strava users?

I'd be interested to know how Strava has influenced your riding....

It has turned me into a bigger cock than I already was, i now have no consideration for anyone on my tow path loop, and I recently took great pleasure in gloating when I beat elpedros times around Cannock on certain sections which proved beyond doubt that while he may be better at long boring climbs, I whooped his arse on the sections that require skill, see there I go again.

I have gloated so much peace loving Pete the pacifist now wants to fight me.

I have friends that have ended up like that.. totally destroyed the social element of our group rides.

I just use it as a filing cabinet for all my ride info, as I keep all my rides private.

I have compared my times on certain climbs with my son's times, but it only depressed me to see how fast he can ride up hill and how low his heart rate is compared to mine.

I'm not the kind of person who competes with others, especially not strangers who may be half my age, so I don't get hung up about other peoples times and I think that those who use it to compete are just another symptom of an over competitive society.

Russell":3mlkhbsr said:

I have friends that have ended up like that.. totally destroyed the social element of our group rides.

Click to expand...

nahh its quite funny really as pete fully knows he is far fitter than me and could ride the pants off me any day of the week. thats why im crowing and it pisses him off so much, it makes me chuckle.

i did fall off twice on that ride from pushing it a bit and i never fall off around cannock, except due to the hidden log of certain doom.

I have also clocked 28 mph on a section of canal locks, which cant be good, i then nearly killed a duck and its chicks and myself trying to beat that speed next ride out.

i also find it counter productive a little, i need to get in some last few miles before mayhem, but im poorly today with a slight cold so wont beat my pb which can be a little depressing

seeing how unbelievably fit some people are can be demoralizing, and how me as a lazy smoking virtually 40 year man will never ever come close.

it does make you work harder though but take more risks.

I have read about court cases too where strava is seen as a cause of a cyclist death

http://road.cc/content/news/84948-judge ... apture-kom

its all good though

Adds a bit a talk at the end of a ride and gives you something to compete against and see how much easier it is to ride in the dry weather.


It not accurate for short 30 second or less runs as it's not very clever. For any ride though if you're within 3 or so second you could well be as fast or faster due to the way it works.

Excellent if you use it to compare against yourself as you know you're logging the same way.

We have section where I started after a mate, ended well before but I'm, still quite a lot slower overall.
Sections where it's a flat speed of ~47 mph at each data point, yet the overall average is clocked at 52mph and that's a section not in the woods so has good line of sight and there are no glitches in the gps data.

It is good for finding routes you didnt know or are thinking of using if you go to an new area though, just segment search and see where the riding is.

Would be great if the separated the different types of bikes though 'cross/road/mtb all lumped in to one is quite demoralising when you spit your lung out at teh top of a long hard road section and you have no idea if that was good for a full knobby bike as you're 256 out of 600 or so with times twice as quick as yours.

I love it. Its changed my road riding from pootling to having a dig, I've created a few sections to test myself on also. As much as I ride for fun I also ride to keep fit, I'm now a bit time limited and I'm making better use of the time I do get. Off road I never got too much hung up about it but I reckon it did make me try a bit harder. Recently though a local trail has been a bit of addiction, I've ran it a few times now and have specifically went out to ride it just to shave a few seconds here and there. All good fun and I've yet to meet the 'strava rider, coming through' type.

FluffyChicken":2uyre7yu said:

Would be great if the separated the different types of bikes though 'cross/road/mtb all lumped in to one is quite demoralising when you spit your lung out at teh top of a long hard road section and you have no idea if that was good for a full knobby bike as you're 256 out of 600 or so with times twice as quick as yours.

Click to expand...

This is the bit I don't understand.

If you've ridden it as hard as you can, and someone else was quicker up there by 20 minutes, what difference does it make?

As an example, most fit roadies can do the Cheddar Gorge in around 20 to 22 minutes. The fastest time (last time I looked) was 18 minutes, logged by Dan Lloyd and I suspect that Jon Tiernan Lock has been up there quicker still.

Now it might be nice to see how I compare to Dan Lloyd, but given he was an Elite lever pro rider when he set that time, and that I am a 54 year old bloke who likes to ride bikes, I don't really see that there is any point.

When I used to race cars, the lap time I used to chase was the fastest set by a car in my class, rather than the overall fastest outright lap, which was usually set by an F1 car.

A few segments near where I live that are on shared paths have been taken off Strava for being dangerous/antisocial.

Which is fair enough as I've seen people charging up them at fairly busy time totally head down going for it which is silly on a path with schoolkids going home and people with dogs using it.

Influenced me by turning me to Endomondo instead, which is competitive but more chilled.