tyler Durden: The first rule of strava is you do not ask questions.

 

[All Mountain Coaching]

Are we talking about the Strava police and it being ebikes, or just competitive between fellow ebikers?

To me and many, Strava is a training tool, competing against yourself. Improving your own times. If you get bragging rights down the pub at the same time then it's a bonus. Unfortunately some people take it far too seriously. Usually from those that would never make it pro anyway, they must like to think they could.

 

[Dax]

Just because it's controversial doesn't mean we shouldn't discuss it. The stravassholes may learn from a healthy debate.

 

[softtailcruiser]

Looking at it another way, you don’t hear runners who use Strava moaning about how their best time was beaten by someone who was cheating by doing it on a bike. Different sports. Mind you, if that cyclist was logging their ride as a run!!

Agree with All Mountain Coaching here, as for personal use it is great. I’m looking forward to the next time I do an analogue loop, to see whether the ebiking has improved my finess and hence my times.

 

[MattyB]

An interesting and weirdly coincidental development...

Strava removes descents from Live Segments - MBR

 

[PeteIOM]

I use Strava on every ride (occasionally I forget but not often)... love it.

I'm very careful to mark e-bike rides as E-bike Ride in the "Sport" category and list the bike I've ridden.
For a good few months no one else in the Isle of Man was appearing on the ebike segments I had set up and then all of a sudden someone smashed my time on a segment... by masses and in all honesty I thought.. "well that's obviously a hacked bike..."

Does it bother me? Absolutely not, I'm 39...

 

[R120]

I use it purely as a mapping tool, and also if trying new setting/parts on a bike to see if my gut instincts on performance are backed up.

The way I view it is that its a useful tool to the user, and different users use it in different ways (e.g I have no interest in analysing my health/fitness etc from it), and a side effect of all the data it gathers is it enables you to compare yourself to other riders if you want, but that's not the purpose for using it, just a feature you can be interested in or ignore.

 

[Couchy]

I use it to measure my progress and couldn’t care less what others are doing, I do record times as an ebike though. Bit annoying about the live downhill sections but hey ho

 

[Doomanic]

Bit annoying about the live downhill sections but hey ho

If you've got time to watch a screen you're not going fast enough!

 

[njn]

Never used live segments, not sure why someone would want to look at their phone when riding.

 

[softtailcruiser]

Never used live segments, not sure why someone would want to look at their phone when riding.

To catch up on back-episodes of Friends, of course!

 

[PeteIOM]

I also think theres a lot to be said for sharing your rides and progress.
Many times I've been lazy and not got out on my bike at all for months and then I'll see a mates shared ride and it'll inspire me to get out and ride more.

 

[Gary]

not sure why someone would want to look at their phone when riding.

Being live. I'd assume it'll tell the rider whether they are ahead or behind a PR/KOM and by how much. Meaning that rider has the choice whether to work harder for their little cup/crown or give up. I've never used or even looked at Strava during a ride but remember riding with others who were getting audible live segment info from their phones during rides. Not sure how it works or whether it's an option during a segment or just to signify the start and end though.
Believe it or not some folk take STRAVA pretty seriously. Not sure why any motor assisted rider would though.
Delusion perhaps?

 

[PeteIOM]

I think most ebike riders who use Strava are just interested in the miles covered, time spent on commutes etc..
There's loads of reasons why non ebike riders and ebike riders use Strava and Live Segments, same as there's loads of arsehats that will have an opinion on what others do

 

[Flogbox]

As someone who has KOMs and top 10s for roadbike descents in Sydney (generally out of 12k-15k riders), i can say there has been loads of cheating and crazy stuff going on for years in the roadbike arena so it's not like ebikes have suddenly changed things.

Car drafting is massive. Bunch riding. Females sitting at the back of fast male groups to rack up QOMs. Riding descents using the oncoming traffic lane into blind corners (mental).

I'm still faster downhill and on short 30s-2min power segments on a normal MTB than an e-mtb. It's just people wanting to make media headlines is all. It's 0.001% that actually care

 

[MartinW148]

Live segments, is that a thing?

Clearly I don't use Strava enough, I think it's already been said just a logging tool for route etc.

What about the disconnect between distance and speed on Strava compared to the data I get from Shimano readout?

 

[PeteIOM]

A side from distance logging Strava isn't that great at actually recoding anything and even distance and routes aren't always that accurate, but the interface is pleasant enough and compatibility with other tools.
I generally record everything I do on an Element Bolt device. On the non E bike it connects up to my heart rate monitor, crank arm power meter and has its own gps etc.
Strava's "calculated" power output and average and miles out compared to my crank power meter and Cyclops Hammer indoor trainer (the crank arm and Hammer are very close).

Live segments is useful depending on what you are doing. It can be set so that it just bleeps to start a segment, or just flash.. it really doesn't have to be intrusive.
Some rides I find it interesting to know how far off yesterdays pace I am as my daily commute takes me the same route most the time (32 mile round trip).

 

[outerlimits]

This thread was pretty much to stop all the whinging and whining of Stststraava. I just find too many melt like a snowflake or act like they got sand in their Va-jj if one calls it for what it is. Inaccurate fiction.

eg. I ride with a mate and we are about as fast as each other. On a local segment he stole my KOM by 2 seconds yesterday morning . I rode in the afternoon and did not know he had stole my KOM. But in doing so I beat him by 1 second.
It was cloudy yesterday, and sunny today. I ride the segment today at the same pace as yesterday and was 4 seconds slower.

I really don’t give a flying F, but it’s funny this game of fiction, that makes you faster on a cloudy day.

 

[softtailcruiser]

Poor choice of words. The sand comment is particularly offensive.

 

[PeteIOM]

Not giving a "flying F" is all about not being bothered to reply..... just sayin

 

[outerlimits]

Not giving a "flying F" is all about not being bothered to reply..... just sayin

Haha cool story bro but it would be better with dragons,

 

[wildsau2]

Never used live segments, not sure why someone would want to look at their phone when riding.

you can watch live segments on other devices like garmin edges. you can configure the data fields like human watts, heartbeat, time diff etc. its a cool thing to race against yourself(PR), against your followers or sometimes against KOMs. I reguarlary use this feature for getting stronger. On E-MTB i have different Live Segs than on accoustic bikes.

 

[dirt huffer]

I remember the days before Strava... our local Trail Advocacy group forum had threads for each trail where mountain bikers would post laps times. We largely did this with wrist watches or stop watches and on the "honor system" to post accurate times. It was friendly and competitive... did people cut corners to shave off times? Probably...

Strava gets attacked by people who don't understand that people have been trying for PB's and bragging rights since the days of Klunkers riding down fire roads Marin County. it's really comical to me that people are so emotional about Strava... it's just a program for something people would be doing even if it didn't exist

 

[Krisj]

I’ve had Strava on while riding my local downhill section clicked record on my GoPro at the start of my run and turned my GoPro off at the end of my run(when I came to a complete stop by as well ) and the time on Strava was 6 seconds more than my GoPro recording time
Wtf ??

 

[Couchy]

If you've got time to watch a screen you're not going fast enough!

My Garmin beeps when you set a fast time

 

[R120]

Wondered why my Garmin is always beeping at me

 

[Markymark]

I use Strava and when looking at times (i'm well down the pile, although I am 3rd overall on a segment out of a round 500 guess I should fess up) I looked at someone who was KOM/QOM, cant remember which and it said they had done the segment in 1 sec. This, I think was one of the segments on the blue trail at Swinley.
Anyone else notice such oddities.