[Closed] Strava Addiction

Get faster!

Start smoking EPO in the pipe, Mike!

On my local segments there's generally one person who's an order of magnitude ahead of the rest of the field. I don't see how they could've done those climbs at that speed without having enlisted the help of a passing tractor or milk float. It's only the small fry whose times can be bettered with achievable increments of improvement that I'm after.

i and all my mates are loving strava, it has taken over our lives :o) and also made us fitter and better riders. every one wants the Kom's. ive met new people to ride with through strava also.
its ace

Theres a climb on my commute to work, I used to just plod up it,but since I started to use Strava I have been putting a bit more effort in on the hill.

Have you tried cutting all the corners, straight lining and generally ruining the track/trail? That seems to be what most of the people down here in the Westcountry do to get faster Strava times.

What's wrong with riding the trail that's actually there rather than missing most of it out?

Tom Kp

I love it. Sprinting is a lot better and known climbs I push a little harder on. Does have its downsides such as gettig annoyed with ramblers and horse riders if they are on your segment and also pushing yourself harder leads to some more crashes!!

Theres a climb by me thats been done in about 2mins, at 68kph! I consider myself an above average rider, and can only do it it about 6mins!
I think they need some system so that times like that can be questioned...

You can report times. It's one of the options on the "actions" drop down.

I think they need some system so that times like that can be questioned...

They have one.

I think they need some system so that times like that can be questioned...

There is, you can flag the ride.

I was rather chuffed to get KOM on Shagger's this afternoon...

http://app.strava.com/segments/1451786

in that case... dimproblemo

I just lost a KOM to someone who was obviously in a car. I know I shouldn't care, but I do. It's the only one I've got. 🙁

The actions box only gives me the option to flag it as dangerous.

The actions box only gives me the option to flag it as dangerous.

Go to the person's ride, click 'flag ride'. Not that I can ever be arsed to do that.

There's a 'comedy' segment near us that's listed as a 28% climb, despite being slightly downhill. Must be a glitch in their database that's then autocreated the segment. http://app.strava.com/segments/1169807

I could ride that every day on my way to work to get my climbing total up 🙂

There's a 'comedy' segment near us that's listed as a 28% climb, despite being slightly downhill.

And far too short to be useable, you could likely ride that side by side with someone and get times 5-10 seconds apart its so short! They need to make a minimum length for segments to compensate for gps inaccuracy.

Well I went out today specifically to take a kom, needed to find 4 seconds on the segment, I did 5 runs, 2 slow checking line choice and even sweeping branches off the track. Then 3 at full tilt. The result? I was 1 second quicker, so now 3 seconds off kom....

I did however pick off another kom kind of by accident, so overall pleased

I don't get why I got fastest time on a section today but it's not appeared as a KOM don't know why

Sometimes it takes time to show up.

Just joined Strava this week....finding it very addictive but excellent for training: I've been been out most days this week.

Its been very busy over the weekend not surprisingly...dropped a good few positions on certain popular Surrey Hill trails. Damn you muddymoles! 😉

Mate was telling me yesterday of a ride recorded on his Strava which started him in Belgium & got him to the South coast in about 20 seconds. 😯

He was only commuting the 12 miles to work 😆

anybody worked out why the power calculation (as inaccurate as it is) does not seem to work - even after entering rider weight and default cycle data?

If you want to claim a KOM just ride 75% of a segment real hard then turn off in any direction.
It seems a bit flawed IMO for short segments.

I went on a ride that covered a few segments and its now saying 2nd fastest even though its a well slower time than my best and doesn't list in the segment.

Also theres a segment thats impossible to ride near me that someone posted at 22mph and there is simply no track.

There are a lot of glitches in the system but if you treat it as a "bit of fun" you won't go far wrong I feel.

pingu - its saying its your second fastest time down that segment

hugor - that appears to be a myth or your gps is shagged .... i tested that one out a few times on my commute - ie there is a segment i can either ride the full length(8kms) of or turn off a turn early and take a cheeky off road section about 500m from the end of the segment.

if i turn off the segment does not register.

strava is probably a good training tool. I won't use it though cos of how much people go on about it. plus on my phone it would rinse the battery (I have used similar gps apps) and I refuse to shell out money on a garmin.

DT78 - have just seen your segments in lordswood - quite impressive 🙂

FWIW No corners cut
[url= http://app.strava.com/rides/9001090#164434127 ]Strava KOM's[/url]
Just a god challenge

hugor - that appears to be a myth or your gps is shagged

Gps shagged then ? I was using an iphone . Couldnt fool it

Thanks Chojin not quite sure how I can find another 3 seconds on 90degrees, think I'm braking ever so slightly too much on a couple of the turns

The chap who has the KOM rides a camber 29er and pretty sure he rides for Hargroves. Seen he popped along to QE today and got another 4 KOMs!! I'm sure next time he comes back to LW I will be put back in my place.

Seriously quick chap. Maybe I need a 29er?!

I just noticed I got a KOM out of 28 people! First time I've used the app. Topped out at 63kph down a hill. And another odd thing - a guy did exactly the same segment, and got sixth place, 30 minutes after me... today! how random!

Just downloaded the app. 😯

I have less than zero chance on any climbs but will have a go at some DHs - I could see this ending badly!

Gps shagged then ? I was using an iphone . Couldnt fool it

I'm sorry your iphone has led you to delusions of grandeur.
Perhaps you should purchase an accurate device like the Garmin Edge 800 like I have before claiming your trophies.

ultimate troll?

Perhaps you should purchase an accurate device like the Garmin Edge 800 like I have before claiming your trophies.

Clearly not that accurate if you're claiming trophies for riding 75% of the track 😛

The point I was making was about the deficiencies of the KOM system due to segment mismatching.
I don't have any respectable KOMs to brag about sadly 🙁
When you see routes plotted by phones the distance between data points is massive compared to gps devices.
This makes timing for short segments almost meaningless.

Some miserable git reported one of my segments as dangerous so it's been taken down, and I think I nailed the KOM too but can't check.... Pants.

If you want to claim a KOM just ride 75% of a segment real hard then turn off in any direction.
It seems a bit flawed IMO for short segments.

hugor - that appears to be a myth or your gps is shagged .... i tested that one out a few times on my commute - ie there is a segment i can either ride the full length(8kms) of or turn off a turn early and take a cheeky off road section about 500m from the end of the segment.

if i turn off the segment does not register.

If you read the rules, its 75% of a track AND going through the START and END points. If your 'turn off' goes near enough the end point for the system to consider it within the bounds of GPS error then it will accept it, ie. more likely on short sections.

FYI, For some segments an iPhone can be more accurate then a Garmin. I'll explain.

iPhone drops a GPS point every 1 second. Garmin drop them when needed (dependant on settings) so in a long straight line the Garmin will most likely try to save memory by only dropping points near the start of the straight. Strava takes the nearest GPS point to the start/finish to work out your time, therefore if your segment starts or ends on a straight road the Garmin GPS point may be further away than a point dropped but your iPhone.

iPhone drops a GPS point every 1 second.

Explanation fail. Strava tracks every 4s.

I found my garmin to be pretty useless so sold it. Only redeemin feature it had was long battery life compared to my phone - a non issue for most folk on here really.

Explanation fail. Strava tracks every 4s.

Really? Must be some other GPS app that drops it every 1s then. Apologies. Could still be more accurate than a garmin if the GPS points are nearer the start/finish than the randomly tracked garmin ones, tho obviously less likely now. Is this why some people use endomondo and then transfer the track to Strava? (I have a Garmin so no idea about phone apps)

I haz sum KOM's, wikkid innit

I found my garmin to be pretty useless so sold it. Only redeemin feature it had was long battery life compared to my phone - a non issue for most folk on here really.

I found the opposite. My iPhone did a reasonable job as a GPS tracker but from the tracks you could see there were quite a few inconsistencies. Nothing too bad, however the killer was that even if fully charged at the start it'd only do 2-hours max of tracking before the battery died.

My Garmin is just a cheap forerunner 305 but I've been impressed with it. It can still show some inconsistencies at times but only really when under heavy tree cover.

Mines was a 205

My phones a well used iphone 4 And does about 5 hrs my garmin did 12 hrs which was nice but no needed . I have to carry a nokia c30 anyway for work so not worried about battery being run down

however the killer was that even if fully charged at the start it'd only do 2-hours max of tracking before the battery died

4 hour ride with my 18 month old Iphone4 used ~40% of battery on saturday....

I lost 2 over the weekend and dropped from 2nd to 8th on another, clearly the trails are getting faster again!

I wish there was just a list of all segments you've ridden and your position. Unless you're KOM, or happen to look at one, it's impossible to know where you are.

All good fun though!

Explanation fail. Strava tracks every 4s.

Really? Not trying to troll, genuine question. GPS updates every second; I know you can set Garmin to have a longer battery life by only recording every 5 seconds but normally the default setting is every second.

Surely to be accurate, especially on shorter segments, it should read every second?

Recording intervals vary between devices - for example, the mobile app records every 4 seconds while Garmins usually use smart recording which has a varied recording interval. Segment matching works the same on each GPS dataset, but depending on the unique data and recording interval, can yield different results. Segment matching uses the GPS points in the data closest to the start and endpoints of the segment, and as this can vary with each activity, timing on a segment can vary slightly because of this. At the present time, we don't interpolate or extrapolate GPS data to normalize for the exact start and end positions of the segment.

https://strava.zendesk.com/entries/20950148-segment-matching-issues

I must say the Strava track tends to be far more 'vague' than (for example) the Garmin Connect one. Looking at a trail like Barry Knows Best you lose a huge number of the corners judging by the Strava trace. Not sure if this is just how it plots it on the map, or to do with the sampling, but it looks a little odd.

Also often shows me going back on myself or round in circles which Connect never does.

I use an app called velocio for MTB. Records at 1s intervals and uploads direct to strava.

For road the strava app is fine.

I had an interesting one the other day. According to strava i hit 69.4mph on a ride

[img] [/img]

http://app.strava.com/rides/9226498

I uploaded the same rout to garmin and it didn't show this spike. I worked out this was when i was in a tunnel on the bristol > bath cycle track. Strava took the loss of gps signal between the tunnel and calculated the speed at nearly 70mph 🙂

Strava's not been the most reliable of GPS trackers for me:

On [url= http://app.strava.com/rides/9387752 ]my last ride[/url], Strava decided to stop recording 15km from home. And [url= http://app.strava.com/rides/8949082 ]the ride before that[/url] I had to stop it because it killed my phone battery (now sorted with a bigger battery). [url= http://mactually.co.uk/?p=369 ]The ride before that[/url], my first proper ride with it, it died completely leaving me no way of getting the data.

It's kind of become like Facebook though: the more people that use it, the less likely you are to leave it because of its faults.

HTTP404 - Member
anybody worked out why the power calculation (as inaccurate as it is) does not seem to work - even after entering rider weight and default cycle data?

Think it was a bug. I couldn't get it to work last night, but checked back on my ride this morning and the power has been calculated.

njee20 - Member

I wish there was just a list of all segments you've ridden and your position. Unless you're KOM, or happen to look at one, it's impossible to know where you are.

Agree! That would be a great feature.

Any recommendations for a simple device to log STRAVA on as the iphone battery just doesn't last long enough

Simon - I had that issue. Could only get it to last around 5.5 hours. So got an external iPhone battery case for £7. I can now get around 15 hours of Strava time!

ahahahahahah!!!! Found the extra 3 seconds and picked up that KOM today.... I even had a pint and did a little victory dance for the wife. ...

Strange thing is, I was riding with a buddy this time and whilst riding quick wasn't actually trying to beat any times.

Another weird one - the ride I did at the weekend, two segments cropped up on it, not created by me - but according to the segment page I'm the only person to have ridden them. 😕 Why would you create a segment you hadn't ridden yourself? Or is the segment creator just an intensely private individual embarrassed about their crap times?

I tend to use "my tracks" on my android phone. You can use it with the data off, so it doesnt batter the data allowance or the battery.
then save it as a gpx file and upload to strava. Bit long winded, but it doesnt kill the phone or the data.

stefmcdef, it does automatically create some segments if they're over a certain length and / or gradient.

stefmcdef, it does automatically create some segments if they're over a certain length and / or gradient.

I had that happen when I uploaded what was stored in my Garmin. Unfortunately the segment it created (a category 2 climb) was on a munro I'd climbed a couple of weeks back so it could be a while before any cycling times get posted!

As it hasn't been mentioned for a while, someone created a Singletrackworld club so there is"A place for the overweight IT middle managers of STW to unite and massage each others egos."

http://app.strava.com/clubs/singletrackworld-com-forumites