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Bored and sat at home, curious to see if anyone has given using Strava, and the reasons for doing so?
if you give up strava and don't everyone repeatedly does that count?
I still have an account, but haven't logged on to take a look for over 6 months, and even before then was logging on l;ess and less.
I wanted to use it as a social sports platform, to see what people had done that would motivate me, not commutes and virtual rides. The fact that strava enforced a single vision for all users rather having tuneable options for the feed just made it useless for what I wanted.
No, it pretty much just looks after itself. My Garmin sends data to it and I get feedback of anyone interacts with it. I never bother with goals and activities on it.
Just a free account these days, as I'm not going to trouble my segment best times, seven months into long covid.
Never used it to begin with to give up on it.
I don't pay for it, does that count?
I think I paid a small fee for or did a free trial month and it offered nothing I wanted beyond the free version. So if you call not continuing my sub giving up then I guess the reason is that I've never really understood it as a social platform and it's training stuff is of no interest to me.
Reduced to a free account for me.
I wanted to use it as a social sports platform, to see what people had done that would motivate me, not commutes and virtual rides.
Indeed. If they enforced a policy were every logged activity was private until you actually elected to make it public (it's an option I use but it's not compulsory) it might make the social feed more interesting. People would have to think 'do people need to see this?' before it went into other folk's feed. At the moment it's like trudging through the social feed on facebook made up of people who post every time they have a meal or take a shart.
it pretty much just looks after itself. My Garmin sends data to it
this.
statistics I'm interested in are displayed on my watch at the end of a ride.
if its an interesting ride, I'll give it a fun name, and maybe add a photo or two.
otherwise I just leave it.
after every intersting ride, I'll scroll through the feed looking at my friends' rides and pics, distributing kudus as I see fit, takes a couple of minutes a week.
Got no interest in segments - anything worthwhile/not a totally stupid convoluted route around here (busy south east) has thousands of users, at least some of those will be GPS errors* and some will be ebike cheaters. Anything further afield, like a full descent in the peaks, or a welsh trail centre; theres no way I'd be competitive as a non-local.
*a few years ago I was happy at being joint second (with a lot of people, including the local quickies, and Phil Atwill) for the year on one of the main swinley descents. Until I looked at the person with the fastest time. Thier ride was called something like "testing the new winter tyres in the slop" and they had won by like 5 seconds on a sub 1 min descent.
edit - never paid, always been on the free account. they've removed some free features, but none that I care about.
I use it to upload stuff to TrainerRoad, but my account is set to private and I don’t look at it for other people’s rides.
When I was ill with covid the first time I found it just gave me FOMO so I knocked it on the head. Found I didn’t miss it so have never really got back into it
I love Strava. Happy to pay too. It’s got basically every ride I’ve ever done on it for a start. I use the route builder, follow a few people, post a few pictures and use it to build up a picture of what’s happened at races via people’s write-ups but actually, despite everything Intervals.icu can do, I find analysis really good using the Sauce plug in too.
If people post rubbish, I mute them if I think they’ll care whether I follow them back or unfollow them.
Gave up about 5 years ago. Was disappointed if I didn’t beat a previous time, and was diminishing the enjoyment of the ride, so I stopped looking.
Free account, populated from Garmin Connect/Zwift. I've never paid for Strava.
Over the Winter (after the STW 100 days challenge) I had set default to Private. Nobody needs to see what I was doing on Zwift, I was only making public anything "interesting" or where I had photos to share with friends.
Default is now set to Followers, mostly because I'm sharing photos of club rides and runs.
I think I still have an account. Stopped using it about 8 years ago. I didn't like the way it was becoming a social media platform rather than a mapping and recording tool.
I've gone years without using anything but I'm looking at OS maps or Ride with GPS for route planning now. Going on a European tour for a couple of weeks this summer so interested in using something to plan our days.
Still loving it here
It really doesn’t take me very long to scroll through everyone’s activities in the past day. Always nice to see what people have been upto. Really glad it doesn’t filter. But I should ask Heidi at work to not put her warm up and warm down in her Home feed
Only ever had free account, used to use it with a group of mates but then they changed so you couldn't see the group stuff unless you paid.
Still use it for personal stuff as it's easier to just have a quick look at than Garmin. Fun to see how shit I am on segments as well. Especially when my PB's are mi Ute's slower than other people!! 😂
Gave up about 5 years ago. Was disappointed if I didn’t beat a previous time, and was diminishing the enjoyment of the ride, so I stopped looking.
I always wonder what they do with our data, do they sell it? I guess it shows how we all slow down as we get older. How our heart rates change over time etc. Must be quiet interesting data to pharmaceutical companies.
I just have a free account so I can log how many hours I've ridden in a year. I like to look at my rides when I've finished.
I Like to see how I compare to previous years and how much I've faded from my younger days 🤣
I still "use" it but purely for PRs on certain road segments. I can see if I'm actually getting fitter in the real world.
I I use garmin connect to record my rides. It syncs with strava.
I paid for 2 years before then went with the all-in fee - the analytics and location stuff so was about 20 quid a year. Then realised Garmin does all that for free (once you have bought a device), so don't really use Strava for anything other than recording the rides I do with the club - coaching or social just so there is a vague record.
I'm so far off my fast times that I'll never make top 10 and have no interest in that...Strava just doesn't seem worth paying for as I get far more from Garmin and I'm not massively social so don't really care if people don't know I've done a thing.
Some people still rate it which is good, but it doesn't do anything for me now and I'm too lazy to disconnect the automatic syncing.
The whole segment thing was interesting for a while. On a personal level it was interesting to compare my own times as I got fitter - and then older 🙂 The data for comparing with other folk became very polluted though; multiple overlapping segments on the same trail, off-road segments so close to roads that it couldn'y differentiate, folk leaving their trackers on whilst driving and the use of electric bikes.
When I was ill with covid the first time I found it just gave me FOMO so I knocked it on the head
I'm getting this a bit now, ongoing injuries, illness and work/family life means my riding is faltering, and I get irrationally jealous and resentful when I see the riding others are putting in!
On the flip side, I keep planning awesome looking routes on the route planner which keeps the motivation high, probably worth the subscription fee 👍
I don't pay for it and at the start of this year I set up a new account on which I track my rides but don't share them publicly, I have no followers & follow no one. I don't use the segments. All I want from it is: distance, time, ascent & a pretty map of where I've been.
Pretty anti social of me, but that's al I want from it so don't use the social media / KOM side of it.
Don’t pay for the premium version and wish there was a way of muting zwift/virtual rides. It’s just a record of activity now, some I make private if I’m arsed.
I like looking at my (very) old KOMs from when I was younger,fitter and awesome 😆 🤣
I always wonder what they do with our data, do they sell it? I guess it shows how we all slow down as we get older. How our heart rates change over time etc. Must be quiet interesting data to pharmaceutical companies.
I hadn’t thought of medical research
The data set use is quite amazing
Simple example. My wife is on the council and big on active transport. She says we need a pavement there. They say no one walks there. Well the Strava heat map shows loads of people on foot along there.
Some one went to the Welsh government and something like. “If you’re trying to promote cycling and wales as a cycling destination you need to know there are more people riding on cheeky hand cut trails than trail centres”
use it for every ride............ just to see my distance.
like to keep track of my yearly mileage.
I still use it. Very rarely look at segments and prs but sometimes I find just seeing other peoples rides and pictures encourages me to get out there myself.
I’m a bit of a Strava addict, I love it! The stats, the route planner, the segments are all great… I’m a competitive soul and it gives me what I need!
Gave up about 5 years ago. Was disappointed if I didn’t beat a previous time, and was diminishing the enjoyment of the ride, so I stopped looking.
Exactly this for me. My rides are now defined good or bad based on how much I enjoyed them rather than what my wildly inaccurate Strava (phone or garmin) tells me. I’ve been off it for a couple of years now and don’t miss it in the slightest. I do the odd local dh race at Gawton which scratches the competitive itch once in a while, it’s a bit more social than virtual racing!
Segments are pointless around here as any of the climbing ones are pretty much all e-bikes in the top 10.
I’ve no interest in seeing who’s ridden a bit in their garage on Zwift or who’s done the same daily commute they always do.
I can’t see why I’d pay for it when Garmin offer the same and more for free.
Still use it, though no longer paying for it.
I like the stats it gives me, and I track mileage against each bike (theoretically for planned maintenance purposes but I'm too disorganized to actually buy replacement parts and do the maintenance).
When I subscribed, I liked to be able to deeply dive into specific segments for areas I was going to visit so I could figure out trail conditions (eg is a trail still closed due to snow) by looking up really recent rides via the leader boards. Looking up others ride is really useful to see the "best" way to ride trails (ie how many ride a loop clockwise vs anti-clockwise)
My activities are private be default.
I use it pretty much daily for walks and rides (sometimes swims) recording on my android phone. I also pay as I like the route planning and heat maps.
No interest whatsoever in leader boards, and all my activities are private.
I always wonder what they do with our data, do they sell it?
They do have this: https://metro.strava.com/
So many e-bikes and cheats that I never bother with the leaderboards. Well that and the fact I'm old and slow.
However as a route recording tool it's great. It's interesting to see where I've been; often not where I intended to go!!
Very easy to use and no adverts. I use it for a variety of sports. Nice being able to see what friends are up to. Don't mind paying for a great service. I've never understood the "I'll pay thousands for bikes/kit/holidays but not a few quid a month for a service I regularly use" mentality.
Never understood either how people say it detracts from the riding experience. I click On at the start and Off at the end. Sometimes I check Strava during my ride, sometimes I don't.
And it's the only cycling app mentioned in a Half Man Half Biscuit song. That sealed the deal for me!!
was affecting my riding negatively, so I binned it
Yup that.
I pay for it. Don’t care about segments/leaderboards but I use the heatmaps (global and personal) and route planner tools to plan basically every route I do.
Free account here, tried the premium version but apart from the ease of stealing GPX files (which i'm not that bothered about) I found I didn't need it.
I do find that seeing that others have been out does motivate me.
Not me, still love it and still managing to add to my list of KOMs every now and then.
Just use it for ride tracking. Gave up long ago looking at segment times. Set it to approved followers only, no advertising cheeky trails. Mainly a diary of my rides plus tracks my bike components.
Though I could just use Garmin for that. It has the same data but I dont add any detail and haven't set up bike component stuff on there. Strava is easier to use.
Occasionally kudos other people but loads are on Zwift these days and I don't kudos garage workouts.
I like it when I'm fit, less so when I'm fat.
The route planner is good.
I like to see what others are up to.
I use it to keep a total of my own activity. KOMs are irrelevant as I'm a million miles away from the top of the leaderboard.
Really like the heatmaps & ease of route planning. If I'm in a new area I can quickly easily plot a route for a run/ride, upload it to my watch & head out following it, knowing that 99.9% of the time it'll be easy to follow a possible route somewhere I've never been before.
Another addict here. I've got pretty much every ride and run i've done since 2012 (having imported a lot of Runkeeper stuff in). Dozens of photos.
I like all aspects of it. Setting private segments for myself to benchmark on, getting excited about a Top 10 when there's recognisable 'local heroes' in the same, marveling at the feats of others, competing with some mates on segments even when we can't actually ride together. I've a mate who's 15 years older than me and retired and has become an absolute weapon - he goes around intentionally smashing my times and I think it's great.
We do a 100km mtb/gravel ride every christmas and it's fun to drop in a segment with a message "Merry Xmas from Strava" etc.
I can also watch the time of some of the local up and coming young ones who are getting faster and faster. Also, while I don't often use the routes it can be useful to find new places to ride.
I don't get to ride with others all that often, so it's a different way of sharing the pleasure of a ride.
Admittedly there aren't thousands and thousands of riders where I am, and I don't do much on-road riding.