I have just joined the 21st century and got a smartphone and have downloaded strava. Will strava eat my monthly data allowance while recording a ride? Does the phones gps function use any internet connectiom or is it like my satnavs ie free?

ta rhid

dont think gps uses any data but it will eat your battery.

best thing to do is setup your phone to access your wireless network at home to use that data, even if you dont and ride every day, the data uploaded to strava wont be too much, maybe somebody on here knows exactly.

GPS uses no data allowance but will use battery power. Just upload your ride when you are at home/on Wifi.

Not that bad on battery. Just make sure you “finish” your ride before getting back in the van or you’ll be wondering how your top speed was 62 mph!! Then as others say, save it when plugged in etc.

great thanks very much. ill gove ot a go tmrw!

I used Strava for the first time this weekend. Are the timings accurate?

I used Strava for the first time this weekend. Are the timings accurate?

ish, you do get anomalies, trees and the like can disrupt the signal. More problematic on the stupid short segments is the sample rate of the phone. I think it is every 3 seconds, which if you assume 3 for each end gives 6seconds. if the segment is 10mins long not too big an issue, if the segment is 30seconds it is a huge issue.

. if the segment is 10mins long not too big an issue, if the segment is 30seconds it is a huge issue.

Aye, that’s my excuse for not being the fastest too.

Are the timings accurate?

Depends what you’re logging with, loads of people find smartphones to be by far the least accurate, followed by bar mounted garmins, then wrist mounted garmins (presumably they gt a better view of the sky). My most accurate results (well they look accurate plotted on the map) for me was a £16 GPS logger off ebay which takes a location every second, lives on the back of my pack so gets an unobscured view of the sky.

thisisnotaspoon – My most accurate results (well they look accurate plotted on the map) for me was a £16 GPS logger off ebay which takes a location every second,

Garmin GPS’ can record every second too. It’s just most are set to ‘smart recording’ which makes the file sizes smaller due to only recording sharper changes in direction.

Plus Garmin state accuracy to 15m so on top of timing, the position itself can be quite far out.

My Strava Question:

I have no iPhone, Android, or Garmin. Can I still do strava stuff?

Otherwise I’ll stick my SportTracker on the Nokia. 😕

I have no iPhone, Android, or Garmin. Can I still do strava stuff?

Otherwise I’ll stick my SportTracker on the Nokia.

Yep you can download the GPX from Sports Tracker and Upload or Mail in bulk the files to Strava.

If my iPhone only samples every three seconds, how come I knocked 1 second off a pb yesterday? Genuine question. Does strava interpolate?

I used Strava for thwe first time today and it seemed to work ok! It logged the ride to work. WHen I finished I pressed the finish ride button and the phone went about its buisness of saving the ride.

I checked the app about 30mins ago and its logged everything and ranked me on the various bits of the ride. I assume it has connected to to magical internet to do this? It didn’t connect to the wireless network in work so I think its used its own internet connection and part of my data allowance. In future how can I stop it from doing this until I get home and get on my house wifi (which will not count to the monthly usage bit)?

Its all very new and baffling to me!

Rhid

How much data allowance do you have? Uploading a ride will be negligible compared to surfing etc.

Most of our data traffic is movies, images, guff on websites etc. Actual data is tiny.

500mb per month so its not loads really. Plus if I can get it done at home then its much better.

500mb per month so its not loads really

It’s probably plenty – I use endomondo, strava, maps, email, sync twitter, weather, calendars, browse the web and update apps.

Use about 350mb a month.

If you are really worried, install some kind of data tracker. I use “Stats” on Android, can be set up with alerts, blocks and auto reset on your billing date.

A decent length GPX file will likely be around 100-300kb in size.

Can always turn off mobile data if you have a low allowance and are concerned you might exceed it because of apps automatically using data. Then turn it on with a couple of swipes if/when you really need it.

My numpty Strava question; I’ve used both Strava and Map My Run to record the same route when I’ve been out for a short run, but Map My Run says the route was 2.7 miles but Strava says it was 3.6m. Why are they so far apart? Both seem to have recorded it accurately, and there is no tree cover on the run. Is this down to the app, my phone (Samsung Galaxy), or something else?

Dunno. Strava seems to consistently report mile spilt times that don’t tally with the overall distance a time. For instance nearby me there’s an 8 mile seg where the average pace is 7:23 mile, but strava has the fastest mile split as 7:35

500mb per month so its not loads really

As above, if a GPX file is 200kb then you can do about 2,500 rides a month before you run out of data.

In any case 500mb is your download limit, isn’t it? Probably won’t be affected by uploads.