Strava Premium is it worth it

Like most of us on here I use Strava (yes I know other tracking apps are available)
I’ve Imy had my bike for a few months but have made big jumps in my mileage and times. And thing about a road bike later on this year.

I keep finding bits of Strava I want use and can’t.

Today (as many of you have had) a email for premium with 1st month free.

So the question is, is Strava premium with the £4 odd a month? It’s only the same as a pint in London or 2 up north

Try it out for the free month. I did. Decided it was a pointless extra that doesn’t add much functionality.

Strava Premium is it worth it

Probably not, but I’ve got it anyway. 😳

I pay because I like Strava, not sure what if anything premium actually gives me.

I pay for Strava because I use it everyday and it is add free.
Everywhere one turns one is bombarded with advertising. It sucks.
So me paying for Strava is just a gesture to say thanks for a ad free environment .

Same as wilburt and sputnik.

I find the fitness graph quite interesting. Certainly motivates me not to miss a ride. Unless you’re trying to train for something, and have at least a HR monitor, then it probably doesn’t add too much.

If you’re using HR and power yes.

Premium users can download rides as gpx files too.

Premium users can download rides as gpx files too.

That’s the only reason I pay for it.

I would pay for Strava if they would provide the simple feature of be able to upload photos from my computer to link to a ride.

Their current system only accepts photos from Instagram. So a photo on my camera must be put on the computer, emailed to my iPad, saved on the iPad, then uploaded into Instagram – all in a 30mins or so window after ride. Lots of people have posted on the Strava forums asking for better photo upload features, but Strava say it’s not on their list of planned developments.

As it is, I find the functionality for HR analysis perfectly good, I can only see the point of premium if you have power measurement.

Or to pay for a service that you use a lot and find valuable.

As above, I pay membership as a gesture of good will more than anything. I use the power functionality but tbh it’s not great compared to GC and the like.

JR, I don’t know what camera you’re talking about but could you not try a 5 in 1 card reader for the ipad? That’s how I get photos from my camera’s sd card to IG. About a tenner, iirc

Also, if you miss the 30 min window (say someone sends you a pic of the ride), you can force it to appear on Strava by unlinking your IG account then relinking.

IMO the basic product is too good, the premium doesn’t add enough. So after someone’s suggestion on here, I sign up for a month every so often as I reckon it’s worth a few quid but not the £39.99 annual. I don’t use any of the premium features, it just seems to be the only way to give them money.

surely £4 a month is not a lot for something you use regularly .

i pay for premium as a way to support them .

If it worked perfectly I’d probably pay the full… But it mistracks, stops mid ride, etc which spoils it a bit. Might be my phone, might be strava, makes no difference.

Just used the new route-plotting beta for the first time, it’s bloody great!

That’s probably premier only.

Does premium let you split times on a segment depending on which bike you’ve ridden? So I can see what the times are for the massive climb up to my house on different bikes. That would be useful.

Heatmaps are quite sexy…..unless you ride the same route all the time.

I pay for it, but more as a gesture really.

how do you download other peoples gpx? Premium user but doesn’t work for me

Routes work on the free version

I wrote a Chrome extension which gives that capability to free accounts 🙂

how do you download other peoples gpx? Premium user but doesn’t work for me

depends how the ride was logged i think

I don’t pay for it , but I will when inevitably free users are forced to see adverts and paid users are ad free. Just a matter of time

it mistracks, stops mid ride, etc which spoils it a bit. Might be my phone, might be strava, makes no difference.

in wet tree covered steeps perchance? that’s GPS rather than Strava.
stopping mid ride? try turning off Autopause.
If my phone connects to wifi during a ride it often stops the ride for some reason. I think that’s just lack of free memory and too many apps kicking in at the same time on my phone though.

Nah, it’s not autopause, it’s the app that stops. It’ll usually recover the ride til that point afterwards but it’s not clever enough to restart and recover.

The mistracking is the software not the GPS- it’s the way it logs start and end points, sometimes it’ll decide you rode down a trail you didn’t because you rode a parallel one, even if they’re quite far apart (I’ve had it decide that I simultaneously rode 2 parallel trails frinstance)

If it was £1 a month they’d get 10 times as many people

how do you download other peoples gpx? Premium user but doesn’t work for me

I’m not sure if there’s an option to disable it? I’ve noticed some peoples rides I can download, and some I can’t.

That’s the only reason I signed up anyway. To steal peoples rides. I spend hours and hours looking for new routes, trawling through Google maps, Bike hike, and various other sites. It’s nice just to click download when you see a good one. So in that sense it’s worth it. But that said, I’ve only used one…

Not actually noticed ANY other new features since signing up. But then I’ve not been looking for them either.

Premium is good if you are liking for a particle segment, as you have real-time segments. Data dependent obviously!

Reckon I’ll go premium soon, mainly as others above have said, because it is a service I value and I want to support it. Llook at what you get for free, frankly it is too good. The amount of dev time that must have gone in to it, and it is completely free, with bugger all private banking and watch adverts.

I’ve used their support once, and they responded inside 15 mins and sorted my issue.

I’ve bought some of their, frankly overpriced, challenge kit as I liked it and I didn’t mind the premium for something I use a lot. I’d buy a lot more if they’d sort out the extortionate uk postage.

If you’re using HR and power yes.

TrainingPeaks is better IMO. Have a look at that before deciding where to spend your cash.

because it is a service I value and I want to support it.

A lot of that from forum members without a “P” 😉

Imo a forum whose content is generated by members being compared to something like strava is a no contest.

I use this forum because of the other users and interesting content generated by them, not because of the sites functionality or the magazine. In fact at the moment I use this site in spite of its functionality.

That said bike radar has a bloody annoying ad as well. But it is just one at the top. On your first login.

Re Instagram mentioned above, I found it works really well with my phone, but can imagine if you were using a proper camera it would be a pain. It would be nice I r you could just link a file. I’d also like to be able to r private message other riders, rather than have to post on a ride

If you are a premium Strava user, i like this free Chrome extension :
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stravaplus/dhiaggccakkgdfcadnklkbljcgicpckn

Used premium for a while now and while the fitness curve and other stuff is interesting it was probably not worth the extra money.

However, the newly added training plans and Sufferfest videos to start to make it worthwhile.

Got a link to the gpx downloader extension?
Just got a litte Motorola Defy and am trying out a few mapping programs for following downloaded gpx files

I had the trial, but never continued. My favourite bit was what they took from raceshape where you compare your ride to others, that feaure is limited in the free version. It is great for looking at timetrial pacing.
For me training peaks is a lot better, but it is not really the same, it depends what you value.

Does premium let you split times on a segment depending on which bike you’ve ridden? So I can see what the times are for the massive climb up to my house on different bikes. That would be useful.

Veloviewer.com show you this. It was a handy feature to see which bike was actually quicker up and down hill. Not sure if you can see this for free now, as I haven’t used it since you had to pay for it.

Give it a try, i didnt continue after the trial as apart from comparing weight catagories it do anthing extra that i was interested in as i dont use hr or power, and where can you get a £2 pint up north?

Do I need to be a Premium user to link Strava to Garmin Connect? I can see links to facebook and instagram but nothing to link to Garmin.