Never thought it would happen but downloaded Strava a few weeks ago and can’t believe how addictive it is. Constantly find myself pushing a little bit harder to get better times/beat PB’s etc.
I don’t ride much due to kids/work etc but every ride I can’t wait to see how I’ve performed against myself and everyone else and constantly thinking where I can make up some time to get higher up the board. BPW could be interesting next month 😀

That’s good to hear, and why I think Strava is such a good app.

It passes, I upload stuff more out of habit and to count towards a yearly total.

One for the minor ittitation thread: duplicate strava segments, do a lap of Swinley and it seems to pick up hundreds of segments, I’d actualy be interested in knowing how well iw as doing on different sections, but it’s just too much of a ballache sifting through them all to figure out which was was actualy section 15 etc.

One for the minor ittitation thread: duplicate strava segments, do a lap of Swinley and it seems to pick up hundreds of segments,

Try doing three laps of Richmond Park on the road bike! That brings up thousands of segments!
Loads and loads of overlapping ones: hill from roundabout, hill proper, hill from oak tree, roundabout to summit, roundabout to proper summit…

Plus all the 1-lap plus a bit, 2-lap PB, 2.5 lap PB, 3-lap PB.

Just favourite the segments you care about and then keep checked them once you’ve done the ride. Easy.

Excellent, it’s good innit? Just make sure you smash some toddlers off their bikes at some point.

Just kidding, you can smash anyone of their bike cos now you’re….

STTTRRRAAAAVAAAAAAAAAA!

I think its a good app as long as users fully appreciate alot of the strava sections are on mixed user paths. Not everyone would appreciate someone trying to go as fast as they can. Uphill = bo problem tbough.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJm1y0o7MHc[/video]

There’s 165 round Cannock chase trails. Just pointless.

There’s 165 round Cannock chase trails. Just pointless.

^ This.

I ride Woburn a lot and that’s flooded with multiple segments of the same trails or completely non-descript names. i.e. “Second trail on the left next to the wiggly one” type affair – pointless. Can’t work out whether it’s because people are trying to claim KOM on the little extra bit of their own segment or because they’re stupid.

Considering getting into Strava. Like the OP more for an incentive to keep pushing myself and seeing improvements on my regular rides.

I’ve created an account but not used it yet. I just keep logging the rides on my Garmin.

Presumably I can upload these and track progress as well as parts of the routes I do should already be logged as ‘segments’ recorded by others so I can compare how slow/fast I am on certain climbs/descents?

Is that it in a nutshell?

I got STAVA’d out the way for the first time ever yesterday evening 😀 ….fully goggled and max enduro.
I think the 5 minutes I took explaining the error of his ways was time well spent for both of us

Ive sadly fallen into the strava crap !! had quite a few KOM’s in my area recently and I’m pushing myself too hard now on every ride which has taken the fun out of riding

Only wanted to use it to monitor my fitness but it’s just got silly now

Uphill = bo problem

Depends how sweaty you are I guess.

I’ve started trying to beat my previous bests but realized it was taking the fun out of riding. I’m now still interested if I improve but I use it more to explore segments I don’t know. To learn new bits of the local area and as a means of recording rides and trying not to repeat the same loop regularly.

Eventually takes the fun out for me, still do it though. Easy to get obsessed with ploughing on, getting your head down or trying too hard, too much of the time. I like to mess around, a lot of the time it isn’t the fastest way, strava takes this away.

Also i see a lot of other riders trying too hard to be fast, in doing so making a proper mess of things and inevitably going slower, you can not pedal and end up going faster, strava must exaggerate this..

It’s too inaccurate for the KOMs to really mean anything on the DHs around here, they’re too short.

Multiple segments too, what’s the point, it’s inaccurate, luck of the draw whether you’re going to KOM really if you’re already top 10, even top 20 dependant of length of track and number of users.

I think the 5 minutes I took explaining the error of his ways was time well spent for both of us

Applauds

I tried Strava but didn’t bother for long. I guess the thrill and excitement of being 137th fastest on a segment just wore off 😀

It doesn’t have to be all about KOMs. The social side is nice too. I’ve met a few runners and riders that I wouldn’t have without it.

I tell myself it’s just to log miles and rides, and frankly to counts calories I can use for Crumpets when I get home – but I can’t help but take notice of some of the sections.

I got all obsessive about the last section of the old XC loop at Cwmcarn – there was this guy, I’ve never met him, but he’s a second quicker than me down there – until I looked – he set his time in 2013 – back when the turns were straights and there wasn’t a drop at the end – I’d damned near killed myself to beat his time, crashing at least once and hitting the wooden gate thing at the top and taking a lump out of my hand – all to beat the time of a guy who was, in reality riding a different trail to me…

Add to that the fact my riding buddy’s strava always shows a few extra hundred metres climb and an extra KM in distance, even though we’ve rode together all day and I found myself asked why bother worrying about it.

I really rate it. Social side is good too as you can keep in touch with mates (and rivals) training.

If you get yourself a garmin 1000 you can download a particular segment to it, and it will flash up a GO! When you hit it and will flash up I’m green or red whether you are ahead or behind the kom. Great for interval training!

Ive sadly fallen into the strava crap !! had quite a few KOM’s in my area recently and I’m pushing myself too hard now on every ride which has taken the fun out of riding

Yes, I’m guilty of that too.

I’ll ride down a descent at my own pace, get to the bottom grinning like a kid thinking “that was fun” then I get home, realise how pathetically slow I am and it takes the gloss off, which is daft really.

And it doesn’t help when Strava app tells you that your ahead or behind in your earpiece on a segment ! 😮 thats how sodding bad it is 🙄

Stravas also good for applauding/heckling your mates efforts. 😀

I hate the idea of being rushed up or down anything on a ride. I’d be useless, stopped yesterday to watch a hare, a buzzard, chat to some walkers, ponder a work problem and even contemplated a few mins meditation at one point.

I have a local loop I time myself around but I just do that – how long tonight and more importantly how did I feel around it and in recovery.

It’s a broad church and all that. As long as I don’t get harassed on my local trails as then sticks will be going in spokes!

I tend to use it just to log my rides as a form of motivation to get out more, used to use RunKeeper but more people I know are on it so switched. Sometimes nice to see a few PRs after a ride but the times some people are getting on our local shared trails makes me worry there will be a dog walker/cycle incident soon.

Stravas also good for applauding/heckling your mates efforts.

🙂 Mostly that here, use it more as a social thing. Got to know quite a few locals through Strava too. Flyby feature is good for checking out who you saw out on a ride too. Don’t really pay much attention to the whole segment/KOM thing though.

Tell me about the flyby feature.. There’s someone I regularly pass coming the other way and never figured out who they were…

Can you tell exactly where a segment ends? I don’t use it at all, but id like to have a pop on one local climb. However the top of the climb is a busy T junction so you’d need to be slowing. But to go up fast you need to pull out right turn into traffic.
I’m not on it but I think its called punch into wing

any segment like that should be flagged as dangerous

It would be nice to have forum members put their starva names on here so you know who’s local to your area.

Not long ago a guy took a KOM off me by about 15 seconds. The wind today is blowing right up the climb so, half way round my ride I realised this, took a diversion and went up it. Got the KOM back by over 2 minutes!

Just occasionally it’s fun like that but the novelty of segments soon wears off. Used it the other night to find a section of trail which I saw on the other side of a valley – could make out the bottom bit of it, never seen it before, no idea where it started but 5 minutes on Segment Explore soon tracked it down. Off to find the full trail later. 🙂

I’m not addicted to it…noooo, no certainly not. 😆

I do use it a lot though, I’ve got my Edge 810 sync’d and each ride I do loads direct to Strava.. Which means I see all the segments too and my time in them. I kinda like it for that and it’s a feature that has certainly seen me hack hard to see where I stand in the table. I’ve recently taken some 2015 ones, thats kinda neat for me and I’m in the top 10 of a good few round my way. This I check only for my training regime, and have to say it’s working.

Another thing about Starva are the routes, I use these a lot, just explore others routes and then copy them or export them whole to my Edge then go ride. But for the main I usually modify someone elses route as they’ve normally got a good deal of it set out but that I want to turn off it or extend it or cut it short on another route etc.

So, I kinda like it. All my stuffs personal though except the KOM’s, it’ll stay that way too.

Can you tell exactly where a segment ends? I don’t use it at all, but id like to have a pop on one local climb. However the top of the climb is a busy T junction so you’d need to be slowing. But to go up fast you need to pull out right turn into traffic.
I’m not on it but I think its called punch into wing

There’s this one ‘Punch into wing’, which looks pretty iffy (though down rather than up).
http://www.strava.com/segments/992920

And ‘Punch into wing (safer)’
http://www.strava.com/segments/4669083

Not withstanding the safety issue, both are pointless stupid as results for segments that short are just random noise due to location update rates and the strava timing algorithm.

These are the ones if you want a pop 🙂
http://www.strava.com/segments/617752
http://www.strava.com/segments/617760
http://www.strava.com/segments/674433

Log rides on it, enjoy seeing achievements but dont use it competitively.

Tell me about the flyby feature.. There’s someone I regularly pass coming the other way and never figured out who they were…

Flyby. Just stick in the URL of the ride and it’ll show you who you passed, where, and what route they did.

My name is also Steve and yes on the return to the car just 1 hour ago ,the first thing I did was end my ride on Strava ,im off to hang my head in shame over hot food and cold beer

Ending your ride at the car is the right thing Steve . leaving it on for the drive home is shamefull.

Kudos !

i too have become way more involved than i ought to be, downloaded it last August and used it for logging miles, how many rides and see where i’m placed which is interesting both Locally and Nationally.

Its kept me riding all winter so from my point of view thats great.
Imagine the scene, sat at home watching TV, drinking tea and eating biscuits when all of a sudden an emai comes through telling you some one has just nipped off 25 Miles round the Peaks……….

THIS though has become counter productive as there are days where i should be working BUT i actually think i should be riding, so befreinding work colleagues is not a good idea, so then you end up riding without logging and you can see where this is going. I know sometimes i should go to work but lifes too short, SO whilst sometimes some colleagues get emails about me riding whilst they are working Sick absence at work has nearly doubled in a year.

Which is costing the taxpayer, which puts peoples morales under scrutiny, but hey i dont really care because i like riding my bike especially whilst getting paid for it.

I like it, there’s a local battle going on (I’m KOM on two local climbs at the moment) and there’s some healthy banter going on as a result.

On other rides it’s nice as although I’m not the quickest, it reassures me I’m not the slowest either!

My riding is evolving toward more fun that flat out so eventually it’ll be less useful.