Aaw, thanks!

Still only 566th up Box Hill though, ought to go and try and go a bit quicker! Dan Lloyd is KOM, ridden with him a few times and he really is an animal!

Taylor Phinney is now 16th, set 2 days ago, presumably he’s in the US Olympic squad…

I didn’t realise you could sort the Rapha results by club, I came 7th in the STW group (sounds so much better than 2107th). I should have had a 1000ft more but my Garmin played up (OK it was finger trouble) on two rides home from work.

The roads of northumberland see a lot of cyclists but no where near as many as you poor crowded southerners.

I probably know and race with most of the people I see on the top end KOM leaderboard.

Taylor Phinney is now 16th, set 2 days ago, presumably he’s in the US Olympic squad…

Guess Olympic bods may take a few Londonish KoMs over the coming weeks – and imagine being some poor bloke in France who rides on anything the TdF went over… no chance ever!

Guess Olympic bods may take a few Londonish KoMs over the coming weeks – and imagine being some poor bloke in France who rides on anything the TdF went over… no chance ever!

Most of my road riding around here has been done by pros as it’s a tiny place and has 3 stage races at the start of the season.

Locals here include a fair few Elite XC riders and a certain Richie Porte – not sure how often he comes back….

I love it, great for keeping track of mates rides, as due to family/work commitments we rarely ride at the same time. In fact one mate dropped me an email on Monday concerned that I may have hurt myself as he hadn’t seen a weekend ride posted on Strava….(I had gone away)

I have a couple of people following me who I don’t know but am close to on the local leaderboards. Was quite chuffed when 1 of them gave me some kudos for my first road century the other week.

I have had some interesting GPS results, 2 of us were drafting through a segment, I started at the back and finished on the front, though when times were posted my mate was 4 seconds faster.

I probably know and race with most of the people I see on the top end KOM leaderboard.

Aye, on the MTB I know virtually all of them, but certainly not on the road!

Why would you want to keep track of mates rides?

Why would you want to keep track of mates rides?

because they’re his mates and he’s interested?

Wild guess on my part, obviously.

If they’re such good mates surely you’d know what rides they’ve been doing.

Checking out the stats of other peoples rides is far from interesting.

Checking out the stats of other peoples rides is something I, GW, find far from interesting.

Fixed it for ya.

Why would you want to keep track of mates rides?

Because some of them are good cycling mates but who I might only see once a fortnight so I can keep up to date with what they’ve been up to.
And because some of them are racing rivals as well as mates so I can see how well they’re going/how much training they’re putting in 🙂

Aye, I assumed that much but why?

I think the fuss is starting to die down for many.

Like alot of people I find it useful as a tool to keep track of miles covered and time taken.

I’m not a KOM chaser, if I got one I’d be pleased while it lasted, I do like to see where I place on some segment boards just as a gauge of my fitness, I believe I am at best Average…

I might enter a challenge or 2 this coming year just to give me some more focussed training goals…

I do occasionally look to see what some of my mates have been up to as well…

Aye, I assumed that much but why?

Seriously? How much more of an explanation can I give? I’m interested in what rides my friends have been doing, that’s it really.

really?

unsocial media strikes again

Now they’ve added the ability to delete the a/c, I’m seriously tempted to make use of that feature.

Account deleted.
Log elsewhere anyway – no point logging in multiple places.
Nuked mapmyride a/c too, since there was only about 2 rides in there and it became far to commercial and web2oh tastic.

STW Misery Strikes Happy Thread again 🙁

The roads of northumberland see a lot of cyclists but no where near as many as you poor crowded southerners.

Yea, I’m still waiting for my logger to turn up in the post, did a ride tonight on which hardly any of the hills were segments so should get some easy KOM’s.

As said above “Its trashed my local trails” and I also use the outdated technology known as a watch and Bike computer.

Unless it’s a coincidence that all the corners of my local rides have become battered and cut up, rocks moved, etc happened around the same time that Strava took off.

Only just got onto it after moving to a new area and finding that the local group are all on it. So uploaded a couple from Sportstracker to find I’ve a top ten on a Glentress section 🙂

Then went and uploaded most of last years’ good rides to see if I’d anymore. Like it now as I’m slightly competitive :wink:, so its good to compare.

As said above “Its trashed my local trails”

Fortunately around here, all the segments are uphill roadie or mostly fire road (with some slightly rooty/sandy bits). Presumably only the XC race whippet KoM collectors carry a GPS, not the pyjama-clad stormtroopers.

Many trails were trashed long before Strava became fashionable, probably because it’s like riding on a beach with 200m of vertical descent.

Haven’t used it myself but bought a GPS watch recently so looking forward to testing it out.

I’m always surprised on the many Strava threads how defensive the people are who don’t like it. If you don’t like it then you don’t have to use it.

Seems to me it’s a great free application that helps you train and records your rides. The KOM stuff is a bit of fun too, comparing your times with other people for a laugh. I’m sure that’s how the other 99% of people see it, not as some kind of definitive ultimate test of your manhood.

Well, I got the KOM for a local trail the other day and I am still grinning from ear to ear. My biggest achievement for years and years.

Strava isn’t perfect, but it’s great for recording rides and training, and it’s definitely made me fitter – every time I see a hill now I attack it!

I’ve just bought a £20 GPS logger for Strava’ing,

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Navin-MiniHomer-GPS-Position-Finder-Logger-Yellow-/280920802356?pt=UK_In_Car_Technology&hash=item41682f4434

How does this work? Can it be used to track a route ‘live’ so that it can be seen online? Or does it store a route to be downloaded later?

Why would you want to keep track of mates rides?

Aside from the obvious, ‘because they are my mates’ I also race against them, and at the bigger team events, with them.

If you see your mate getting a number of PR’s / KOM’s etc… you know they are riding well, and it is something to chat about when you meet up for a pint.

I also follow some of the riders I don’t know personally but are on the local leaderboards, I do this partly from rivalry but also I want to see the routes they typically use and adjust mine. This was particularly helpful when I got my road bike a couple of months ago and had no idea of a decent loop near me.

I find it odd that the haters try to put it down all the time, I wish I’d thought of it.

I’m always surprised on the many Strava threads how defensive the people are who don’t like it. If you don’t like it then you don’t have to use it.

They’re the ones that give it a shot, realise that they’re slow biffers, delete the evidence in self-loathing and rile against the remaining enthusiasts. That, or they’re embittered curmudgeonly racers… 😈

Strava is OK. Interesting to see amount climbed and distances.

As for descending segments and KOM, particularly in the peaks, a lot of descends could be considered to be atleast 3 different trails dependant on which general line you take. The faster, smoother lines being dull, the slower more haphazard lines being more fun. So there’s the debate of should i ride and have fun or put my head down, ride the boring bit for KOM.

I still really do like Strava. Find it great for keeping up with mates rides, see how they are doing especially as we don’t all live in the same area any more.

The KOM aspect really does make you push yourself on a ride, both on & off road there are hills and sections where you could pootle along, but because it could or is a segment you try extra hard. Always nice to see a ride full of KOMs & achievements.

How does this work? Can it be used to track a route ‘live’ so that it can be seen online? Or does it store a route to be downloaded later?

Switch it on, press go, leave it in a pocket, at the end of the ride reverse the procedure and download to a PC.

I think that one only stores 5 waypoints so you could in theory use them to mark the start of segments but that’s not what it’s for really. It’ll store about 70 hours of your position at 1 second intervals, rather pointless seeing as the battery life is 10 hours, but usefull for long multi day trips i suppose. Also does the basic cycle computer stuff like speed and distance. There are others on Ebay that do stuff like navigation to waypoints etc, but they’re not £16, and you can get an Edge 200 for £70 from halfords (£30 cashback and £10 voucher).

If you already have a smartphone or garmin then it’s a bit pointless the only advantage is to save the battery in your phone and gain some accuracy (some phones seem to only record every few seconds to save the battery). And it’s cheep compared to a Garmin if you dont want the other features.

I’m not sure if it was Strava or getting a bar mounted GPS that changed me my attitude. I’m not sure when it happened but mtbing had become the bit of an evening out that I did before going to the pub. So I just pootled about for an hour and a half not really putting any effort in. Now I want to go up that climb faster than the last time and my speed and fitness is far better than it has been for years. I do still enjoy going to the pub though.