Strava Live Segments – Garmin Edge

Hi.

Ok so there is a well known issue where Strava Live Segments are not appearing on Garmin Edge devices.

I have struggled with varying success over the years and have recently upgraded to an edge 530.

I found this improved live segments and SOME appeared on my list but not all.

So a bit more digging revealed that Strava will not allow live segments for anything with a -0.25% gradient (pretty much anything good!)

So, in summary you won’t see all your live segments, it will show flat and uphill but not down hill. Anyway, I think I have found a solution, one which doesn’t even require Strava Summmit.

First off go to the following site (and linking it to your Strava account): https://www.doogal.co.uk/strava.php

This is a better version of the strava segment explorer, I have found it shows more. You can also put the URL for a segment into it.

Once you have found the segment you want to have on your garmin, you can export it as a FIT file and drop it into your Garmin when it is plugged into your computer (Garmin-New Files).

On my garmin under Strava Live Segments it is showing up all of these segments, whereas before it wouldn’t show anything but uphill segments. I have not starred any segments on strava.

So now to go and test to see if they pop up on a ride.

Did it work?? I’ve spent a bit a bit of time trying to recreate some of my local segments on Garmin Connect without a lot of success in getting the start and end points the same.

Great site that Doogal one, before the map charges from Google kicked in a year or two ago, there were other handy things you could do. The segment explorer kicks the arse of the Strava one into next century, there are so many false cat hc/1/2/3/4 hill segments on Strava.

I stopped caring after ‘live Strava segments’

I stopped caring after ‘live Strava segments’

A good while longer than anyone else cared about you – so it’s a wash?

The Strava segments are still there with associated KOM, QOM, etc. but you can’t set targets, notifications, etc. on any segment with an overall downhill gradient. This follows a court case in the USA where someone got killed due to a rider, might have been the rider himself, chasing a KOM on such a segment (on road).

So it’s basically Strava covering their arse against litigation.

I’m interested to know if this works but I’m not sure now is the time to be chasing downhill segments really.

Maybe not a good time to chase downhill segments but if you have time on your hands it is a good time to investigate this stuff and get it working

Thanks for the heads up on that dougal thingy. Tons better than Strava.

Update…

Been for a ride today and…

It works! Downhill Live segments are back!!

Worked like a dream, maps, times, gradient, everything!

No need for Strava summit at all now.

That’s great to know Beefy. I literally got my Garmin 530 yesterday (my first computer) and I’m still trying to figure out how to use it.
Once downloaded onto the Garmin, Do these back door strava live segments come up automatically when you’re riding? Or do u need to specifically select them?

They come up automatically. Just make sure you can see them in Strava live segments (under training) and they are enabled.

If you don’t have Strava live segments but just have the word “segments” log into Garmin connect on phone or computer and change segments to Strava but don’t star any segments on Strava. Do a sync and it should be good to go.

Does anyone know if this will work with Wahoo?

If you connect your wahoo to your computer is there a “segments” folder? You could pop the fit files in there and see if it works?

I think the paid for Strava thing basically makes this step more automatic.

Thanks, no segments folder but I have one called Exports with loads of FIT files in there, and a couple of other contenders that are empty.

I’ve bunged a few favourites in there and will see what happens on my rides this week!

I’m wondering that Doogal site will survive, it seems they have already identified it as duplicating an existing feature and refused to increase his quota…

I moved the .fit files from the Segments folder to the ‘newfiles’ folder on my Forerunner 935. Reconnected the device to PC and did a check and the files had gone from ‘newfiles’ and were back in ‘segments’.

I didn’t do the export from that 3rd party website but used the files that were already present…yet to test to see if this works though.

Be interesting to see what happens now with all the strava changes.

I downloaded a load of .fit files earlier incase the doogal site breaks.

Well my first attempt at sticking them on the Wahoo didn’t seem to work. If anyone has any luck please let me know!

Think I am going to get as many segments downloaded whilst I can. Just did a quick search on google and there are a few options out there for exporting segments. Don’t want to overload Doogals site.

If you do this will the segments exist side by side with any that you have starred in Strava? I see some people saying they don’t have any starred, but not sure if this is a requirement or just something you have chosen to do?
Although this option is great for getting downhill segments back, it’s a little long winded to use it for uphill segments which at the moment happen automatically once starring in Strava.

The Live Segment thing removing downhill segments has been happening long before the lockdown…I think it happened on Lezyne stuff last year and it is now on Garmin stuff. The accident that got them sued started the ball rolling with removing the alerts.

I’ve got my starred rides in Strava and they are all on my device, but almost none of them flag I’m approaching a segment – some are climbs. So I’m suspecting more disabling has happened for lockdown.

I did move my segments to the ‘Newfiles’ folder of my watch, but when I then plugged it back in later, they had all moved back to Segments – I’m yet to get close to a starred segment to see if it flags or not – hopefully do that tonight.

If it doesn’t then I’ll download them from somewhere and add them manually again and try that.

Tried this yesterday, and worked perfectly on my ride last night, DH live segments were back!

Then when I sync’d my Garmin after the ride it popped up something along the lines of “segments updated”, and now all of the DH ones have gone again.

Is this how it is meant to work or have I done something wrong? Obviously it’t nice to get them back again, but if it means dragging and dropping files into the garmin from the computer after every ride then it’s not the most user friendly process….

tenacious_doug
Member
Tried this yesterday, and worked perfectly on my ride last night, DH live segments were back!

Then when I sync’d my Garmin after the ride it popped up something along the lines of “segments updated”, and now all of the DH ones have gone again.

Is this how it is meant to work or have I done something wrong? Obviously it’t nice to get them back again, but if it means dragging and dropping files into the garmin from the computer after every ride then it’s not the most user friendly process…

Make sure you have no segments starred on the Strava website. If you do, the ones you put on your Garmin will get removed after every sync.

https://www.strava.com/athlete/segments/starred

Make sure you have no segments starred on the Strava

Is that necessary?  I thought there was a setting in Garmin Connect where you choose either Strava OR Garmin segments?  Problem may be that you cant have both simultaneously

Can you edit .fit files? If so, what do I edit so they aren’t Strava segments so they flag? I’ll also need to instar everything in Strava.

Is that necessary? I thought there was a setting in Garmin Connect where you choose either Strava OR Garmin segments? Problem may be that you cant have both simultaneously

I didn’t know connect has segments. On the Garmin, the FIT files that are being put on the device are in the “Strava Segments” section so I’d say it looks to Strava for the segments.

I’ve never seen a Garmin segment option.

On the forerunner 935 it only has a folder called Segments. I’ll see if I can create the segments on Garmin connect and use those . I just want a wee reminder when I starting a segment so I know when I’m supposed to make myself hurt even more (and have my mates stand within the segment as we have a rest!).

I reckon if you put the fit file in the folder it will tell you at the start of the segment regardless if your connected to strava or not. All the Garmin is reading is a file so if the file is in the folder it should work.

Why would you want it to tell you at the start of a segment if it’s not for strava anyway?

The segments aren’t just on strava, they have been around for what feels like forever…they are always good to check times on for any improvements in fitness and ability. Knowing when they start saves any guess work so you have a constant start point.

Strava made them a thing and put a leaderboard against them but they’ve been there since people started riding.

It would be handy to get an alert to say you are approaching/starting so if you are feeling fresh you can give it some welly.

I’m not bothered about Strava segments per se, but I don’t know any other way to get a segment alert. So if Garmin can do it without Strava then I’m happy to do that (just don’t know how).

I save the .fit files off the device and see what I can do.

Ok, so I’m pretty sure I can save the .fit files off the watch, unstar them all in Strava and add them back in. However…very daft question – I’ll still show up on the segments, won’t I as it is the gps log from the bike ride that determines if I rode the segment or not?

Having a look on Garmin for segments and I need to create them all by hand – they also won’t put me in a leaerboard of others as all my Garmin stuff is private (which I’m fine with as it is just for me to see if I’m improving). Trying to replicate a couple of the segments from Strava and the system isn’t accurate enough, so the start and end is not right (it makes the route shorter so I’m not to 5 if the distance was correct rather than top 25 on Strava).

Anyone know if there is an import feature that would allow me to import the .fit files and make them segments? I’m paying for Strava just now, which I’m happy to do, but I was doing it as I didn’t know Garmin had segments, so if I can replicate the stuff I’m basing improvements on in Garmin, then Strava becomes less of a requirement.

If I can’t do that, then I’ll leave it, but not getting the alerts of when the segment is approaching is a bit annoying (so I can do that manually by unstarring on Strava).

Sorry, should have added that I have unstared all my segments on Strava. Also, you drop them into new files but then they move automatically to Segments.

Every time I start my Garmin it says segments deleted but they are all still on my Garmin.

The good thing about Strava segments over Garmin is the huge user base for Strava so people are creating them all the time. With Garmin people are not doing that. Maybe the paid thing (which I support to be honest) might allow some kind of rethink. We will see.

For now, this works for me.

Ta

Thanks for advice, think I worked it out for myself anyway, for reference in case anyone else finds this in future…..
Basically you are just trying to set it so that the device isn’t looking for Strava segments to sync every time it is syncing other data. As well as the unstarring segments method, if you set Garmin Connect (this is only an option on web) to use Garmin rather than Strava segments, then the segments you have put on the device still show up as Strava segments, but because you have set connect to use Garmin segments, it doesn’t bother trying to sync any Strava segments, and leaves the ones manually put on there untouched.
I figured this way was a bit better than unstarring on Strava as it can be handy to have a favourite segment list on Strava itself, plus if at any point I want to go back to using Strava Live segments I still have all my favourite segments saves.