Strava accuracy

Where do you guys have your phone too when riding? Mines in the very top outside compartment with the fluffy interior for a pair of shades. Found Strava very accurate all things considered.

On road in the rear jersey/jacket pocket in a cloth pouch/plastic bag if wet. Off road in the top of the pack….

GPS distance & speed vs a computer is more accurate if the track doesn’t have twisty sections in short spaces and isn’t in heavy tree cover. When it does then GPS tends to straight line a bit and then distances can differ. If it doesn’t make up much of the ride then it won’t differ much, but if it does then it can be out more.

What gets me though is two people with Garmins, no speed sensor so only working off GPS, same trail following each other on the same ride, and both differ by a mile or two!

One jog recorded simultaneously on my iPhone and forerunner 10. Both devices started and stopped together, yet the iPhone version records itself as a total of ~30 seconds quicker, gives me a pace of about 0:30/mile quicker, and adds 0.1 mile in the end.

I used my iPhone yesterday on the Great North Run due to my watch not charging, and managed an extra 0.4 mile on top of last years distance, recorded on my watch.

Something else to add that I’ve just noticed…

I’ve been uploading to Garmin Connect and letting it sync with Strava recently. The distances shown in Strava are a bit off with those in Garmin Connect. Last ride was 23.08 miles from Garmin (uploaded to Endomondo also and shows same), but Stava shows 21.8 miles. Similar with most of the others I let Garmin sync to Strava. The rides I have in both Connect and Strava prior to that are the nearly the same mileage with Strava just rounding up a little.

So either Strava is doing some magic adjustments or Garmin Connect is messing up the sync to Strava.

It could be Strava actually. Not necessarily messing it up but correcting things.

https://strava.zendesk.com/entries/21278088-How-Distance-is-Calculated

Never trusted strava times after my wife beat one of my times by 4secs even though she was on the back of the tandem. Run a Garmin 810 and wife runs a 610 (watch). Results never the same despite being on the same bike. Mate of mine rode on back of tandem too and he had his IPhone running Strava, again none of the segments where the same times for us both. That was on a road ride too so not alot of tree cover etc.