[Closed] Grrrr! Strava!

I keep having times wiped from the segments all together and also I hardly ever pick up the segment for the full Twrch trail at Cwmcarn despite being very careful to stick to the trail. INFURIATING! I think I'll cancel my premium membership.

My brother-in-law was having similar problems with his HTC phone. He discovered that most of the problems were due to the case he kept it in. If he removed the case, it tracked nearly perfectly, using either Endomondo or Strava. He also has used a GPS-booster application that seemed to help.

However, he's still since bought a Bryton unit.

I wouldn't worry about not being able to pick up the Cwm Carn full red loop. It's pretty depressing when you do. 😳

Well yes its one of the hardest 13k trails you can do I reckon! The climb never gets any easier and I do it quite often too!!

I bought a cheep GPS tracker, so far it's proved completely accurate, even down to weaving in and out of parked cars!

goes for about £15-£30, mine just lives zip tied to my camelbak or in my jersey pocket which probably helps give it a far less obstructed view of the sky took.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=navin+minihomer&_sacat=0&_odkw=navin+mini+himer&_osacat=0

For the first time since april I didn't turn it on today on my ride, and it was quite refreshing not to be risking life and limb or busting a gut chasing times.

Really, It's not a race you know, you can log a slow strava and people don't laugh at you.

But it is isn't it otherwise what's the point , but I'd admit I'm to competitive and just feel the urge to go out and push, even after my own kom's. Silly I know but thats just the way I am .

But it is isn't it otherwise what's the point

I like the competitiveness but I also use it as a training/ride log. Great when someone is showing you some new trails etc. Also done some of the miles/meters challenges which involve getting stuff done not racing. It's got a few layers really.

I had the same problem with the iPhone strava app. I just started using motion x app then uploading the GPX file when I got in. Never missed a segment after that. I now have a Garmin though as having the info on your bars when chasing down a PR is great motivation to keep going.

Just got a PR this mornin now 65th out of 69 .i am a TIGER RAAAAAAHHH

Is there a way on the Strava website to see all your results? Not just KOMs, but all of them? Or all the segments you've done? Seems a fairly obvious thing to be able to do but I can't find it.

Recently, having started using a Garmin Oregon 450 to record longer rides, I noticed Strava would display the Garmin-recorded GPX route as straight lines, and thought it was a problem with the Garmin device. But in the links below, the ridewithgps map displays the Garmin GPX route as I'd expect to see it, where-as Strava doesn't. Has anyone had this issue as well, and configured to interpret the gpx file properly?

Strava: [img] [/img]

Ridewithgps:
[img] [/img]

Monsta - looks like ride with gps is correcting the route

Possibly the way Strava algorithms interprets gpx files. I reckon they average out the number of data locations to account for the variety of different devices people use to record their routes? A gpx file from a smartphone has to be less accurate than one from a dedicated GPS device. I know my phone samples something like every 3 seconds whereas my Garmin 510 samples every second. The Garmin so far has always managed to pick up all segments I might ride - even under heavy tree cover. The phone on the other hand does miss a fair few segments. It's quite interesting to have both GPS and phone recording at the same time. While the overall routes are pretty similar - segment times can vary wildly, especially on short fast down hill segments.
Example fromthe other week for a DH segment - 1 min 58 sec on the phone - on the GPS 2 min 10 sec - on the same ride, on the same bike at the same time.

Strava is for wet lads, kitchen clock if you want to be macho fantastico.

I found [url= http://www.wheelsuckers.co.uk/profiles/blogs/got-a-strava-kom-which-one-garmin-or-iphone ]this[/url] blog useful in explaining why my (Garmin) times were slower than my mates (iphone) times, it includes some useful responses from the Strava team.

I missed a segment yesterday- not because my device was inaccurate but because it was set up by someone with a crap device - surely it was waterproof as he was in the river 🙂

The iphone 4 ime has been pretty accurate picked up stuff my old garmin 205 missed.

My edge 500 has been excellent though.

Are the GPS watches any good for this kind of thing?

Forerunner 305 310 xt and 910 xt are all excellent.

I run so little i just bought a 910 xt watch strap and put my edge 500 on my wrist

after I'd hurt myself staying in the big ring all the way up.

wibble

surely this all averages out. Sometimes a less accurate GPS will actually give u a faster time some times it wont.

Presumably the speed over the 4 seconds is averaged so it really depends on the shape of the trail.

Just to set the facts straight being an RF engineer with a background in GPS 🙂

The GPS in a phone is no different to the GPS in a Garmin, the chip provider might be different but its still a GPS chip.

The GPS in a phone can be every bit as good as a dedicated GPS, indeed I use an IP rated Android phone as my main navigation tool hill walking.

But a smartphone has lots of things squeezed into it and may use a smaller chip/patch antenna which may also be surrounded by other RF devices. This can mean a phone GPS can be a little fussier about how it is positioned and carried to get a good fix. So a phone stuffed into a seat pack on a bike ridden in a wooded area is going to suffer more than a dedicated GPS in the same situation. But all GPS prefer a good view of the sky such as mounted on handlebars or in at the top of a rucksack.

The GPS in a phone does have one advantage over dedicated GPS devices though, an internet connection which allows it to download data over the internet that will improve its speed in getting a fix, this is called assisted GPS (A-GPS).

Dedicated GPS devices usually have a larger patch antenna, rather than a small chip antenna, some even have a stubby helix coil antenna such as the Garmin GPSMAP6x series. The bigger the antenna the better.

Accuracy can be improved with the use of spaced based augmentation systems (SBAS) that us ground stations at known locations to send correction information to GPS receivers via geo stationary satellites. this can give >5 meter accuracy. Most modern GPS chips support this, including those in phones.

GPS accuracy is largely down to geometry, having a good spread of satellites visible around the horizon provides better geometry than only having satellites directly above you.

Some device can have better accuracy by supporting both the US GPS and Russian Glonass systems, this works because with more satellites in the sky you have a better chance of getting good geometry.

So GPS performance in phone is largely down to the design of the phone itself. how large the antenna is, where the antenna is located in the phone and how much importance the designer put into GPS performance compared to wifi/bluetooth and phone radio performance.

Sometimes a less accurate GPS will actually give u a faster time some times it wont.

I recorded a ride yesterday on 1 phone, using both Endomomdo and Runkeeper. The average speeds differed, the total distance differed, and the maximum recorded speed differed a lot. And Runkeeper took longer to agree that GPS lock was good. So 2 apps have used the same available GPS messages from the same GPS chipset in different ways.

+1 For Garmin i use 800 and a 500 no probs, not as many KOMs as id like though maybe there a bit to accurate! 😛

>Is there a way on the Strava website to see all your results? Not just KOMs, but all of them? Or all the segments you've done? Seems a fairly obvious thing to be able to do but I can't find it.<

Not on the free version afaik.

But dead easy to import your Strava times into this software and see them:

http://veloviewer.com/

I've found the Garmin 500 I'm using way more reliable than the HTC phone I used before but the Garmin / Strava combo is far from perfect. It's good for training / monitoring your own performance but the KOM thing shouldn't be taken too seriously for off road use. For example a few of the trails I use regularly have very close road sections so the leaderboard is chocked with super fast times set by Roadies who have never ever been down the Singletrack. Similarly loads of guys half my age riding CX bikes and I'm on 33lb full suss. Still, it's good fun as long as you keep it all in perspective.