TBH Strava isn’t as such a new idea it stands on the shoulders of various pre-existing apps and websites (Sportstracker, Endomondeo, map my ride/run, etc), it’s just the version that’s caught more peoples attention and coincided with mature enough technologies and widespread enough web access to make a better go of it.

Strava is still most useful as a training/fitness monitoring tool, the KOMs serve as a useful gauge for anyone looking to see how competitive they might be but anyone obsesive enough to cheat on a KOM has totally missed the point…

For my own part I think it’s an overall good thing, gets people out riding trails/routes or running and looking at their own performance…
I think the obsesive ego warrior cheaters will tire of it in due course and it will revert to being a useful website for those genuinely interested in looking at their performance…

Is strava ‘Bad’? No, it’s just a website, any behavious people engage in when chasing KOM glory is more down to the individuals skewed personality traits than anything Strava has actively encouraged them to do, they would still be pricks even if strava didn’t exist…

I’m generally quite a polite rider, never jump lights etc, but I have to confess to my first incidence recently of “riding like a dick” to get a Strava KOM, this one a single segment consisting of a 15 mile loop…

http://app.strava.com/rides/9101674#165767413

Once I finished I did admit to myself that I had indeed ridden like a dick & won’t do that again. Probably not the best choice to do it during rush hour I suppose. Worst of all, I got 2nd place by 4 seconds over a 44 minute route! Bah.

.If you want to race, enter one.

THIS!

They should just make it impossible to create segments which lose altitude – that would be pretty simple

This is a good idea, and would solve potential issues. But they’ll never do it, why would they deliberatly hobble their own product.

I have my own way of checking my full ride fitness… As I leave I look at the clock… When I get back I look at it again. I’m yet to come up with a catchy brand name though…

I created some segments the other night on cheeky trails but I have kept them private.

Don’t want people knowing about them. If i could share them with mates on Strava I would but I’m not making them public.
Others however might make their cheeky segments public to share with mates but that will mean everyone can see them.

I have asked Strava if they plan on putting a “share private segment” feature in but not heard back yet. Can I suggest you do too? Would solve at leat some of the issues.

support@strava.com

Ride like a numpty, fiddle file, claim KOM – job done.

this sort of shit is infuriating, it’s like the cheaters on computer games, if you cheat to win then it’s a hollow victory and you would feel ashamed and have no pride in it. If you cheat and you do feel proud of winnning you’re a dick who needs to grow up. Also of course you’re screwing it up for all the other people playing fair and comparing themselves to unattainable goals*.

Never done strava, sounds a reasonable idea if you adhere to Miketuallys 3 rules.

*anyone cheating just to mess with everyone elses heads, there’s a special circle of hell set out for you along with the trolls 😈

Ride like a numpty, fiddle file, claim KOM – job done.
this sort of shit is infuriating

If you’re the type who thinks strava times are comparable between individuals on different dates then you’re a prime target for having the piss ripped out of you

(I’d be interested to see a list of wind strengths/directions vs KoM times on a few rides round here – it can make at least 20% difference to my efforts)

If you’re in to willy waving with your mates then its a good tool.

I use it for my commute and although I claim I’m not interested in seeing how other folk are doing I’d love to be KoM up Levers Causeway!

I have my own way of checking my full ride fitness… As I leave I look at the clock… When I get back I look at it again. I’m yet to come up with a catchy brand name though…

Does that tell you whether you were slower today because you weren’t climbing well or because of that headwind on a flat stretch? GPS (any GPS, not just Strava) can.

Strava is great. I just got my first KoM and feel very proud of the effort I put into that segment that I wasn’t aware was there. I guess the 7 other people in my group also got a KoM that night aswell.

Its great to prove my climbing worth over a total elevation gain of EIGHT feet in 2 minutes. Come at me Strava.

you’re a prime target for having the piss ripped out of you

like I said I don’t do strava, it’s the cheating aspect I object to, any application. Strava is something that to all intents and purposes doesn’t matter, cheating when there’s a prize available I can kind of see a point, still wrong tho, but for inconsequential stuff like this where’s the motivation?

Yes strava is willy waving, any kind of competition is, bit of light hearted “first to the top/bottom of the hill” with your mates is the same, plenty people do it. Why BS/cheat about it?

I still think people are overstating the importance of Strava. Do you really think the Strava police are coming to get you?

Does that tell you whether you were slower today because you weren’t climbing well or because of that headwind on a flat stretch? GPS (any GPS, not just Strava) can.

OK no, can it really detect wind speed?

I can normally tell that sort of thing myself though…

Why not start an underground anti strava movement,soon as some *”%# rings his bell or tries to push past block them spoil their run. Going to get slaughtered for this for sure.

I don’t get it either, but each to their own, it’d be a boring boring world if we all liked the same stuff. As already said if you want to know how good you are then enter a race, you can’t compare weather conditions, traffic on Strava etc.. get out and get your elite MTB licence or first cat road licence then you know you’re quite a good rider 😉

OK no, can it really detect wind speed?

I can normally tell that sort of thing myself though…

No, but you can see if you were slower than usual on the headwind sections or not. On my last ride, there was a horrible headwind all the way home so I assumed I’d be slower, but my speed seemed to hover around 20kmh as it always does on that section so I can see that I wasn’t.

I did the same ride two weeks running, with the second time being an hour faster. I could tell that by the clock. With GPS I can see if that was down to reducing stops, faster climbing or whatever.

if you want to know how good you are then enter a race, you can’t compare weather conditions, traffic on Strava etc.

I’m only competing against myself though, not others. Can’t really do that without GPS 🙂

I think the cheating aspect is fine. Afterall, surely Strava is just meant to be a bit of a laugh ? Draughting a truck or a tractor is a bit of a laugh, especially if you beat some goon on a forum who brags about how many KOM’s they have.

I’d find it a bit cringe worthy if you were taking it seriously. Seriously duking it out against an anonymous person on the internet, its just like singletrackworld.

If you want to see how good you are, go to a race or a hill climb or a time trial or a sportive. Or are you scared ?

Yawn……

D0NK – I guess irony doesn’t come across too well on the web. I was aiming a shot at the (alleged) ‘Strava run!’ brigade – not that I’ve ever come across one of them. I’ve got no interest in using Strava, or cheating with it – I’m more focussed on how well I feel I’ve ridden rather than whether I was a few seconds faster or slower than I was on the same trail some time last October.

I can see the uses of this sort of application as a training aid, but ‘competing’ against a bunch of people who rode some/all of the same trail on a different day seems pretty irrelevant (to me).

I guess irony doesn’t come across too well on the web

Well I wasn’t 100% you were serious but having seen sooooo many cheaters on CoD recently it hit a nerve 🙂

I think the cheating aspect is fine. Afterall, surely Strava is just meant to be a bit of a laugh ?

game of pool down the pub is just a bit of a laugh, if I decide to move a few of the balls around before I take my shot that’d be ok with you? Course it wouldn’t it’d make me a bit of a dick.

If it’s not serious, shirley there’s no reason to cheat. Competing is a little juvenile, competing for no reward is arguably even more juvenile, cheating for no reward is even lower, as I mentioned on a par with trolling. If you’re competetive then take part if you’re not then step away, no need to break it for everyone else.

Again not a strava user, just impotently arguing on the tinterweb about the infantile competitivness of blokes and the petulant cheaters.

I’ve been timing my rides on the Quantocks since the late 90’s, (Polar Protrainer HRM, Polar S710 HRM, Garmin eTrex Vista GPS, Garmin Edge 705 GPS & Garmin Edge 800 GPS) and all it’s proved is that at 55 I’m slower than I was at 35 😥

I dont know D0NK, you’re not comparing like for like there. A game of pool is a real competition. It may be a bit of a laugh, but you’re both there, in the room, duking it out.

Its about pride, honour, skill, nerve, mettle, true grit and real men. It may still be a bit of a laugh, but you’re both strong enough characters to stand there and try and crush each other.

Strava is for people who are too scared to do this. I mean, how is draughting a tractor really any worse than riding with a 30mph tail wind?

It cant be taken seriously at all. Just do what you can to win. Get a lift in your mums car if you want. If you want to beat people properly then race.

Its about pride, honour, skill, nerve, mettle, true grit and real men. It may still be a bit of a laugh, but you’re both strong enough characters to stand there and try and crush each other.

egggsackerly, nicely put 🙂

Dunno, strava is badly done, GPS units are rubbish, wind conditions, ground conditions, driving/walking to the start point so you’ve got fresh legs, drafting trucks straightlining twisty trails, it’s all bobbins so some of your scorn is starting to sounds reasonable.

Strava is not a proper racing but then again “who cares just cheat” is proper cheating.

Never seen so many disgruntled middleaged biffers with their gonads in a twist over something so trivial.

Don’t like it? STFU and don’t use it.
Like it? Great, enjoy!

Not quite that simple palookah, when it affects others. Im talking about trail straightening and publicising cheeky places.

trail straightening has always gone on.

The other day I got a KOM that was 30 seconds faster than the previous best by dint of pottling alogn a fireroad next to some singletrack. I’ve now succesfully challenged my time and Strava have removed it but I can see there’s two or three others on the same segment that are fireroad.

Strava’s fun – not the end of mtbing as we know it.

Personally I have yet to have encountered a problem but can see why people worry about it/have complaints but like 99% of things people complain about it’s not the thing that’s the problem, it’s PEOPLE!

Last time I went to Glentress I took my Garmin to see how I compared to others around the trails but a Saturday afternoon was clearly not the best time to do this so just accepted getting held up…like if I was riding with out GPS. I don’t see anything wrong with having downhill sections on it (other than KOM seems a bit odd for a decent) you just have to ride with respect to others; Clearly you should be doing this anyway and if being at the top of a internet table is the be all and end all to you, you seriously need to look at your life! And that’s coming for a fairly competitive man that likes using strava!

Strva is not the problem, people are the problem.

Racing on the Queen’s Highway is illegal (for good reason). I “think” that includes straight time-trialling a-la Strava.

It’s mainly the cheeky trails that I think will cause the most upset.

Sharing segments within private groups and having leaderboards for them just within those groups perhaps would help, but it doesn’t stop people making them public.

So maybe there needs to be a kind of moderation of the ones created.

A bit like on Open Street Map. The trails on there have typically just been official trails and the unofficial ones not marked, perhaps because it takes peer review/moderation to add or remove them. That said, some cheeky ones have popped up locally recently and I wonder if they have just because they’re on Strava so they assume it’s okay now.

The big crap will hit the fan round my way on the MOD land. They are kicking up a fuss as it is and getting less tolerant of bikes (though they have allowed them within reason and obeying the rules, for some time). The unwritten rule though was no published GPS else they’ll kick everyone off. Strava now shows segments all over their land. Not good.

A dilemma as I find the segments helpful, but that means I’ll go ride a trail I didn’t know about before, and so will loads of others.

Racing on the Queen’s Highway is illegal (for good reason). I “think” that includes straight time-trialling a-la Strava.

Surely that would make time-trialling illegal too?

I love real racing, but due to having a young family I don’t get the time to do it as much as I’d like. Strava does add a bit of competition to the riding I can squeeze in.

Im using it to push myself against my previous “bests”. Although the cheeky trails is possibly the only negative.
Did managed to knock 1m20s off a personal on a regular climb which im rather pleased about.
In other news the world continues to turn on its axis, inclined at 23 degrees.

Racing on the Queen’s Highway is illegal (for good reason). I “think” that includes straight time-trialling a-la Strava.

[quote]

Surely that would make time-trialling illegal too? [/quote]

Time trials with published results need to be notified to the police at least 28 days in advance.

It’s generally accepted that just riding against the clock, as per sportives, Audaxes, MTB marathons and the like, doesn’t, as the results aren’t publicised and there are no prizes for the winners.

http://www.sussex.police.uk/advice-and-support/laws-and-licences/cycling/

Whether this makes Strava a legal time-bomb or not, I have no idea. I honestly can’t see the police giving a monkey’s unless it becomes much more widespread than at present.

Genius. https://twitter.com/gilespock/status/207078908737224706

in a nation that is becoming increasingly apologetic, overwhelmingly inefficient because of its desire to be fair to all and competitiveness being seen as a negative thing, I welcome Strava as an easily accessible way of breeding healthy competition between individuals and the internet; a community of like-minded hobbyists who can bring life to their otherwise mundane commute/ local ride/ training ride and for a moment in time ignore their dull, repressed, constrained daily routine of consumption and excretion.
probably.

As ever STW never fails to deliver. Whilst practically every other cycling forum treats Strava as a bit of fun and a decent way of ripping the piss and friendly rivalry…

The STW hivemind wrings their hands in middleaged angst and talks absolute bollocks, genuine laugh at the thought of the popo getting involved in Strava, get a grip.