My commute home tonight was my first ever Strava ride. It's amazing how much harder you try when you've got a bit of a goal, I'm wrecked now! Into a bastard headwind all the way as well. 
I'd love to see all the people who post on the frequent average speed threads, the ones who claim to average 23mph on their DH bike with 2.7" knobblies on their 10 mile road commute forced to use Strava for a week. Much amusement lies that way I feel.. 
likewise about the commutes and likewise about the headwind! every hill you get a sneaking suspicion there's a segment involved, no respite. one annoying thing is not knowing where they start and finish first time round, guaranteed workout!
We actually had a break in the weather this afternoon and I've been out climbing hills on the Quantocks to get a last bit of footage for the climbing challenge 
I managed 60,390 ft in the end (67%) I think I could have done a lot better if I'd joined Strava known about the challenge sooner.
This months challenge (1470 miles in May) is totally out of my league
i wasn't going to wear my Garmin today or do a recorded ride to work, but i went in at 3rd on a couple of climb segments yesterday without knowing where they were so couldn't resist giving them both a decent attempt. looking forward to getting home to see how i got on! 
I have only been using it occasionally just to see what it's all about, but yesterday riding home with an awesome headwind I went from 9th to 2nd on a particular climb mostly because of being wind assisted. I feel a bit cheeky now...
I took in 2 segments on the way home yesterday, one of which was in the wrong direction, just rode up the hill to the top, turned around and rode back down again
Got both KOMs though, so worth it! 
Got both KOMs though, so worth it!
you only have to ride 75% of the hill and turnaround using this method
Out and Backs
Another issue that can come up with our segment matching algorithm is turnaround points. Out and backs can also cause false matches if you go past the turnaround point to turnaround or if you turnaround prior to the turnaround point but have completed at least 75% of the out and back. It is currently not possible for our segment matching system to detect these details.
https://strava.zendesk.com/entries/20950148-segment-matching-issues
Deliberately went out on sunday morning (in the torrential rain) to try a single segment - wind assisted so I thought I was in with a chance - only to find I'd turned round 1 bridge too early and my efforts were all in vain (although I was ahead at the point I turned round). grrrr
Strava downloaded. Will be trialling it on my commute home (Tower Hill to Crouch End). Not looking for any records... yet.
Not looking for any records... yet.
Not actually managed a bike ride with it yet, some of the running times on the segments I run on are incredible so I am expecting mid-table mediocrity for my cycling segments...
My lunchtime run got me 1% of the way to the "strive for the summit" running challenge 
what's to stop me recording times whilst using motorised transport?
some of the times on segments near me seem ridiculously quick, if not impossible.
Dibbs - Member
We actually had a break in the weather this afternoon and I've been out climbing hills on the Quantocks to get a last bit of footage for the climbing challenge
I managed 60,390 ft in the end (67%) I think I could have done a lot better if I'd joined Strava known about the challenge sooner.
This months challenge (1470 miles in May) is totally out of my league
That May challenge would be great to complete. There are stages as well, so you don't have to complete the whole thing to get acheivments 
brakes - you can challenge someones time.
you only have to ride 75% of the hill and turnaround using this method
Very interesting! Surely that must only be the case on very short climbs? You're not gonna turn around 3/4 of the up Alpe d'Huez and still clock a time are you!?
I have a healthy lead on that one now though, 35 seconds, whilst second is 50 seconds! Frankly I wonder why anyone bothered to set it up! Proud of my Leith Hill off road climb, 1:09 ahead of second, hopefully hold onto that for a while!
It's bloody addictive!
brakes - Member
what's to stop me recording times whilst using motorised transport?
some of the times on segments near me seem ridiculously quick, if not impossible.
I've been very tempted to drive one of the longer draggier climbs with a very popular segment near us at about 22mph with Strava just to make it feasible but nigh on impossible to beat and mess with people's heads
I did notice riding with a bunch of people for the first time in a while that the end of the ride consisted of everyone uploading to Strava to see how they'd done on all the sections (mainly singletrack). Entertaining (I got in on the act too) but does seem a little sad in a way but I guess that the initial excitement will fade over time.
Mmm, I've found rides can be a little less sociable than before. Where folk were previously happy to bimble a bit more it's now all about nailing every single segment, and for Surrey Hills rides that's a hell of a lot of segments!
brakes, which way do you go? that route's very similar to mine, though starting a touch further east. sounds like we could have some head-to-heads on the cards!
I've just started playing with it and it looks liek a good bit of fun. Not sure I'll go out of my way to beat other people (yet) but I do like the ideas of recording personal bests. I can see a lot of NE regular racers on the leaderboards. Biggest problem for me is plenty of the records have been set during races riding in a bunch.
Thing is I used to record hill climb times on regular routes and also did my commute as a timetrial so this is a bit more entertaining as I get nice graphs and maps as well.
Not sure how good the site is for sharing routes etc. like Endomondo.
brakes, which way do you go?
usual route is up City Rd. to Old St., then New North Rd past Essex Rd station to High&I, up Holloway Rd. then cut across to Stroud Green Rd and up Crouch Hill.
Often mix it up though and go up through Angel or Shoreditch, or use Hornsey Rd instead of Holloway Rd or even go further up Holloway Rd and Archway Rd for a challenge then cut across.
No two commutes are ever the same.
sounds like we could have some head-to-heads on the cards!
[excuse]you'll easily win on the hills, I only have one gear and it's a grinder[/excuse]
I have a new arch nemesis on Strava.
there's a few segments where I'm placed second or third and getting closer to the number 1 spot, when this sod appears from no where, has only done 4 rides, and takes KOM on half my segments by at least 30 seconds!
I know where he lives now and he always rides between home and the uni, so I might start waiting, looking out for an Olympic TT rider!
Why did I just join Strava!?!
Arrgghhhh!!!
you're one of us now. you can't escape.
Is there a STW club yet then?
How does a segment get defined? Is it just somebody pressing 'Go' and everyone later matching to that? Forgive the numpty Q - just registered for a look, don't have a GPS gizmo yet - but some of the hills nearby are a bit shorter than I'd count.
I'd best go and buy a smartphone, some of my hills don't look to have been recorded yet, so presumably I could get KOM?
I have my very own segment that I'm KOM on;
http://app.strava.com/segments/1223464
(I'm not sure whether to include the 'down the garden to the shed' segment as opportunities for others to beat my time are somewhat limited)
to do a segment you basically set a start and end point on a map and give it a name. hey presto. i was quite impressed that last night when i created one on a hill that didn't have one, it set a time that i did last week as the fastest, rather than just the time from the ride i'd just done.
I'm on Endomondo at the moment, what's the difference between the two and is one better for some things than the other?
good couple of commutes today - 3 KOMS and 2 PRs
I see you AJ 
I'm currently 478th in the Nuun Twice the Tour Challenge and every time I refresh the screen the number gets bigger
That's some good strava stalking!
Im enjoying it just started last week - coinciding with me ridinb to work .
Rode in and found id taken 9th on a blast into town on my fixie then on the way home killed a climb for kom Now every day i, trying to climb up for 9th ...
Is it wrong that im tempted to take my tt bike down the blast and regain that 5kph difference for kom on that segment
I've just done the Tameside crit race, discovered while idly browsing the phone before the race that Tameside Cycle Circuit is a segment on Strava - it's been ridden 4119 times!
Current top billing on there averaged 34.8mph round there! 
Our race averaged 24mph tonight which was quite slow - killer headwind down one side of the circuit.
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