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Bored and sat at home, curious to see if anyone has given using Strava, and the reasons for doing so?
if you give up strava and don't everyone repeatedly does that count?
I still have an account, but haven't logged on to take a look for over 6 months, and even before then was logging on l;ess and less.
I wanted to use it as a social sports platform, to see what people had done that would motivate me, not commutes and virtual rides. The fact that strava enforced a single vision for all users rather having tuneable options for the feed just made it useless for what I wanted.
No, it pretty much just looks after itself. My Garmin sends data to it and I get feedback of anyone interacts with it. I never bother with goals and activities on it.
Just a free account these days, as I'm not going to trouble my segment best times, seven months into long covid.
Never used it to begin with to give up on it.
I don't pay for it, does that count?
I think I paid a small fee for or did a free trial month and it offered nothing I wanted beyond the free version. So if you call not continuing my sub giving up then I guess the reason is that I've never really understood it as a social platform and it's training stuff is of no interest to me.
Reduced to a free account for me.
I wanted to use it as a social sports platform, to see what people had done that would motivate me, not commutes and virtual rides.
Indeed. If they enforced a policy were every logged activity was private until you actually elected to make it public (it's an option I use but it's not compulsory) it might make the social feed more interesting. People would have to think 'do people need to see this?' before it went into other folk's feed. At the moment it's like trudging through the social feed on facebook made up of people who post every time they have a meal or take a shart.
it pretty much just looks after itself. My Garmin sends data to it
this.
statistics I'm interested in are displayed on my watch at the end of a ride.
if its an interesting ride, I'll give it a fun name, and maybe add a photo or two.
otherwise I just leave it.
after every intersting ride, I'll scroll through the feed looking at my friends' rides and pics, distributing kudus as I see fit, takes a couple of minutes a week.
Got no interest in segments - anything worthwhile/not a totally stupid convoluted route around here (busy south east) has thousands of users, at least some of those will be GPS errors* and some will be ebike cheaters. Anything further afield, like a full descent in the peaks, or a welsh trail centre; theres no way I'd be competitive as a non-local.
*a few years ago I was happy at being joint second (with a lot of people, including the local quickies, and Phil Atwill) for the year on one of the main swinley descents. Until I looked at the person with the fastest time. Thier ride was called something like "testing the new winter tyres in the slop" and they had won by like 5 seconds on a sub 1 min descent.
edit - never paid, always been on the free account. they've removed some free features, but none that I care about.
I use it to upload stuff to TrainerRoad, but my account is set to private and I don’t look at it for other people’s rides.
When I was ill with covid the first time I found it just gave me FOMO so I knocked it on the head. Found I didn’t miss it so have never really got back into it
I love Strava. Happy to pay too. It’s got basically every ride I’ve ever done on it for a start. I use the route builder, follow a few people, post a few pictures and use it to build up a picture of what’s happened at races via people’s write-ups but actually, despite everything Intervals.icu can do, I find analysis really good using the Sauce plug in too.
If people post rubbish, I mute them if I think they’ll care whether I follow them back or unfollow them.
Gave up about 5 years ago. Was disappointed if I didn’t beat a previous time, and was diminishing the enjoyment of the ride, so I stopped looking.
Free account, populated from Garmin Connect/Zwift. I've never paid for Strava.
Over the Winter (after the STW 100 days challenge) I had set default to Private. Nobody needs to see what I was doing on Zwift, I was only making public anything "interesting" or where I had photos to share with friends.
Default is now set to Followers, mostly because I'm sharing photos of club rides and runs.
I think I still have an account. Stopped using it about 8 years ago. I didn't like the way it was becoming a social media platform rather than a mapping and recording tool.
I've gone years without using anything but I'm looking at OS maps or Ride with GPS for route planning now. Going on a European tour for a couple of weeks this summer so interested in using something to plan our days.
Still loving it here
It really doesn’t take me very long to scroll through everyone’s activities in the past day. Always nice to see what people have been upto. Really glad it doesn’t filter. But I should ask Heidi at work to not put her warm up and warm down in her Home feed
Only ever had free account, used to use it with a group of mates but then they changed so you couldn't see the group stuff unless you paid.
Still use it for personal stuff as it's easier to just have a quick look at than Garmin. Fun to see how shit I am on segments as well. Especially when my PB's are mi Ute's slower than other people!! 😂
Gave up about 5 years ago. Was disappointed if I didn’t beat a previous time, and was diminishing the enjoyment of the ride, so I stopped looking.
I always wonder what they do with our data, do they sell it? I guess it shows how we all slow down as we get older. How our heart rates change over time etc. Must be quiet interesting data to pharmaceutical companies.
I just have a free account so I can log how many hours I've ridden in a year. I like to look at my rides when I've finished.
I Like to see how I compare to previous years and how much I've faded from my younger days 🤣
I still "use" it but purely for PRs on certain road segments. I can see if I'm actually getting fitter in the real world.
I I use garmin connect to record my rides. It syncs with strava.
I paid for 2 years before then went with the all-in fee - the analytics and location stuff so was about 20 quid a year. Then realised Garmin does all that for free (once you have bought a device), so don't really use Strava for anything other than recording the rides I do with the club - coaching or social just so there is a vague record.
I'm so far off my fast times that I'll never make top 10 and have no interest in that...Strava just doesn't seem worth paying for as I get far more from Garmin and I'm not massively social so don't really care if people don't know I've done a thing.
Some people still rate it which is good, but it doesn't do anything for me now and I'm too lazy to disconnect the automatic syncing.
The whole segment thing was interesting for a while. On a personal level it was interesting to compare my own times as I got fitter - and then older 🙂 The data for comparing with other folk became very polluted though; multiple overlapping segments on the same trail, off-road segments so close to roads that it couldn'y differentiate, folk leaving their trackers on whilst driving and the use of electric bikes.
When I was ill with covid the first time I found it just gave me FOMO so I knocked it on the head
I'm getting this a bit now, ongoing injuries, illness and work/family life means my riding is faltering, and I get irrationally jealous and resentful when I see the riding others are putting in!
On the flip side, I keep planning awesome looking routes on the route planner which keeps the motivation high, probably worth the subscription fee 👍
I don't pay for it and at the start of this year I set up a new account on which I track my rides but don't share them publicly, I have no followers & follow no one. I don't use the segments. All I want from it is: distance, time, ascent & a pretty map of where I've been.
Pretty anti social of me, but that's al I want from it so don't use the social media / KOM side of it.
Don’t pay for the premium version and wish there was a way of muting zwift/virtual rides. It’s just a record of activity now, some I make private if I’m arsed.
I like looking at my (very) old KOMs from when I was younger,fitter and awesome 😆 🤣
I always wonder what they do with our data, do they sell it? I guess it shows how we all slow down as we get older. How our heart rates change over time etc. Must be quiet interesting data to pharmaceutical companies.
I hadn’t thought of medical research
The data set use is quite amazing
Simple example. My wife is on the council and big on active transport. She says we need a pavement there. They say no one walks there. Well the Strava heat map shows loads of people on foot along there.
Some one went to the Welsh government and something like. “If you’re trying to promote cycling and wales as a cycling destination you need to know there are more people riding on cheeky hand cut trails than trail centres”
use it for every ride............ just to see my distance.
like to keep track of my yearly mileage.
I still use it. Very rarely look at segments and prs but sometimes I find just seeing other peoples rides and pictures encourages me to get out there myself.
I’m a bit of a Strava addict, I love it! The stats, the route planner, the segments are all great… I’m a competitive soul and it gives me what I need!
Gave up about 5 years ago. Was disappointed if I didn’t beat a previous time, and was diminishing the enjoyment of the ride, so I stopped looking.
Exactly this for me. My rides are now defined good or bad based on how much I enjoyed them rather than what my wildly inaccurate Strava (phone or garmin) tells me. I’ve been off it for a couple of years now and don’t miss it in the slightest. I do the odd local dh race at Gawton which scratches the competitive itch once in a while, it’s a bit more social than virtual racing!
Segments are pointless around here as any of the climbing ones are pretty much all e-bikes in the top 10.
I’ve no interest in seeing who’s ridden a bit in their garage on Zwift or who’s done the same daily commute they always do.
I can’t see why I’d pay for it when Garmin offer the same and more for free.
Still use it, though no longer paying for it.
I like the stats it gives me, and I track mileage against each bike (theoretically for planned maintenance purposes but I'm too disorganized to actually buy replacement parts and do the maintenance).
When I subscribed, I liked to be able to deeply dive into specific segments for areas I was going to visit so I could figure out trail conditions (eg is a trail still closed due to snow) by looking up really recent rides via the leader boards. Looking up others ride is really useful to see the "best" way to ride trails (ie how many ride a loop clockwise vs anti-clockwise)
My activities are private be default.
I use it pretty much daily for walks and rides (sometimes swims) recording on my android phone. I also pay as I like the route planning and heat maps.
No interest whatsoever in leader boards, and all my activities are private.
I always wonder what they do with our data, do they sell it?
They do have this: https://metro.strava.com/
So many e-bikes and cheats that I never bother with the leaderboards. Well that and the fact I'm old and slow.
However as a route recording tool it's great. It's interesting to see where I've been; often not where I intended to go!!
Very easy to use and no adverts. I use it for a variety of sports. Nice being able to see what friends are up to. Don't mind paying for a great service. I've never understood the "I'll pay thousands for bikes/kit/holidays but not a few quid a month for a service I regularly use" mentality.
Never understood either how people say it detracts from the riding experience. I click On at the start and Off at the end. Sometimes I check Strava during my ride, sometimes I don't.
And it's the only cycling app mentioned in a Half Man Half Biscuit song. That sealed the deal for me!!
was affecting my riding negatively, so I binned it
Yup that.
I pay for it. Don’t care about segments/leaderboards but I use the heatmaps (global and personal) and route planner tools to plan basically every route I do.
Free account here, tried the premium version but apart from the ease of stealing GPX files (which i'm not that bothered about) I found I didn't need it.
I do find that seeing that others have been out does motivate me.
Not me, still love it and still managing to add to my list of KOMs every now and then.
Just use it for ride tracking. Gave up long ago looking at segment times. Set it to approved followers only, no advertising cheeky trails. Mainly a diary of my rides plus tracks my bike components.
Though I could just use Garmin for that. It has the same data but I dont add any detail and haven't set up bike component stuff on there. Strava is easier to use.
Occasionally kudos other people but loads are on Zwift these days and I don't kudos garage workouts.
I like it when I'm fit, less so when I'm fat.
The route planner is good.
I like to see what others are up to.
I use it to keep a total of my own activity. KOMs are irrelevant as I'm a million miles away from the top of the leaderboard.
Really like the heatmaps & ease of route planning. If I'm in a new area I can quickly easily plot a route for a run/ride, upload it to my watch & head out following it, knowing that 99.9% of the time it'll be easy to follow a possible route somewhere I've never been before.
Another addict here. I've got pretty much every ride and run i've done since 2012 (having imported a lot of Runkeeper stuff in). Dozens of photos.
I like all aspects of it. Setting private segments for myself to benchmark on, getting excited about a Top 10 when there's recognisable 'local heroes' in the same, marveling at the feats of others, competing with some mates on segments even when we can't actually ride together. I've a mate who's 15 years older than me and retired and has become an absolute weapon - he goes around intentionally smashing my times and I think it's great.
We do a 100km mtb/gravel ride every christmas and it's fun to drop in a segment with a message "Merry Xmas from Strava" etc.
I can also watch the time of some of the local up and coming young ones who are getting faster and faster. Also, while I don't often use the routes it can be useful to find new places to ride.
I don't get to ride with others all that often, so it's a different way of sharing the pleasure of a ride.
Admittedly there aren't thousands and thousands of riders where I am, and I don't do much on-road riding.
Just a free account that I have had for years so all my rides are on it so I just use it for logging rides and see how I compare to 10 years ago. I am not interested in the social aspect to it but do like to get in the top 10 for a segment (and that is all I can see now since it was moved to a pay feature)
I used to use it for cycling and running but stopped a few years ago. With a young family the amount and quality of cycling a running had reduced and become an almost 100% solo endeavour. I actually found seeing the stats a bit demotivational as everything was just numerically a bit shit compared to before. Also the social media aspect of it wasn't great for me as it was making me feel worse about the limited opportunities I had to bike / run rather than just enjoying what I was able to do. Anyway, it felt a bit liberating just to go out for a run or bike ride with zero expectations or tracking and I found I got my fitness back up a bit by doing this.
I have started logging some stuff again via Garmin but my focus is more on health / fitness monitoring rather than looking at segments and what anybody else has done. I liked using Strava, may well use it again, but definitely felt stepping back from it suited me at that particular point in life.
Segments are pointless around here as any of the climbing ones are pretty much all e-bikes in the top 10.
Ah, you obviously haven't gone to the dark side and started flagging obvious e-bikers 😆
They are few enough and obvious enough around me, I just consider it a favour to whoever's KOM they've stolen (it's typically obscure segments where I've sneaked in to the top ten)
Mine's just used to log how many miles I have done. Or haven't done as is more the case this year.
Use it for personal reference to keep tabs on mileage ect, never bothered with segment times as I'm usually not quick enough to trouble the top 10's anyway TBH! Used the premium version on a free trail but never used/cared about any of the extras so I'll stick with the freebie version
Still really like it here. Its cool to see what others are up to and can add a bit of motivation to head out if I can see others are. I really don't mind scrolling past people's Zwift rides, it takes like 3 seconds.
I'm not fast enough to really trouble any segment top ten's but I'm always interested to see how I stack up against myself on local ride climbs.
I use the training calendar and the fitness and freshness function too in an indicative/vague way to monitor training stress. Its my go to route planner too and its handy to quickly copy and paste road routes that others have done local to me if I fancy doing it.
If I'm planning on riding or running abroad its handy to pick a local segment, find the "local legend" and then just check what routes they have been doing to get a quick up to date idea of where's best to run/ride in the area.
I don't think Strava does anything that other apps can't do for you but it seems like the easiest single place for all of the above so happy to pay for it.
My premium is up in a few days, not sure if I’ll renew it or just use the free version.
I do like it, keeps me in touch with riding friends who I don’t get to see very often, it’s interesting to see what folk have been up to and gives some good ideas for future rides etc.
Not really interested in peoples commutes either but it really doesn’t take long to scroll past!
Free was great for years right up until they stripped all the interesting stuff out and made it premium only.
Free was great for years right up until they stripped all the interesting stuff out and made it premium only.
It's less than a Pound a Week.
I've used it for a decade - love the stats, love seeing what everyone else is doing and liking the newer features (route planning is good).
I do though ride with a large selection of folk AND live very near to one of the UK's most visited MTB destinations, so also good for seeing new descents.
I'm dropping off the paid version of Strava when my sub runs out later this year. I don't use it enough for route planning and segment leaderboards are mostly irrelevant to me. I use Trailforks all the time, both when riding to check where a trail starts and also for route planning at home - it's so much easier (for me anyway) to create routes using the data there.
I think pretty much every time I go to create a route on Strava I end up swearing at it - first I have to remember that you create routes within 'Explore', then I need to tick/untick load of options, try to create a route, then continually undo sections where it has autorouted the wrong way, or just doesn't recognise that a trail exists, so manual mode needed. It just drives me nuts!
I don’t think Strava does anything that other apps can’t do for you but it seems like the easiest single place for all of the above
so happy to pay for it.but I still just use other options
I paid for it a while back when it was cheap, and still use the free version just as somewhere to log rides and just skim through to see what others are upto. The commuting/zwift stuff doesn't bother me, mine are on there, and if you're logging in on a Wednesday what do you expect other than to see the same old commutes, zwift rides and evening ride loops as every week?
The premium stuff does look somewhat useful, but it's the end point of subscription fatigue. I don't need to spend another £55 a year to see power numbers, HR data and whatever else that I can already see in the apps that recorded them. So that just leaves being able to plan rides or crib them from others profiles. For which £55 is a lot, could buy a lot of guide books and OS maps for that.
I use it and pay the full amount. Being fat, slow and old I'm not the slightest bit interested in the competitive aspect of it but use the route plotting tool. Also if I'm in a new area riding, I search the heatmap for rides and upload to the garmin. Great way of finding trails.
I've never paid for it as I treat it as a form of social media rather than a training tool. I enjoy posting my photos from rides and hikes, and as a personal log for myself.
The dream premium feature for me would be to hide zwift rides, 3km commutes and gym sessions from my feed. I only want to see when my mates have done and interesting activity.
I'm in a riding whatsapp group and loads use it for KOM dick swinging and ego massaging. Even to the extent of planning MTB rides around a particular segment. I can't get on board with that.
AND live very near to one of the UK’s most visited MTB destinations, so also good for seeing new descents.
Can be a bit of double edged sword though. I used to live in the Calderdale valley and the KOM leader-board on popular segments is something to behold, there are thousands on some descents and I found that I was either killing myself to move up from 2,989 to 2,979, or I'd feel really shitty if I messed it up, and it would ruin my ride. Also one Strava segment used my driveway - as it was part of a very well known segment from Heptonstall down to Midge Hole, and without being a bit "anti bike" the amount of folks from out of the area who either get lost and ride into my garden, or would be riding down it a million* miles a hour without realising that a car maybe coming around the bend at the bottom, or that the descent in fact crossed a pretty busy road...
*some exaggeration may have been used
Oh, and don't forget that folks who're very anti MTB can also use Strava to find new descents.
So what is the difference between the free and paid sub?
It's been flakely recording rides for me recently, it's likely user error. But I didn't have the issue previously where I'd stop mid ride take a few photos and the app doesn't resume the ride when moving again. Not the end of the world, but not worth £55 if it's not going to record properly. Might as well save the money and put it towards a Garmin.
I basically use it to record rides, no bpm or data like that, and to see my mates times on segments etc.
Would I basically not be able to see mates times on the segments?
I pay for it still, it's buttons compared with the rest of the cost of owning bikes and I find the route planner, in conjunction with Heat Maps really useful for working out new routes. I like that if I favourite a route it automatically puts it on my Wahoo Elemnt for me and I like that if I favourite a segment it tells me how slow I am compared with 10 years ago as it heightens my agony on the climbs.
The trick with your feed is not to follow all your friends on Strava, I only follow people that I know through sport, ie actual athletes, not people uploading a 1.5m run at 11m/mile once every blue moon. The worst thing there now is that there's lots of commutes posted, but it's vaguely interesting to see that. I wish auto-upload forced you through the edit process and forced you to add a name to the ride. I hate the default "Morning Ride" that ends up all over the place.
The other day I looked at my dwindling list of KoMs and was pleasantly surprised to see no one has managed to get my 15s sprint segment from waaaaaay back still, some guy went through pulling 950W on his power meter and still didn't get me. That was nice! And there's still one that I've got with over 32,000 people having had a bash at, I like that they've archived my greatest hits like that.
I don't think the analysis is all that great as it's a bit of a pain to track my progress in a way that works well for me, but the API is there and I managed to create a program that gets my data back out automatically fairly easily, so I have my own live training tracker thing. It's nice they made that available.
The training vs tiredness thing is a bit bobbins too, it way over estimates the short-term effect of going for a ride vs years of bashing out the miles. I've not ridden properly for nearly 10 years and it's showing my 4 rides in 4 weeks recently as almost 90% of what it shows for my peak way back when the reality is my fitness is barely 10% of that!
I used to use it a lot and paid for it for a few years, but Garmin connect has got better (my upgraded devices I suspect rather than the platform itself) and it just seems a bit of a waste of money now as I’m not going to be troubling segment times. Not even my own.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">
Without the free segment leader boards it doesn’t offer any more than any of the other ride/run logging sites I do think that was a bit of a misstep. The leaderboards were a good gateway for me, so much that I sold my first Garmin to just use my phone</span>
I used to live in the Calderdale valley and the KOM leader-board on popular segments is something to behold, there are thousands on some descents and I found that I was either killing myself to move up from 2,989 to 2,979, or I’d feel really shitty if I messed it up
Try living in the SE, there's tens of thousands on the trails!
Not the end of the world, but not worth £55 if it’s not going to record properly. Might as well save the money and put it towards a Garmin.
I basically use it to record rides, no bpm or data like that, and to see my mates times on segments etc.
Would I basically not be able to see mates times on the segments?
That's down to the recording device, phones are notoriously flakey as they're often burried in bags and pockets under all-sorts of bits and metal stuff. Paying for premium won't solve that.
It’s less than a Pound a Week.
As someone else later said...
... it’s the end point of subscription fatigue.
free account, i like stats so find it difficult not to record, i use it to record my swimming and riding, helps keep track of distance, time, fitness level etc
i've definately lost interest in racing segments and comparing times.
Agree with all the negative points about it - but still always use it and look at my ride in terms of leaderboards afterwards. Never get near KOMs anymore up or down. Now look at fastest of the year. Even more sadly look at fastest amongst people I follow. Feel a bit pathetic about it but do it anyway.
Not given up, but I use it less presently, and don't subscribe.
I found it really useful in lockdown when I was doing alot of riding in a small woods and chasing KOMs prevented boredom of the confined space.
I eventually caught covid in June last year, struggled through later summer, stopped riding completely over winter, and I've lost fitness and got fat. For a short period I was unhappy that strava showed I'm a significant way from my earlier performance, but I've since decided to enjoy what I can do, which is having a great time riding in the woods with my mates.
Strava doesnt measure that, but I do still use it for seeing what my chums are getting up to.
The worst thing there now is that there’s lots of commutes posted, but it’s vaguely interesting to see that.
I'm always amazed people give kudos to my commute, I went through a phase of muting them but it's too many button presses when I just want to get changed and start work!
Try living in the SE, there’s tens of thousands on the trails!
Oh yeah, I can imagine! Some KOMs or even top 50 on the leader-board are just unachievable either changed so much from the original on the ground, to just too much activity. I dunno how'd they'd change it though.
Although now it's got me thinking, I wonder what's the off-road segment with the most activity?
I went through a phase of muting them but it’s too many button presses when I just want to get changed and start work!
ActivityFix will sort that for you - just set up a rule to mute any ride that starts or ends near your workplace and never get pointless kudos again.
I still subscribe, mainly to support the platform because I get some value out of the features I do use, even though I don't use many of the premium features. I do enter a few challenges though and once won a £££ set of Assos bibs, so that offsets the subscription for a couple of years 😀
I use it for recording what I do, but I pay the sub so I can plan routes using heat map data, which is awesome and very useful in an area with lots of inconsistent PROWs and also stacks of cheeky trails, the areas for which show up like beacons.
I also set my first goal recently, which was 6hrs per week riding. It helps. I'm not chasing KOMs, I'm too slow for that although I have had a few on quiet segments before; but I do smash certain segments knowing they are there and that I have a reasonably good time on them. It's a good way to keep those endless local loops fun IMO.
I have a handful of people that I get Kudos from no matter what I do, I was sort of thinking they must be taking the piss, but I'm not sure now. There's two who live locally that I've never interacted with at all, no idea who they are or why they are giving me Kudos for my occasionbal pathetic efforts.
ActivityFix
What's that then?
I do enter a few challenges though and once won a £££ set of Assos bibs, so that offsets the subscription for a couple of years
Ahhhhh... along with commutes/walks to the shops/Zwift, it's the endless list of 'Challenges' that people enter that I wish I could mute, it's just more Stealth advertising despite my having paid for the package.
BUT I never realised I could win things! Maybe I'll just start entering seemingly pathetically easy challenges every month like I see others doing (Strava really shouldn't let someone who e.g. averages 200km a month to enter a challenge to ride... 50km a month etc. etc.).
and
Are two sites where you can define rules that then automatically change various things on your strava activities when (or shortly after) they are uploaded. I discovered them when they made the 3D map the default for MTB rides and I wanted to reset to the standard map.
I use the free one mostly for adding photos to rides and keeping track of bike mileage and have done for years. All this time I've had a Garmin and had it syncing there too. Just had a look and you can add photos and gear in Garmin Connect so I might start doing that there.
I also use Strava (free) for recording walks recorded with the Android App. Unless I'm being stupid (quite possible), I can't see a way to record a (walking) activity in the Garmin Android App, only add a manual one?
I think that other sites can offer to customize your strava feed, when strava seem to refuse to listen to customer feedback and requests to do the same, kind of shows where they are in terms of treating their customers.
There’s a “kudos all” button on the desktop version now 😉
If I’ve Kudos’d a run you’ve done- that’s why!! (because I operate a strict ‘only kudos bike rides’ policy) 🤣🤣
when strava seem to refuse to listen to customer feedback and requests to do the same
I think it's a deliberate policy to force-feed people Zwift and other 'challenges' with a sponsors name on them. Frustrating when you're a paying customer and arguably should be entitled to an 'ad free' experience.
https://business.strava.com/cases/zwift