Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 50 total)
  • What proportion of MTBers use Strava ?
  • christhetall
    Free Member

    Strava shows 459 runs by 184 people on the Lady Cannings run in just 3 days, which would be pretty damn remarkable in itself but I wonder what the total figure is ?

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    Less than 1%

    whitestone
    Free Member

    Estimates on here range from near zero to 50%. The figure you come up with depends on the group you ride with. I doubt that the figure is as high as for road cyclists but I think that it’s unlikely that someone uses Strava for just one part of their riding, i.e. if they use it for riding round trail centres then they’ll also use it for natural trails.

    So if a trail centre has a bike counter and publishes the figures then check Strava for that trail or segment and you’ll have a rough idea but I’ve no idea of the margin of error that you’d get, +/- 5% at a guess.

    legend
    Free Member

    Sounds like a poll for the front page (if it hasn’t been done already)

    oldejeans
    Free Member

    all of the ones that matter

    sandwicheater
    Full Member

    7

    br
    Free Member

    12 of us out last night, Strava shows 10 uploads.

    Probably not a good (general) indicator.

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    legend – Member
    Sounds like a poll for the front page (if it hasn’t been done already)

    Hardly a representative sample of mountainbikers though.

    cheese@4p
    Full Member

    N,o Nay, Never

    CraigW
    Free Member

    Some surveys in Portland found it to be 2.5% of all cyclists. That was on a busy commuter route, so probably lots of people doing short journeys, and not bothering with GPS etc.
    I’m sure it could be much higher on some mountain bike routes.

    larkim
    Free Member

    Not MTB’ing at all, but I did a trail running race four weeks ago, and 25% of the competitors uploaded their runs to Strava.

    whitestone
    Free Member

    Well there’s a bike counter on the Llanberis path up Snowdon but do any of the trail centres have them? An article in MBR on Coed y Brenin spoke of numbers doing particular routes but where those figures came from I’ve no idea.

    Shouldn’t be too hard to work out from that sort of data.

    Mbnut
    Free Member

    I’d say about 90% of the people I ride with, both mtb and road.

    I think it depends on the term cyclist.

    Many people ride a bike along a tow path with their kids/partner or go to places like Thetford/Bedgebury/Haldon etc and cycle round various graded routes.

    Are these cyclists in the same manor that I am?? Not really, I enjoy a game of darts about once a month but i’m no darts player.

    I think the more someone cycles the greater the chance they are logging their ride, be it with Strava or some other app etc.

    So I think for a rider at a reasonable level it is probably quite a high percentage.

    Harry_the_Spider
    Full Member

    All of me uses it.

    andylc
    Free Member

    I mtb for fun, therefore (for me) I think Strava is entirely pointless. Doesn’t tell me how big my jumps were or whether I took a better line down a steep section, didn’t bottle the dropoff I left out last time etc etc.

    forzafkawi
    Free Member

    What’s Strava, some sort of sugar substitute?

    roverpig
    Full Member

    It depends on what you call a mountain biker really. Lots of people go out into the woods/trails on their bike and just have fun. Strava, almost by definition, is used by the sub-set that care about how long it took them to ride various segments.

    oldtalent
    Free Member

    No one I know or ride with uses strava. We prefer racing each other in real life.

    christhetall
    Free Member

    Not MTB’ing at all, but I did a trail running race four weeks ago, and 25% of the competitors uploaded their runs to Strava.

    Hadn’t thought of that as a means of getting a figure. Oddly enough I did a fell race in Langdale a couple of weeks back on only one other person seems to have uploaded (out of 61). I’d expect the proportion of people using Strava in a race would be much higher than normal

    carlos
    Free Member

    Two of us out last night and both on there, so 100%

    BUT

    On Monday there was 9 of us out and only 2 on Strava, so 20%

    Almost impossible to determine imo

    scruff
    Free Member

    Only the to55ers who cut corners.

    fathomer
    Full Member

    Blimey, some people really don’t like Strava!

    And for what it’s worth, I use it.

    ferrals
    Free Member

    I’d expect the proportion of people using Strava in a race would be much higher than normal

    not sure, you get timing anyway, and its extra weight and faff.
    I use it in races, but I think its less than half who do (based on flybys etc).

    The thing I always wonder about is, round trail centres especially, how many people are going full blat. I find I am sometimes about the same time as ‘names’ who i know are way faster than me, but for all i know they could have just been crusing along on a social ride

    sideshowdave
    Free Member

    100% of mountain bikers in my office use it*

    *that would just be me then

    legend
    Free Member

    scotroutes – Member

    Hardly a representative sample of mountainbikers though.
    POSTED 59 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

    This place reckons it boasts pretty high numbers from memory (not the forum), so using “mtbers who use the intarweb” sounds like a good enough sample to me. Not sure where you’d find a better one?

    colournoise
    Full Member

    Between 10 and 15 of us out on the Wednesday night club ride each week. Usually 5 or 6 Strava uploads.

    bigjim
    Full Member

    a very few percent I imagine.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Some, anyone claiming numbers is bullshitting

    nickc
    Full Member

    Out of 6 of us out last night, at least 4 were using it.

    BUT, if I look at the numbers on pretty popular DH runs around here then Peckett Well has just 666 (oh er) distinct riders and Blue Pig has just 805. Which is a lot less than I’d expect.

    ferrals
    Free Member

    if you look at the strava global heatmap you’d say 90% in the UK, 1% everywhere else!

    chakaping
    Free Member

    Ask strava.

    And let us know what they say please

    phiiiiil
    Full Member

    I use it very occasionally, but since the new “fly by” thing I’ve been surprised how many of the people I’ve seen out use it. On a couple of rides in the Lakes the other weekend most of the people I passed had used it, or were in a group with at least one person who was.

    IdleJon
    Full Member

    oldtalent – Member
    No one I know or ride with uses strava. We prefer racing each other in real life

    Whereas plenty of the guys I ride with who actually race (whether mtb, cx or road) use it.

    Real life or real races btw?

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    About 70% of my group do, it spreads like a virus imo – the first guy in our group started using it because his road riding group did, once we started seeing it on FB a couple more of us started using it and it spread throughout the group, I think it will continue to grow amongst MTBers, even though, deep-down I think it’s fairly bloody useless off-road.

    There are sections in my local wood that are 8sec long, it was 12sec but a couple of guy sniffed an easy KOM and started throwing themselves at it – there’s about 7 of them sharing it now, there is no way on earth that GPS is accurate enough to fairly judge a 40m / 8 second section off trail.

    BUT, Strava has given me something I like, some of the easier / shorter loops at the trail centres have full-trail sections which are fun to race (for me) 30 min Blue Scar dashes and 45 min Verderer’s Trail rides are great fun for an old tubber like me.

    valley
    Free Member

    Not many of the people I regularly go out with ,another Local group do & have heard reports of them going for segments & yelling at walkers to get out the way

    kerley
    Free Member

    Haven’t got a clue as I always ride on my own.

    And that is why Strava is great for me. I track my own 1-2 hour loops as well as liking the competition of going for KOMs.
    I don’t count a 10 second segment as valid although I do have a KOM on a 41 second segment but generally go for 0.5 to 3 mile segments.

    Guessing a few of the people who hate it have probably not tried it or when they did try it found they were in 200th place…

    whitestone
    Free Member

    On a selection of segments around home I’m 6/320; 119/720; 11/691; 431/672. Basically all over the place! I’m sure there’s one segment where I’m something like 2750/2800 😳

    Apart from a couple of friends the only person I race against on Strava is me.

    christhetall
    Free Member

    I hadn’t realised mentioning Strava on here would elicit the same sort of reaction as “cycling” does in the Daily Mail

    Interesting the presumption that everyone who uses it is racing. For me, I use Garmin devices because I like to know where and how far I’ve been – yep I’m a bit of a geek like that, it motivates me and it helps me plan routes. Garmin auto updates to Strava which generally is a better UI, and yes the leaderboards are interesting but not something to take seriously. I’m rarely near the top – on Lady Cannings I’m not far off the bottom – but it is interesting to see how I’m doing compared to previous runs

    thenorthwind
    Full Member

    christhetall – I was about to weigh in with a very similar view of Strava. I use it, but not competitively (not to say if I didn’t miraculously get a KOM I’d be happy). I like to keep GPS traces of rides I’ve done to see where I’ve been, to look back and remember an exact route where I might have forgotten it, etc. and putting on Strava allows mates to see where I’ve been and vice versa.

    richardthird
    Full Member

    I was really anti Strava, then started at Christmas, crikey it’s like a whole new addiction in itself really.

    You hope to be in top half overall, then find out you’re top quarter, then on some rides you’re top 10%, in others top 5%, so you go a bit faster, a bit more often, whoops addicted.

    Then there’s the challenges. Done all the climbing ones this year, now why am I out crack of dawn tomorrow to do this months ADH one all in one ride?

    Strava alone has made me a good deal faster this year. Which of course only matters if you’re on bloody Strava.

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