Wanted to check out the riding at a potential new living area and decided, so I didnt look nameless, I’d go the forest yesterday without Ziva and record a loop and upload it. Im now 2nd on two particular sections and trying to plan and decide when I can go back and beat them. Also my, aptly named to me, jaw breaker section I’m only 11th on and wondering if I can shave 4 seconds time off it by pedalling the middle section. Has anybody had a go and managed to either not break themselves or walk away without taking it too seriously?!

I use it to record rides only, it lets those who I know and aren’t on Endomondo/Garmin Connect know what I’ve been doing. Other than that I don’t care where I am on the leaderboard for a segment. I’m now too old to bother the top end of the table, top third to top half is the best I can hope for.
A man’s gotta know his limitations.

I like the personal comparison but I don’t go stravaaaaa, I just ride and see how just riding today compared to just riding last time…

I always ride on my own so Strava actually gives me something to aim for and a bit more purpose to the ride along with making me try harder/get fitter.

I like to get in at least the top five of a segment and anything above the top 20 were probably people just recoding a ride and not going particularly fast so not worth comparing to.

I thought I was pretty old at 47 but tried premium for a month to expect to see myself as multiple KOM’s for my age but dispassionately it made little difference as most of the fast guys are not much younger than me.

I can take it or leave it.I use it to record new routes & if I’m training I’ll use it to log up the miles but it’s no drama if I’ve forgot to bring the Garmin..

I could give it up anytime I want.

I just don’t want to, that’s all.

I find Strava great for two things: 1) personal motivation (“Oh I’ve only logged X number of miles this week so far. I’d better get out for a ride instead of staying in”) and 2) exposing my own confirmation bias when it comes to riding different bikes on the same trails (instead of “oh this feels fast” it’s more “Looks like I am not as fast as I thought I would be on the shiny new bike. Better get fitter!”)

I like the personal comparison but I don’t go stravaaaaa, I just ride and see how just riding today compared to just riding last time…

This 😀

Love it for recording my rides and charting my fitness and mileage, and seeing what my friends are up to. Most don’t live near me, so there’s no real motivation to beat nameless folk I don’t know. Plus, some of the times near where I do live are sooo far out of my league I’m chuffed to get maybe top half of the entire leader board 😆

some great athletes out there.

+1, I only upload local rides too. Don’t really care about my times on places I go infrequently, everything goes on garmin though.

Yeah I use endomondo regularly for rides and runs but just figure I’d give a try to see, was amazed to find I’d got either two or three QOM’s at Golspie the other week though when its not a regular at all. Maybe it doesnt help that I’m fairly competitive.

On another note is it possible to cheat on strava? Someone had managed a section in 4 seconds, 4 sodding seconds! I refuse to believe its possible to clear that in 4 seconds.

there’s no real motivation to beat nameless folk I don’t know.

Hmmm, not sure you’re doing it right.

On another note is it possible to cheat on strava? Someone had managed a section in 4 seconds, 4 sodding seconds! I refuse to believe its possible to clear that in 4 seconds.

technical glitch much more likely

mobile phones awful for this

Just get unfit, then you’ll find you don’t care so much any more 🙁

These days I use Endomondo to work out distances, but I rarely upload to Strava.

I may do today though just for you guys 🙂

S’ alright. Wouldn’t start a thread out it though.

On another note is it possible to cheat on strava?

Look up Digital EPO

Whilst I respect all opinions, my opinion is that most Strava snobs are just curmudgeons.

I like Strava for personal motivation. I want to improve on my own times, up my monthly mileage or elevation gain, and keep track of where I’ve been.

I will ocçasionly try for a time, but the majority of it is a social thing to be honest. Seeing who’s been out, where different rides go etc and some banter.

Oh, I thought they were all just too slow to get a KOM

It is very very easy to tamper with Strava results (DIY Digital EPO). I have had occasion to correct runs for myself and others when signal has been lost in deep forest resulting in non-registration of segments when the GPS puts your track way off the correct line. A few changed co-ordinates to pull the run back on track and all is good. So long as time data is not changed I see nothing wrong with this. However, changing time would be no more difficult.

I use it for all the reasons above…. personal motivation, seeing what mates are doing, comparing runs on different bikes etc.

I straaaava with the best of them on certain trails (hidden or bike specific ones) but the trails are just too busy with other people and animals to go crazy most of the time. Strava livens up solo rides and gives me an incentive to push hard on climbs than rather than just amble along but other times it is just nice to get out and look at stuff without coughing up a lung and so Stava takes a back seat.

bubs – Member
Strava livens up solo rides and gives me an incentive to push hard on climbs than rather than just amble along but other times it is just nice to get out and look at stuff without coughing up a lung and so Stava takes a back seat.

Kinda sums up how/why I use strava.
Those that complain most about it being for wannabee-racers are usually the wannabee racers themselves … but realised they are just too slow, so throw their toys out of pram type thing.

I don’t do strava premium, honestly don’t see any benefit to standard strava. As said – strava is good motivation for solo rides when you want to give it the beans. Other times it can be handy to look at other people’s rides to get new routes.

I started using it last year to see how far I rode in 12 months. Then I’d get annoyed if I forgot to turn it on. Then everything turned into a race and I’d get annoyed if I wasn’t as quick as usual,(which was ridiculous as it wasn’t even remotely accurate anyway) and the first thing I’d do after every ride was check it. Bikes started being about Strava, not riding. It wasn’t much fun, to be honest, so, after six months, I stopped…

..until this morning.

I used it for a few weeks then just got bored of it being another thing to setup before going on a ride, I’m quite competitive generally but just the general image of it being mainly used by wannabe EnduroBro racers now puts me off too.

Brown – Member

I started using it last year to see how far I rode in 12 months. Then I’d get annoyed if I forgot to turn it on. Then everything turned into a race and I’d get annoyed if I wasn’t as quick as usual,(which was ridiculous as it wasn’t even remotely accurate anyway) and the first thing I’d do after every ride was check it….. It wasn’t much fun

As a self-confessed wannabee racer, I don’t see what’s not fun about this!!! Although I even stopped to take a photo midway through a segment the other day so i’m not beyond hope.

I tihnk premium is only useful if you use an HRM?

I download Strava on to my phone, did one ride, it recorded about a tenth of it, no signal at the best of times in the FOD. Deleted it. Couldn’t see the point.

I can see the point of using it to find new to you trails in new places. I ride SS, so if I can make it up that hill that I couldn’t last time without my knees exploding, then it’s an improvement. I don’t ride to be the fastest, I ride to have fun, and Strava can’t tell me that.

I really, really want to – I keep telling myself I use it to record calories for MyFitApp, but that’s nonsense as 1) it does a terrible job of it 2) I’ve got Runstastic that does that without trying to kill myself.

Case in point – Cwmcarn, as you can imagine there are 5000+ entries on most sections, sections over-lap, some were devised long ago when the trails were different, some seem to involve returning to the original designers exact spot in the car park.

Anyway, there’s one I really, ‘like’ I’m the top of my little leaderboard (friends and I) by a whole second – but I’m still 346th (out of 6545) and 15 seconds or so off people like Chris Porter and rest of the Mojo lot and a couple of ‘famous riders’ – I agonise over it, I put my health and the wealth of my family on the line for it – all to shave another second off and jump a dozen places – last weekend we had our probably 12 millionth ride down it – FLYING, on the very edge of my ability, way past the edge of my nerve, but I knew I’d blow it half way down, a tiny slide and correction meant the next 10 metres would be too slow and when I finished – grabbing huge handfuls of brake and still not making the final turn (which was past the end of the Strava section) my Mate was convinced we’d done something special, but I knew we’d blow it – sure enough 4 seconds off pace, nowhere.

I mean, I’m 37, I’ve got 2 kids and a wife that rely on me, I’ve already got plates and pins in both arms and why on earth am I risking it all for the sake of bloody Strava!

I can quit anytime, I know I can.

bigblackshed – Member

I download Strava on to my phone, did one ride, it recorded about a tenth of it, no signal at the best of times in the FOD. Deleted it. Couldn’t see the point.

I can see the point of using it to find new to you trails in new places. I ride SS, so if I can make it up that hill that I couldn’t last time without my knees exploding, then it’s an improvement. I don’t ride to be the fastest, I ride to have fun, and Strava can’t tell me that.

I doesn’t need a signal to work, well not a mobile one anyway – it records your position with GPS and you upload the data later and it merges your position with OS maps to give you the data.

It is holy inaccurate, especially off-road though – my biggest performance gain ever was switching from an Samsung S3 mini to an iPhone 6 – took lumps out of most of my records.

I set a new KOM this morning, Ok it’s my commute and therefore a leader board of 1 and I know I’m not actually the fastest as I set it by chasing someone down who was definitely faster. But it’s good to know how my fitness compares to other years, which is useful as I’m equidistant between a few cycling clubs of varying speeds so a commute of 22minutes mean I could probably keep up on various rides, if I’m nearer 30 minutes then the social bumble with the older/broken/ladies/newbies group is probably more appropriate.

I’ve got an Edge 800 as well, but being able to log Strava directly on the phone trumps anything else 90% of the time. Might even sell the 800 as it’s so rarely used, used to use it a lot on road rides, but even there I’ve found I’d rather either ide off feel or I’m riding in a group so pace is irrelevant as long as I’m keeping up. What’d be nice is if the new Edge 25 could display power, a tiny display showing just power and time might be useful.

Northwind – Member

I like the personal comparison but I don’t go stravaaaaa, I just ride and see how just riding today compared to just riding last time…

+1

I mostly use it to log miles etc, and like facebook it’s interesting & nice to see what old friends are upto on bikes (rather than yet another photo of a small pink human shaped eating/pooping/screaming machine).

misterduncan » Whilst I respect all opinions, my opinion is that most Strava snobs are just curmudgeons.[b]fat[/b]

FTFY

I avoided any potential need to walk away, by not getting involved in the first place 😉

I like it to see how far off the pace I really am.

Went out for a ride last night and was quite surprised to see my second best time on a segment, considering I was blundering around for most of the ride.

My PR is from a ride 5 years ago, and I am still 10 seconds off that pace – the KOM is another minute quicker! 3:05 vs 4:04. I would have to go down there on a motorbike to get that.

Stravas great. I like it a lot. I ride a lot on my own so miss a bit of comeptition without it. You just have to use it for fun, and not take it too seriously. On regular rides I have certain segments that I’m fast on and I’ll push on to try and better my PB’s or my position on the leaderboard, but I won’t cry if I have to slow down for a walker/horse/cyclist.

It is refreshing to turn it off occasionally and just ride for the hell of it.

I don’t do strava premium, honestly don’t see any benefit to standard strava.

I tihnk premium is only useful if you use an HRM?

Only really useful with a powermeter but lots of folk like to contribute to Stravas costs for a few months as a thank you to them

I’ve started using it on pretty much every ride over the last year, on and off-road, for lots of reasons: to record new routes, challenge myself on regular routes and also because it’s increasingly becoming a social network for me (arranging rides, keeping in touch with faraway friends etc). But most of all because I’m a pathetically competitive type… I’ve got one KOM and a couple of top 10s on local climbs, and I will defend those places!

I use it for commuting to keep track of how much petrol money i’ve saved which can then be justifiably used on spangly bicycle componentry, and also it gives a rough count of calories burned which can obviously likewise be traded off against high calorie meat and/or pastry based fried goods with impunity 8)

Off road it’s handy for linking up trails as I tend to get a bit disoriented at times, sometimes looking back at routes it’s easier to see where you should have linked up with another trail via that fire road section when you were breathing out of your a*se, instead of slogging it round the bottom end of the GT black route for example…

J

Im finding it more and more useful.

Im trying to get fit at the minute, so its great to see how Im doing ie PB’s etc. Its also good to see how you are doing overall against the majority of people. Currently Im getting more PB’s and going up the leader boards.

I use the heat map stuff to see where other people have ridden, to see if I can put a route together.

Its good seeing how much your mates have been out, so makes you want to get out more.

The one I never have, and never will use it for is chasing KOM’s completely pointless exercise on a number of levels.

On a recent skills course, I was talkng to a bunch of blokes, and their riding basically concists of trying to get as close to KOM’s as they can. They actually admitted that because of this, in reality they were not enjoying the rides as much 😆

Last week I got to ride with a bunch of people much faster and more experienced than me. Only a couple of other people were using Strava, I even got a KOM, and it felt pointless because I was one of the slowest people in the group. I learned a lot more by watching the people I was with than looking at data.

Having a few casual rivalries on local trails has helped my riding up to a point. I use Strava for my riding, but leaderboards, stats and other extrinsic motivators can have a horrible way of gradually inverting that.