Strava users…

Strava isn’t just for cycling so you can’t expect it to just have bike rides.

I wish it was a bit more diverse to be honest, I’d like to be able to see my hiking stats for the year, distance, elevation etc, but it’s only cycling and running specific in terms of that stuff, everything else is a token gesture really.

Anyone seriously zwifting is probably needing to keep their profile and activities open for external verification as well.

But we’re in the middle of a lockdown in the middle of winter, there will be a lot of turbo activity, it’s not that surprising.

@Nobeerinthefridge – Veloviewer is really good for that, you can filter on activity and/or kit (well whatever you’ve set up in Strava) so I get full breakdown of the rides I’ve done on each bike, total rides, distance, time, etc. It’s the ride analysis tool that should be in Strava TBH. A tenner a year for VV is a bargain, the free version just pulls your last 25 activities. After Strava’s reorganisation of subscriptions last year you don’t get segment data unless you subscribe to Strava.

For “performance data” like HR & power then TrainingPeaks, Intervals.icu, Golden Cheetah are much better (than Strava).

all that’s keeping me subscribed now is the route planner (although I guess I need it also to feed Veloviewer?)

Depends what you want from Veloviewer. I don’t subcscribe to Strava but I do to Veloviewer.

I wish it was a bit more diverse to be honest, I’d like to be able to see my hiking stats for the year, distance, elevation etc, but it’s only cycling and running specific in terms of that stuff, everything else is a token gesture really.

Veloviewer?

Aye, I’m aware of veloviewer, but there’s lots in Strava that I like and use, and I’d rather keep it in one place.

there seems to be so many simple features lacking from strava!

Yes. But the inability to hide virtual activities from your feed is very deliberate and is commercially driven.

Strava isn’t just for cycling so you can’t expect it to just have bike rides.

The point under discussion is whether users should be able to choose which activities they do or don’t see in their feeds.

As for being “salty” about people using a turbo trainer, I think that’s a naive criticism.

I only browse Strava activities when I’m active myself. My activities are all outdoors and I’m interested in seeing others’ routes and photos. If we think of those as UGC, it’s obvious that it’s a bit more substantial than riding round a pretend island in your spare room.

Here’s a related question though – do people who Zwift find other people’s Zwift rides as interesting as real ones? Or are they equally meaningless to you as well?

If you use chrome, get the “sauce for strava” extension. You can hide virtual rides, challenges and all sorts. Its ace.

Here’s a related question though – do people who Zwift find other people’s Zwift rides as interesting as real ones? Or are they equally meaningless to you as well?

Interesting question

Strava isn’t just for cycling so you can’t expect it to just have bike rides.

Thankfully – most of my feed from friends is SUP adventures, open water swims, windsurfing and mountain walking. All of which I love to see and comment on – it makes me feel connected especially at the moment. I just don’t need to see the windsurf friends 2km morning jog or 15min garage gym stretching.

Yes’ I’ve been increasingly grumpy about virtual exercises from friends, not liking as they’re not “real” in the weather like me. Not proud of myself and nothing at all to do with the fact I don’t have a garage setup at all.

A filter would be good though. That chrome extension will not stop them coming up on the app though I’m assuming?

@chapaking I find my friends zwift race results posted on strava far more interesting than a 50k road ride for example where they spent 25% of the time freewheeling, in the race I know the suffering they’ve endured. Zwift is just a tool I use to stay fit to utilize my time on my mtb, had a great ride outside with my friends on Sunday morning actually.

woop woop – virtual rides are hidden!! cheers Hooli (are you Gavin Belson!?)

still on the app tho sadly!

Just wondering why virtual rides less interesting to follow on Strava than real ones?
For instance it’s been a while since I nearly fell on a real ride but I quite frequently nearly or actually fall off my rollers when I’ve pushed myself getting to a finish line or up a hill in a Zwift race.

As a Strava user I do try not to upload mundane activities like walking though – although there was a month when I was using Strava to sync to a workplace activity challenge so was tracking and uploading every little thing I was doing.

Just wondering why virtual rides less interesting to follow on Strava than real ones?

With reference to the reply just up there, I think it’s about serving relevant content to the different sections of the audience.

Or as the kids might say “it’s not very relatable”.

Just wondering why virtual rides less interesting to follow on Strava than real ones?

I guess it depends on who your friends are and how they post. I’ve got quite a few friends who supplement their feed with a photo from a lovely spot or a selfie with the folk they are riding with. Or some text to describe anything that happened. At the pointier performance end I’ve got friends that my make public their ftp test rides with some commentary on being happy/gutted and comments from others either supportive or taking the piss. I want my feed to only be this sort of stuff.

For me it’s not really if it’s inside or outside thing – it’s just if it’s a vanilla automatic unthinking upload. Hence why I only elect to make public very infrequently when it might possibly be interesting or I’ve got something to say. Otherwise it’s just another exercise session or head clearer – nice and all but no one else needs to see it in the way I also don’t make public what I ate last night either – it’s just life rolling on. With enough friends my feed would be happily full of interesting stuff. At the moment it’s there but I can’t filter it out from the chaff those people who do post interesting stuff post up when they are being dull.

How do you record commutes on Strava so that they add to your yearly totals but don’t clog up other people’s feed?

My current regime is to save a week of commuting as one single ‘ride’ on my Garmin but then it looks like I’ve done a 120km ‘Morning Ride’ to work.

How do you record commutes on Strava so that they add to your yearly totals but don’t clog up other people’s feed?

Just go into your settings and make all your activities private when first uploaded by default. Once they have uploaded just go into your app and make the interesting activities public as and when it’s worth bothering. You may well find like I do very little passes the ‘will Dave actually give a toss about this?” test. Your annual totals include the private rides too. (edit – totals that you can see. Not sure if there is a publicly viewable annual totals feature too and if this is something you would care about). It’s just the totals for most challenges that won’t accumulate.

Just wondering why virtual rides less interesting to follow on Strava than real ones

for me i like to see where local riders are venturing, maybe ask them what conditions were like on certain tracks etc…

virtual rides are akin to me posting my call of duty match scores! i really dont care for the stats – only the routes.

I don’t really mind seeing people’s walks or whatever on Strava, its easy enough to scroll past.

I have been using Zwift and Traineroad a lot lately (there is a pandemic on to be fair) and would say I am *almost* as interested in other people’s Zwift/indoor performances or races as their outdoor rides.

Off topic but the thing that really bugs me about Strava is the lack of a function to instantly toggle between imperial and metric display.

It might be weird, or it might be be because I was born in 1981, but I think of cycling in imperial stats and running in metric stats and do both, so would love to be able to instantly flick between the two at the press of a button. I can’t be the only one…can I?

Just wondering why virtual rides less interesting to follow on Strava than real ones?

Well for a start, a lot of Zwift rides aren’t even visually very interesting as they’re half in the sea and half out of it! They just look broken. Also recently I’ve seen a lot of Zwift pals uploading screenshots (assume this is done automatically) which instead of the usual ersatz scenery shot are just black, or has Zwift introduced night rides now?

I guess my frustration is that I’m drawn more to the GPS functionality than the training functionality, I want to see other people’s routes and trails etc. for inspiration.

And for habitual dog walkers a Mossad hit squad I guess? 😂

A10 strike, clears up the shit they leave behind at the same time.

Pretty much what 13thfloormonk said. It depends what you use Strava for and I like to see where people have been, what the conditions are like and a few photos.

I also get just as annoyed with people who ride or run the exact same route all the time. It is a big world out there, pick a different route 🙂

Oh and the speeds on Strava annoy me too. A mates 26 odd miles per hour for an hour on Zwift when him and I ride together and I can assure you that neither of us do anywhere near that speed.

but then it looks like I’ve done a 120km ‘Morning Ride’ to work.

Is there a downside to this?

If you use Chrome you can install the elevate extension. Used to be stavistics.

There are options to control your feed. You can filter commutes, virtual rides and activities below a certain length.

It has become a bit weird. I use strava for two purposes and they don’t necessarily fit together. The first one was always social. I liked to see what rides people were doing as it was good inspiration. Now I use it as a tracker as well. Bike fitness – less interesting for others but means I log everything.

Oh and the speeds on Strava annoy me too. A mates 26 odd miles per hour for an hour on Zwift when him and I ride together and I can assure you that neither of us do anywhere near that speed.

I got caught out by this, was quite pleased with my totals to date, a big increase on last year, but then realised that a relatively easy hour on the rollers nets me 45km! 😀

Is there a downside to this?

Lol no not really. Just that I get kudos from my friends who think I’m more hardcore than I actually am.

We are doing a daft distance challenge at work, around the world in 80 days very original, so I’m logging everything. So yes I’m now one of those annoying people logging dog walks.

I don’t really have any objection to seeing folks Zwift feed, its a bit annoying when they bang out 20 miles in 45 minutes vs 2:30 slogging through the mud on my MTB, but its not like it really matters anyway.

Nobeer – Strava really missed the boat with data filtering/analysis and are now playing catchup. Though they probably originally looked at TrainingPeaks, etc. and thought “let’s concentrate on segments, KOMs, etc.”.

but then it looks like I’ve done a 120km ‘Morning Ride’ to work.

A friend uploaded a 400km ride entitled “Commute” !! When I looked it was a single ride from London to Kendal – he was relocating to a new job!

TBH, I’m not bothered about what turns up in the feed, I’ll rarely scroll down more than a screen or two unless I know someone’s done a route and I want to check it out. In fact the only time I’ll usually go on the site is to correct the default name and bike for a recently loaded activity, maybe add a photo, or I’ve to upload an activity from my Oregon which doesn’t do Bluetooth so I have to do that manually, occasionally my 520 and phone don’t talk so have to do it for that as well.

Imperial vs metric, I was born in 1959 and it’s metric all the way. This is the 21st century not the 17th! </grin>

How do you record commutes on Strava so that they add to your yearly totals but don’t clog up other people’s feed?

Penny just dropped why I get so few kudos on my commutes even when I am more adventurous and do something like 70km.

Your annual totals include the private rides too. (edit – totals that you can see. Not sure if there is a publicly viewable annual totals feature too and if this is something you would care about). It’s just the totals for most challenges that won’t accumulate.

Yeah if you have a mix of public and private rides, the stats that you can see on your own profile of distance this week, total distance to date etc is ALL your rides.

What anyone else looking at your profile will see is only the counting of the public rides. Basically it makes it look like you’ve done a lot less than you have. Whether that’s a good thing or bad is up to you I suppose.

I’ve found a solution which works for android – although it should work for iOS too.

If you see an activity you don’t approve of, place your thumb on the screen. Then slide your thumb towards the top of your phone – the trick is to keep your thumb in contact with the glass.

This should cause a different activity to be shown. You can repeat this method until you find one you like.

Enjoy!

We are doing a daft distance challenge at work, around the world in 80 days very original

Haha, it’s part of my job to create challenges like that.

I actually nixed that one because it was questionable whether our clients could achieve it, not because it was too obvious.

anti-social people using social media

What @plastercaster said, far easier than creating a thread on a forum in fact

Strava is an activity tracker masquerading as a social media site. People use it to track their activity, the idea that people spend time looking at what other people do on it is kinda weird beyond a quick flick through what pops up when they land on the site. I’d just have happily have Strava land me on my profile/metrics page on the app than the feed.

Generally friends post interesting pics from rides on proper social media sites which is where I’d be picking up on them then maybe go look where they’d been.

Strava is an activity tracker masquerading as a social media site.

It can easily be both.

I think of the social media element as a great niche filter. My non cycling/swimming/suping friends will rarely be interested in what a cycling friend might find interesting. But I still don’t make public the dross.

Just playing with elevate – it’s quite good. The data analysis side as well as the dashboard tuning side. Zwift and treadmill stuff now all banished from my feed along with the few km rides and runs to get milk etc.

It can easily be both.

Agreed, but they’ve still got some work to do on the social media side.