What proportion of MTBers use Strava ?

Strava shows 459 runs by 184 people on the Lady Cannings run in just 3 days, which would be pretty damn remarkable in itself but I wonder what the total figure is ?

Less than 1%

Estimates on here range from near zero to 50%. The figure you come up with depends on the group you ride with. I doubt that the figure is as high as for road cyclists but I think that it’s unlikely that someone uses Strava for just one part of their riding, i.e. if they use it for riding round trail centres then they’ll also use it for natural trails.

So if a trail centre has a bike counter and publishes the figures then check Strava for that trail or segment and you’ll have a rough idea but I’ve no idea of the margin of error that you’d get, +/- 5% at a guess.

Sounds like a poll for the front page (if it hasn’t been done already)

all of the ones that matter

7

12 of us out last night, Strava shows 10 uploads.

Probably not a good (general) indicator.

legend – Member
Sounds like a poll for the front page (if it hasn’t been done already)

Hardly a representative sample of mountainbikers though.

N,o Nay, Never

Some surveys in Portland found it to be 2.5% of all cyclists. That was on a busy commuter route, so probably lots of people doing short journeys, and not bothering with GPS etc.
I’m sure it could be much higher on some mountain bike routes.

Not MTB’ing at all, but I did a trail running race four weeks ago, and 25% of the competitors uploaded their runs to Strava.

Well there’s a bike counter on the Llanberis path up Snowdon but do any of the trail centres have them? An article in MBR on Coed y Brenin spoke of numbers doing particular routes but where those figures came from I’ve no idea.

Shouldn’t be too hard to work out from that sort of data.

I’d say about 90% of the people I ride with, both mtb and road.

I think it depends on the term cyclist.

Many people ride a bike along a tow path with their kids/partner or go to places like Thetford/Bedgebury/Haldon etc and cycle round various graded routes.

Are these cyclists in the same manor that I am?? Not really, I enjoy a game of darts about once a month but i’m no darts player.

I think the more someone cycles the greater the chance they are logging their ride, be it with Strava or some other app etc.

So I think for a rider at a reasonable level it is probably quite a high percentage.

All of me uses it.

I mtb for fun, therefore (for me) I think Strava is entirely pointless. Doesn’t tell me how big my jumps were or whether I took a better line down a steep section, didn’t bottle the dropoff I left out last time etc etc.

What’s Strava, some sort of sugar substitute?

It depends on what you call a mountain biker really. Lots of people go out into the woods/trails on their bike and just have fun. Strava, almost by definition, is used by the sub-set that care about how long it took them to ride various segments.

No one I know or ride with uses strava. We prefer racing each other in real life.

Not MTB’ing at all, but I did a trail running race four weeks ago, and 25% of the competitors uploaded their runs to Strava.

Hadn’t thought of that as a means of getting a figure. Oddly enough I did a fell race in Langdale a couple of weeks back on only one other person seems to have uploaded (out of 61). I’d expect the proportion of people using Strava in a race would be much higher than normal

Two of us out last night and both on there, so 100%

BUT

On Monday there was 9 of us out and only 2 on Strava, so 20%

Almost impossible to determine imo

Only the to55ers who cut corners.

Blimey, some people really don’t like Strava!

And for what it’s worth, I use it.

I’d expect the proportion of people using Strava in a race would be much higher than normal

not sure, you get timing anyway, and its extra weight and faff.
I use it in races, but I think its less than half who do (based on flybys etc).

The thing I always wonder about is, round trail centres especially, how many people are going full blat. I find I am sometimes about the same time as ‘names’ who i know are way faster than me, but for all i know they could have just been crusing along on a social ride

100% of mountain bikers in my office use it*

*that would just be me then

scotroutes – Member

Hardly a representative sample of mountainbikers though.
POSTED 59 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

This place reckons it boasts pretty high numbers from memory (not the forum), so using “mtbers who use the intarweb” sounds like a good enough sample to me. Not sure where you’d find a better one?

Between 10 and 15 of us out on the Wednesday night club ride each week. Usually 5 or 6 Strava uploads.

a very few percent I imagine.

Some, anyone claiming numbers is bullshitting

Out of 6 of us out last night, at least 4 were using it.

BUT, if I look at the numbers on pretty popular DH runs around here then Peckett Well has just 666 (oh er) distinct riders and Blue Pig has just 805. Which is a lot less than I’d expect.

if you look at the strava global heatmap you’d say 90% in the UK, 1% everywhere else!

Ask strava.

And let us know what they say please

I use it very occasionally, but since the new “fly by” thing I’ve been surprised how many of the people I’ve seen out use it. On a couple of rides in the Lakes the other weekend most of the people I passed had used it, or were in a group with at least one person who was.

oldtalent – Member
No one I know or ride with uses strava. We prefer racing each other in real life

Whereas plenty of the guys I ride with who actually race (whether mtb, cx or road) use it.

Real life or real races btw?

About 70% of my group do, it spreads like a virus imo – the first guy in our group started using it because his road riding group did, once we started seeing it on FB a couple more of us started using it and it spread throughout the group, I think it will continue to grow amongst MTBers, even though, deep-down I think it’s fairly bloody useless off-road.

There are sections in my local wood that are 8sec long, it was 12sec but a couple of guy sniffed an easy KOM and started throwing themselves at it – there’s about 7 of them sharing it now, there is no way on earth that GPS is accurate enough to fairly judge a 40m / 8 second section off trail.

BUT, Strava has given me something I like, some of the easier / shorter loops at the trail centres have full-trail sections which are fun to race (for me) 30 min Blue Scar dashes and 45 min Verderer’s Trail rides are great fun for an old tubber like me.

Not many of the people I regularly go out with ,another Local group do & have heard reports of them going for segments & yelling at walkers to get out the way

Haven’t got a clue as I always ride on my own.

And that is why Strava is great for me. I track my own 1-2 hour loops as well as liking the competition of going for KOMs.
I don’t count a 10 second segment as valid although I do have a KOM on a 41 second segment but generally go for 0.5 to 3 mile segments.

Guessing a few of the people who hate it have probably not tried it or when they did try it found they were in 200th place…

On a selection of segments around home I’m 6/320; 119/720; 11/691; 431/672. Basically all over the place! I’m sure there’s one segment where I’m something like 2750/2800 😳

Apart from a couple of friends the only person I race against on Strava is me.

I hadn’t realised mentioning Strava on here would elicit the same sort of reaction as “cycling” does in the Daily Mail

Interesting the presumption that everyone who uses it is racing. For me, I use Garmin devices because I like to know where and how far I’ve been – yep I’m a bit of a geek like that, it motivates me and it helps me plan routes. Garmin auto updates to Strava which generally is a better UI, and yes the leaderboards are interesting but not something to take seriously. I’m rarely near the top – on Lady Cannings I’m not far off the bottom – but it is interesting to see how I’m doing compared to previous runs

christhetall – I was about to weigh in with a very similar view of Strava. I use it, but not competitively (not to say if I didn’t miraculously get a KOM I’d be happy). I like to keep GPS traces of rides I’ve done to see where I’ve been, to look back and remember an exact route where I might have forgotten it, etc. and putting on Strava allows mates to see where I’ve been and vice versa.

I was really anti Strava, then started at Christmas, crikey it’s like a whole new addiction in itself really.

You hope to be in top half overall, then find out you’re top quarter, then on some rides you’re top 10%, in others top 5%, so you go a bit faster, a bit more often, whoops addicted.

Then there’s the challenges. Done all the climbing ones this year, now why am I out crack of dawn tomorrow to do this months ADH one all in one ride?

Strava alone has made me a good deal faster this year. Which of course only matters if you’re on bloody Strava.